Cistern (album)

Background

Bischoff began composing and recording Cistern in an empty two million gallon underground water tank under Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington. The size of the space was a huge factor in the development of the album. In an interview Bischoff described how "the vast emptiness of the cistern generates a reverb decay that lasts 45 seconds. That means, if you snap your fingers, the sound lasts 45 seconds. That amount of reverberation is an absolutely wild environment to try to create music in". This led to "a record intrinsically linked to the space in which it was conceived. A space which forced Bischoff to slow down, to reflect, to draw on his childhood growing up on a sailing boat - an unexpected journey of rediscovery, from the city back to the Pacific Ocean". After initial experimentations and recording within the water tank, Bischoff moved the process to Future-Past Studio in Hudson, New York where he recorded with Contemporaneous Ensemble. One of the main reasons for this was the " lack of adequate oxygen" for a large group of people inside the water tank. The title track from Cistern premiered on 3 May 2016 on Stereogum, who described it as "triumphantly building orchestral piece with a truly fascinating backstory" and "an incredibly majestic piece of work".

Track listing

All music by Jherek Bischoff.