Noteland, by Peace Flag Ensemble

Noteland

by Peace Flag Ensemble

supported by

Mark Burlingame My vinyl copy of the album arrived a little bent from the shipping process. As is the music...a bit misshapen, but also pure, authentic, and forever interesting. I love the album and the music as is.
Favorite track: Hilma af Klint in Ab.

Scott F. Hamrick Beautiful, peaceful music for violent, ugly times.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition coke bottle clear vinyl. Limited to 100 copies.

Includes unlimited streaming of Noteland via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

edition of 100

Purchasable with gift card

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 CAD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Black vinyl edition. Limited to 400 copies.

Peace Flag Ensemble is an experimental jazz collective from scattered points across Saskatchewan. Their debut album, Noteland, is available June 18, 2021 on We Are Busy Bodies.

Noteland is an exercise in pure collaboration. Built around Jon Neher’s piano improvisations, it is free flowing in form and meter. Each member contributed freely but also remained open to having their playing completely recontextualized. Travis Packer’s electric bass is tightly moored to the piano while Dalton Lam and Paul Gutheil, trumpet and saxophone respectively, drift between melodic passages and textural elements. The album was produced by ambient artist Michael Scott Dawson, who also contributes electronics, guitars, and field recordings to the collective. The result is a pastiche of improvisation, composition, and collage that cycles through quiet moments of imperfection and discomfort followed by peaceful resolutions. It draws from such influences as Keith Jarrett and Mark Hollis. “Peace Flag Ensemble is the sum of its parts. Everyone leaned into their own intuition and inspiration. I think that kept us from limiting possibilities.” Dawson shares. “Sometimes that means a saxophone is reduced to just the crackle of a spit valve, sometimes it’s blurred into pastoral ambiance, and sometimes… well, sometimes it’s just a saxophone.”

The genesis of the project is unlikely to be included in a canon of debaucherous music myths. Neher and Dawson connected at a book club. Bonding over 70s ECM, contemporary minimalists, and Musique concrete the two began to discuss collaborating. Somewhere between reading Her Body and Other Stories by Carmen Maria Machado and Murakami’s Killing Commendatore, their ambitions morphed into a jazz collective. Reflecting on the outcome, Neher states “This record really allowed us to explore so many kinds of spontaneity while still crafting and polishing a finished work; that is a rare treat in improvised music.”

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.

Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.

Includes unlimited streaming of Noteland via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$25 CAD or more

1.	Wilted Sax 01:30	buy track
2.	Human Pyramid 03:25	buy track
3.	Woke Up Like The Room, Tarzana 03:52	buy track
4.	The Right To Silence 03:54	buy track
5.	Hilma af Klint in Ab 03:22	buy track
6.	Presentism 03:33	buy track
7.	Your Father Is In The Yard Counting Sparrows 02:31	buy track
8.	No Police In The Parade 04:06	buy track
9.	Marginalia 03:32	buy track

about

Peace Flag Ensemble is an experimental jazz collective from scattered points across Saskatchewan. Their debut album, Noteland, is available June 18, 2021 on We Are Busy Bodies.

Noteland is an exercise in pure collaboration. Built around Jon Neher’s piano improvisations, it is free flowing in form and meter. Each member contributed freely but also remained open to having their playing completely recontextualized. Travis Packer’s electric bass is tightly moored to the piano while Dalton Lam and Paul Gutheil, trumpet and saxophone respectively, drift between melodic passages and textural elements. The album was produced by ambient artist Michael Scott Dawson, who also contributes electronics, guitars, and field recordings to the collective. The result is a pastiche of improvisation, composition, and collage that cycles through quiet moments of imperfection and discomfort followed by peaceful resolutions. It draws from such influences as Keith Jarrett and Mark Hollis. “Peace Flag Ensemble is the sum of its parts. Everyone leaned into their own intuition and inspiration. I think that kept us from limiting possibilities.” Dawson shares. “Sometimes that means a saxophone is reduced to just the crackle of a spit valve, sometimes it’s blurred into pastoral ambiance, and sometimes… well, sometimes it’s just a saxophone.”

The genesis of the project is unlikely to be included in a canon of debaucherous music myths. Neher and Dawson connected at a book club. Bonding over 70s ECM, contemporary minimalists, and Musique concrete the two began to discuss collaborating. Somewhere between reading Her Body and Other Stories by Carmen Maria Machado and Murakami’s Killing Commendatore, their ambitions morphed into a jazz collective. Reflecting on the outcome, Neher states “This record really allowed us to explore so many kinds of spontaneity while still crafting and polishing a finished work; that is a rare treat in improvised music.”

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.

Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.

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released June 18, 2021

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Peace Flag Ensemble regina, Saskatchewan

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