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Wedding Songs

by The Duke of Zuke

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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

      £5 GBP  or more

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Limited Edition cassette pressed on aqua blue shells. Comes in custom made single presentation 'rave' case with heavyweight recycled card sleeve and full colour insert.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Wedding Songs 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

      £8 GBP or more 

     

1.
Clouds 07:08
2.
Dance Alone 01:34
3.
Zampano 05:21
4.
Buzzard 03:11
5.
Rambo Waltz 03:54
6.
Echolalia 05:06
7.
Zolar 02:01
8.
9.
10.

about

All music composed & performed by Clint Trofa
Recorded by Jim Wallis @ Strongroom Studios, 2022
Mastering by Rafael Anton Irisarri @ Black Knoll Studio, NYC

Live drums, additional synth & programming by Jim Wallis
Saxophone on Rambo Waltz by David McLean
Design & layout by Lewis McLean
Photography by Clint Trofa

Thanks: Steve, Luke, Jorge, Julian, Dave O, EQD & M.

Released 14th Feb, 2023

LTD cassette coming to this BandCamp soon...

Wedding Songs marks the return to the label of filmmaker and composer, Clint Trofa, with his most ambitious and masterfully executed suite of music to date. Recorded with Jim Wallis throughout 2022, the 10 compositions that make up the album have been created with the patience of an auteur director, each piece of mise-en-scene delicately placed, unfolding with the grace, subtlety and emotional resonance of a European art house film.

Indeed, much of the album's melodic content has an imperceptible Mediterranean flair whilst conjuring the more insular work of directors likes Claire Denis, Michael Haneke and Paolo Sorrentino and images of poignant dialogue delivered by shadowy figures in lowly lit hotel rooms, the evening falling outside. Trofa’s trademark ‘Twilight’ guitar continues to be his music’s main protagonist, but it is embellished on this record with carefully selected synthesizers, electronic percussion, jazzy drums and evocative field recordings, bringing a more panoramic and elevated scope to his music. The same careful consideration has been given to the entire flow of the album, with the longer compositions nestled amongst smaller mood pieces, but each song sounds like its own complete scene, one rehearsed and shot with total precision, not a breath wasted. ‘Dance Alone’ is the first stand out miniature, an organ-like synth pad lapping against heart-breaking guitar chords that feels like it could last much longer than its one and half minute length.

Thankfully, this melodic motif flowers beautifully into the doomed ballad ‘Zampano’, muscular drums pounding out a funeral rhythm against a ghostly guitar figure that descends into disquieting overdrive. ‘Rambo Waltz’ dispels some of the album's thickly curtained atmospherics. Built around a Jim Wallis' skittering jazz beat, Trofa’s Parisian style guitar weaves in and out of tune in the record's most bittersweet harmony, with label boss David McLean adding some defeated tenor saxophone to drive home the blues. Even on the more experimental and introspective cuts, Trofa’s keen sense of melodic sensibility is intact. ‘Echolalia’s modulated synths morph slowly around a simple descending guitar motif as a field recording of chattering voices describes some distant Italian café where something ominous waits. Companion piece ‘Zolar’ is 2 minute miniature epic, its cresting VHS smeared synths and propulsive electronic beat gestures at the opulence of Michael Mann directed finale, its redemptive melody bathed in evening glare of the beach after something exhaustingly climatic.

Even with all these competing elements, the album’s defining aspect is its spaciousness and its sheer variety of moods. Trofa has managed to deftly sidestep many of the trappings that plague solo guitar records, resisting the urge to track multiple takes or committing to an over reliance on experimenting with an array of effects pedals. In fact, it's his sparing use of the instrument that makes the album so good. When Trofa’s six string does sound, it is icily articulated and ringing clear through the distance. It speaks to a new mastery of his own sound, one filled with balance, nuance and drama, creating one of the most genuinely affecting pieces of music the label has released and the closest Tombed Visions will get to financing a film.

credits

released February 14, 2023

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about

The Duke of Zuke London, UK

The Duke of Zuke is the musical moniker of London-based composer, Clint Trofa. Tracks are built up using layered guitar loops, drones, minimal electronics and other sounds, to create ethereal, delicate soundscapes.

Clint has toured Europe on several occasions with his close friends Action Beat, and in 2013 had several pieces used in 'Elevating London' - which was screened at a sold out Barbican.
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