Ghost, by Black Swan

Ghost

by Black Swan

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Listening Party

Please join us for a special Halloween album by none other than the dark lord, Black Swan. Ghost is the ninth studio album by New York-based Black Swan, who employs an arsenal of analog recording devices and methods to blur the line between reality and memory. Inspired by musique concrète, ambient, and dark drone traditions, the twenty pieces in this continuous suite capture the experiences of a spirit navigating the physical world it left behind.

The dimensions of each movement come from careful consideration of the overall narrative: some are brief vignettes, while others are given room to breathe and evolve; some showcase simple but effective means, and others push the limits of their analog formats with intense layering and harmonic surges.

RIYL: Belong’s October Language, The Caretaker, Altars Altars, Forest Management, Fluorescent Heights, Geotic, early Tim Hecker, Boards of Canada interludes. ... more
Streaming + Download

Pre-order of Ghost. You get 6 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Purchasable with gift card

Download available in 24-bit/96kHz.

releases October 31, 2024

$7 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a 4-panel, 300g satin cardstock Digipak. Clear cd tray. Numbered. Shrinkwrapped. Pressed and printed in the Canada. Edition of 200.

Also available at:

🇬🇧 Juno Records
🇺🇸 PITP.US

_____________________

Includes digital pre-order of Ghost. You get 6 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Download available in 24-bit/96kHz.

shipping out on or around October 31, 2024

edition of 200

Purchasable with gift card

$11 USD or more
Cassette + Digital Album
Light gray cassette with black imprinting, housed in a clear norelco box. Loaded with FerroMaster C456™ super ferric, ultra-high performance type-1 music grade analog tape. Shrinkwrapped. Limited to 50 units.

Also available at:

🇬🇧 Juno Records
🇺🇸 PITP.US

_____________________

Includes digital pre-order of Ghost. You get 6 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Download available in 24-bit/96kHz.

shipping out on or around October 31, 2024

edition of 50

Purchasable with gift card

$11 USD or more
Full Digital Discography

159

releases

Get all 159 Past Inside the Present releases available on Bandcamp and save 75%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Ghost, Diaphanous, Atmospherics [30th Anniversary Edition], Kairos, Mid Sky, See You Someday, Mid Year Mix [2024], Color of Time II, and 151 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$168.75 USD or more (75% OFF)

	1.	Somewhere But Here
	2.	Like Dust, I Linger 06:00
	3.	Ad Infinitum 10:17
	4.	Only in Shadows
	5.	Time Loop
	6.	Perhaps We Never Were 02:40
	7.	Clouds of Grey
	8.	Parathèque 01:36
	9.	Half Past Three
	10.	Static Memory I
	11.	Beneath the Veil
	12.	All Who Wander
	13.	Where Silence Lies
	14.	The Girl in the Garden
	15.	Static Memory II
	16.	Spirit Box
	17.	They Speak As One
	18.	Ghost of You 03:03
	19.	Séance
	20.	Beyond Hope of Greening 05:41

credits

releases October 31, 2024

Black Swan – Ghost (Past Inside the Present, 2024)

Ghost is the ninth studio album by New York-based Black Swan, who employs an arsenal of analog recording devices and methods to blur the line between reality and memory. Inspired by musique concrète, ambient, and dark drone traditions, the twenty pieces in this continuous suite capture the experiences of a spirit navigating the physical world it left behind.

The dimensions of each movement come from careful consideration of the overall narrative: some are brief vignettes, while others are given room to breathe and evolve; some showcase simple but effective means, and others push the limits of their analog formats with intense layering and harmonic surges. Beginning with “Somewhere But Here”, an uncanny tone is established by melodies trilling from dusty, endlessly re-dubbed tapes, and the medium itself emerges as an essential sculptural instrument.

“Like Dust, I Linger” is one of the album’s most heartbreakingly beautiful entries, rising with a tender warble that unfolds beneath a soaring, atomized loop. “Ad Infinitum” follows, with shimmering synths that merge and overlap like sun shafts on a cobalt lake, their harmonies forming a slow, emotional crescendo across its ten minute sprawl. On “Time Loop”, the low end vanishes, and we are untethered into airiness, accompanied by a quietly bustling, tactile clatter.

Regarding his process, Black Swan states, “I used a plethora of different tape stocks, both new and used, giving each track its own color, character, and overall presentation. I wanted Ghost to sound like some unmarked cassette found hidden away in an abandoned attic, and to create the thrill of hearing something sacred for the first time in generations.”

This feeling reaches its unearthly peak during the album’s middle section, as the staccato, aquatic plink of “Parathèque” gives way to a three-act suite awash in crackling fields of tape hiss and long-tail reverberations. “Half Past Three” sacrifices tonality in the service of pure atmosphere, with a cascade of resonant, fibrous textures; “Static Memory I” is possessed by a timestretched voice reaching out from the edge of intelligibility, anchoring the reedy soundscape floating above; and “Beneath The Veil” could have been picked up from an electromagnetic field reader, its ominous drones roiling in purgatory.

The latter half of Ghost contains some of Black Swan’s most adventurous experiments, from the noisy gales and tremolo chimes of “Girl In the Garden”, to the mutilated signal paths of “Spirit Box”. The sonic storms encircling many of these tracks create the album’s defining charisma: it’s impossible to determine the devices and techniques used on a given piece, as they all bear the aura of having been stumbled upon, perhaps in between frequencies on a disused transistor radio. Each one is organic, macabre, and striking in its balance of beauty and eeriness.

“Beyond Hope of Greening” ends the album with an acknowledgement of permanence; that what once was, will never be again. The howl of a decaying reel snakes between channels, while a low rumble and stringlike patchwork hover in the backdrop, leaving the listener in a blissful state of limbo as the final moments fade. Reflecting on his inspirations, the artist recalls “thinking of all kinds of moments that have gone by, and how fast they did so… I personally have a really hard time with letting go, and that is what this album is about.”

RIYL: Belong’s October Language, The Caretaker, Altars Altars, Forest Management, Fluorescent Heights, Geotic, early Tim Hecker, Boards of Canada interludes.

Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Black Swan
Design and layout by Black Swan

© 2024 Past Inside the Present
℗ 2024 Past Inside the Present Publishing (BMI)
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Past Inside the Present Indianapolis, Indiana

Past Inside the Present is the home of a passionate, collaborative artistic community in pursuit of the world’s most inventive and engaging quiet music.

Distribution through Juno Records (UK), Norman Records (UK), Tobira Records (JP), Linus Records (JP), HHV (DE), Soundohm (IT), Phonica Records (UK) and others. ... more

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Ghost

by Black Swan

Listening Party

Streaming + Download

$7 USD or more

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

$11 USD or more

Cassette + Digital Album

$11 USD or more

Full Digital Discography

$168.75 USD or more (75% OFF)

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Ghost

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tags

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Shopping cart

about

live events

discography

contact / help

Listening Party

Streaming + Download

$7 USD or more

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

$11 USD or more

Cassette + Digital Album

$11 USD or more

$168.75 USD or more (75% OFF)