Elusive + Concepts of Sound

Without any obvious keystone event, Biota – who started recording in the late 1970’s as the Mnemonist Orchestra – have quietly become a musical fixture, honoured for their uniquely, abstract, layered, polystylistic approach to musical construction - deaf to fashion or possible sales. And it seems, paradoxically, to have been just this art-orientated commercial indifference that has slowly won them loyal followers and surprisingly respectable sales. Now, for a wider audience - and at a congenial price - this box collects five representative releases that span their discography and track the radical evolution of their crystalline aesthetic – with added documentation, a band history, insights into their work process, and a full-length bonus CD embroidered from their archive of rare and unreleased material. Contents: Funnel to a Thread, Half a True Day, Invisible Map, Object Holder and Gyromancy (recorded as the Mnemonist Orchestra), and the box-only bonus Counterbalance.

For the last two decades, the Providence, RI-based Redfearn has crafted a compelling, uncategorizable sound that is wholly his own but has tendrils that reach into a stunning variety of influences both musical and otherwise. The music is centered upon Redfearn’s arcane rock sensibilities, beguiling vocals and serpentine accordion lines, which lace the music with tinges of everything from Krautrock to minimalism, alternate-universe folk tunes to psychedelic prog. Thematically, his hallucinatory lyrics hint at mind-expanding concepts from his voracious reading and adventurous experiences, with seductive insinuations.