El Cielo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| El Cielo | ||
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| Studio album by dredg | ||
| Released | Oct 8, 2002 | |
| Recorded | George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, CA and at Longview Farm in North Brookfield, MD | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | 57:08 | |
| Label | Universal | |
| Producer(s) | dredg, Ron St. Germain, Tim Palmer and Michael Rosen | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| dredg chronology | ||
| Leitmotif (1999) |
El Cielo (2002) |
Catch Without Arms (2005) |
El Cielo is dredg's second album, released on October 8, 2002. Like dredg's first album, Leitmotif, El Cielo is a concept album.
Contents |
[edit] About the album
One of the main influences on the band for El Cielo was a painting by Salvador Dalí entitled Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, which is also what the acronym in "Brushstroke: dcbtfoabaapasba" stands for. The painting was unveiled in 1944 and clearly influences many of the album's core themes and song titles, for example a long-legged elephant ("An Elephant In The Delta Waves") with a papal insignia upon its back ("The Papal Insignia" was a song recorded for El Cielo but only saw release on an Industry Demo recorded in 2001 and didn't make it onto El Cielo). Also pictured is a woman laying in a canyon ("The Canyon Behind Her"). Band members have been quoted as saying that this Dali painting is sleep paralysis, a literal representation of the condition from which Dali's wife actually suffered.
This is further supported by the translation of the Japanese spoken words from the beginning of "The Canyon Behind Her" - "This album was inspired by a painting titled: 'Dream Caused By the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate One Second Before Awakening'. It is recommended that you view this painting as you listen to El Cielo. It is as if one stimulus awakens other senses. In other words, it's about 'drawing music.'"
Early pressings of El Cielo were in a cardbord fold-out CD holder with pictures of clouds bordered by runes. Later pressings of El Cielo are in a generic plastic jewel case. The cover of the later versions are obviously the cover of the booklet, which is a sort of brown leathery texture with the band's name and the album name on it. The image provided on this page is the cover of the earlier, cardboard fold-out version. Both versions are otherwise identical and have the same booklet.
The booklet with El Cielo contains letters written by sufferers of sleeping disorders. All of the songs on the album (except the instrumentals, obviously) contain snippets of the text in the booklet.
Track 12, "Of the Room", is a remastered version of one of dredg's earlier demo songs, originally found on their 2001 Industry Demos, and later on Extended Play For The Eastern Hemisphere.
El Cielo has also been released in the SACD format. This particular disc is a multi-channel hybrid SACD. It is playable as a standard CD in a normal CD player. However, in a SACD player, the album is played in high resolution stereo with surround sound.
The album was recorded at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, CA, and at Longview Farm in North Brookfield, MD. Producers included Ron St. Germain, Tim Palmer, and Michael Rosen.
[edit] Track listing
- "Brushstroke: dcbtfoabaapasba" – 0:57
- "Same Ol' Road" – 5:14
- "Sanzen" – 4:34
- "Brushstroke: New Heart Shadow" – 1:33
- "△" ("Triangle") – 5:03
- "Sorry but It's Over" – 4:08
- "Convalescent" – 3:32
- "Brushstroke: A Walk in the Park" – 1:40
- "Eighteen People Live in Harmony" – 4:28
- "Scissor Lock" – 3:23
- "Brushstroke: Reprise" – 1:33
- "Of the Room" – 3:44
- "Brushstroke: An Elephant in the Delta Waves" – 1:47
- "It Only Took a Day" – 3:16
- "Whoa Is Me" – 5:36
- "The Canyon Behind Her" – 6:40
[edit] Music videos
- "Same Ol' Road" directed by American McGee.
- "Of The Room" directed by Ben Rehki.
