It is Available on CD or 12" Transparent Light Blue Vinyl (includes digital download card) you can also get either format bundled with a 11x17 Poster (photo by Gregory Burns)
and 1 choice of either Black or White “Heavy Ocean” T-Shirts which are limited to just 250 total and will never be made again!
Shirt Art by illustrator: J.A.W. Cooper - jawcooper.com
King Buzzo & Emma Ruth Rundle Tour 2014 Jun 28 - Milwaukee, WI (US) Shank Hall Jun 30 - Grand Rapids, MI (US) @ The Pyramid Scheme Jul 01 - Columbus, OH (US) @ A&R Music Bar Jul 02 - Hamtramck, MI (US) @ Small’s Bar Jul 03 - Cleveland Heights, OH (US) @ Grog Shop Jul 05 - Syracuse, NY (US) @ The Westcott Theater Jul 06 - South Burlington, VT (US) @ Higher Ground Jul 07 - Portland, ME (US) @ Port City Music Hall Jul 09 - Dover, NH (US) @ Dover Brick House Jul 18 - Charlottesville, VA (US) @ The Southern Jul 19 - Charlotte, NC (US) @ Visulite Theatre Jul 20 - Carrboro, NC (US) @ Cat’s Cradle Jul 22 - Atlanta, GA (US) @ The Basement Jul 23 - Birmingham, AL (US) @ The Bottletree Jul 26 - Houston, TX (US) @ Warehouse Live Jul 27 - Austin, TX (US) @ Red 7 Jul 28 - San Antonio, TX (US) @ Limelight Jul 30 - Tucson, AZ (US) @ Club Congress Jul 31 - Pioneertown, CA (US) @ Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace
When I saw Emma Ruth Rundle perform with one of her main bands, Marriages (she also plays in Red Sparowes), in Boston last July, her group was the hypnotic and gripping opening act for Deafheaven. Now the LA-based singer/guitarist has taken a short break to release Some Heavy Ocean, her debut solo album, from which we heard something very personal and intimate in the form of debut single “Arms I Know So Well.” Now Rundle has released another Some Heavy Ocean track, “Run Forever,” which only reinforces the feelings set into motion by its predecessor. Here Rundle manages to wring a novel’s worth of naked emotion from her guitar and voice, which shifts from whispery lows to pained peaks with lightness of a feather.
On Emma Ruth Rundle‘s latest solo outing Some Heavy Ocean, she reconciles in a bold and beautiful manner her diverse musical styles and interests honed over the years while performing in groups like Marriages, Red Sparowes, and the Nocturnes. Her voice is truly the centerpiece of the album – strong, defiant, and upfront. Rundle is cast as the beacon of light in a soundscape that exists as dense fog-like endlessness. It’s a sound as attractive and with the destructive potential of a black hole. Space, outer, inner, or otherwise, plays an important role here too. The songwriter has a deep understanding of dynamics. There’s drama, there’s build, there’s tension and release. On this heavy ocean, the waves ebb and flow to create emotional peaks and valleys. All the while, Rundle gives us her monochromatic all, an infinite variety of diversity in between the black of the void and the purest white light.
In the post-rock outfit Red Sparowes, Emma Ruth Rundle wields her guitar like glacial force of nature. She’s explored other sounds in her projects Nocturnes and Marriages, and even with her textural, experimental releases as a solo artists. But her new solo album, Some Heavy Ocean, is something else entirely. On stunning songs like “Shadows Of My Name,” which is being debuted here, Rundle lends folky twang and her poignant voice to sprawling swells of blackened atmosphere and mood. In a sea of dark-folk contenders, “Shadows Of My Name” overflows.
The full album stream of Emma Ruth Rundle’s “Some Heavy Ocean” is now online at Pitchfork Advance all this week of May 12 -19th. All photos for the album were done by Red Sparowes & Marriages band mate and incredible photographer Greg Burns. The Album will be officially released worldwide on May 20th on Sargent House and is available for pre-order on cd, vinyl HERE (orders are shipping now a week before release).
Emma Ruth Rundle will be making her European show debut on August 27th at the Sargent House label show in Dublin at Button Factory.
You learn something new every day, so they say. Today I learned that Emma Ruth Rundle is a member of Red Sparowes, a band who I’ve been listening to for some years, originally oblivious to any connection to Sargent House, the label bringing us this continuous lineage of outstanding music.
Some Heavy Ocean is Emma’s debut solo album and it must surely rate as one of the most assured and remarkable debut albums to be released in years. Clearly a very prolific and capable musician, Emma is also a member of Marriages, one of the few acts on the Sargent House roster I have yet to engage and I must correct that forthwith.
Emma Ruth Rundle releases her new solo album, Some Heavy Ocean, on the 20th May via Sargent House. For the ease of knowing where this will sit on your radar you could pigeon hole the sound on Some Heavy Ocean as being alt or post folk. In reality however that doesn’t do the album any justice. What you have is a collection of 10 beautifully crafted songs. They are passionate and chilling, each song seems to be exercising some kind of demon.
If you’re not familiar with Emma Ruth Rundle, then you won’t know of her pedigree. In 2007 she formed the folkgaze collective The Nocturnes before joining seminal post rock legends Red Sparrows. This was the time that her guitar playing really came to the fore (you’ll hear plenty of her excellent playing on Some Heavy Ocean), when Red Sparowes went on hiatus in 2011 she formed the brilliant Marriages. Not content with this pedigree she also reformed the Nocturnes and released an album of experimental guitar compositions.
Happy One Year Anniversary to Emma Ruth Rundle’s beautiful solo record “Some Heavy Ocean”. To celebrate,we have made it $5 through the holiday weekend HERE.
“Arms I Know So Well” music video, directed by Thomas McMahan
Thanks to the fine people at Little Elephant for filming this live session with Emma Ruth Rundle on her tour stop in Ohio. This clip is the first of four of the songs she performed, so stay tuned for more. This track is called “Living With The Black Dog” and is on her new album “Some Heavy Ocean”.
