Kramer - And The Wind Blew It All Away (2021) [Hi-Res]

Celebrated as a collaborator, producer and champion for some of the most boundary-pushing artists of his generation, Kramer is emerging from a pandemic-year gestation with his first solo collection of original songs since 1998.

The 10-track "And the Wind Blew It All Away" is the culmination of Kramer’s 2020 tenure as Artist-In-Residence for Indianapolis-based Joyful Noise Recordings. The indie label’s goal was to provide a forum for his original material and support a revival of his groundbreaking Shimmy-Disc label, whose roster has included Daniel Johnston, GWAR, Jad Fair, King Missile, Boredoms, and Kramer’s bands Bongwater and Shockabilly.

The central product of the residency was a subscription-only, limited-edition, five-LP box set. Although the subscriptions sold out, 75 copies are being released for retail-only sales in a gesture of support for independent record stores. WIND is the final LP of the set, which is also available in digital form. Shimmy-Disc and Joyful Noise are partnering on the album’s release as a standalone work.

Kramer – whose production credits also include Galaxie 500, Will Oldham, Daniel Johnston, Low and Urge Overkill – performed all the instruments and vocals on the record, which features nine new songs and closes with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Winter Lady.”

It’s a gentle and magical mystery tour of simmering acoustic strings, organs, pianos and mellotrons, tape loops, found sounds and a whisper of percussion, laced through Kramer's distinctively idiosyncratic singing voice and lyrics.

Kramer describes the mood that fueled the writing and recording, as follows;

“A terrifying wind is coming. I recorded this LP as I wondered, through sound and song, if I’d ever collaborate on making music with another artist by my side again, or live to see another New Year’s Eve, or hear my daughter’s voice again, or Love again. Time will darken it. It always does. Do I really want to be the last man standing, in a wind like this?”

Yet, from those dark origins, Kramer has crafted an achingly beautiful and ultimately hopeful song cycle that conveys a full spectrum of emotion while retaining a cohesive and distinctive sound all his own; the sound of a soul laid bare.