Biography
Jewelled Antler is a loose affiliation of musical artists centred around the releases made or affiliated with two people, Glenn Donaldson and Loren Chasse of the Bay Area, San Francisco, USA. They were inspired by the San Franciscan tradition for free-thought and musical experimentation and originally played together as Thuja. The collective also had its early roots in Mirza, an outfit shared by Donaldson and fellow musician Steven R. Smith circa 1993.
There are a bewildering number of artists associated with the The Jewelled Antler Collective with names frequently being used for a single release and then changing or disappearing. A good example is in one of their most successful albums, 'Orchards & Caravans', by The Birdtree. This is a solo song-based work by Glenn Donaldson whose circulation was widened by its subsequent re-release by Last Visible Dog. Despite its warm reception Donaldson changed the artist name for its follow up ('Winged Leaves') to The Ivytree .
Aside from keeping track of names, the releases themselves are hard to find, particularly if you don't happen to live near San Francisco. This is because the collective work on the 'small is beautiful' principle, with Chasse & Donaldson burning limited edition CDRs and overseeing the artwork themselves.
Other artists associated with the collective include The Franciscan Hobbies, Hala Strana, The Child Readers and The Skygreen Leopards although the latter have since signed with Jagjaguwar records.
The music aims to be as spontaneous as possible and the collective have a particular preference for recording outdoors in order to incorporate sounds from Nature. As a result tracks are not so much Field Recordings as Recordings In A Field! Most releases favour a gentle pastoral feel and are mainly acoustic with wistful, melancholy vocals . The love of traditional English folk songs is evident but the addition of drones and improvisation into the mix lend a contemporary psychedelic edge to the sound. In a interview for Fakejazz, Donaldson said: “Discovering punk made me feel ok about doing my own music whether it sounds like 'folk' or 'noise' whatever. The idea of having "talent" is rubbish, I believe that anyone can make beautiful music/art if you have the desire”
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