a.r. wilson: old gold

Melbourne auteur Andrew Wilson (Andras, A.R.T. Wilson, Wilson Tanner) soils the 'Australian songbook' with a collection of fragile, private and deranged songs of parrots, pancakes and gelignite amidst the Victorian Gold Rush of 1850s. Old Gold is filled with fakes and fools, rumbling stomachs and acousmatic terrors - a lonely, self-pitying search evoked by faintly medieval folk music that sounds almost period-perfect but somehow, oddly, wonderfully spoiled. Gut string guitars, water-logged mandolins, bar room banjos and no-fidelity piano all sound perfectly organic - except they're not. No acoustic instruments were handled in the making of the record, including environmental sounds which were generated during a residency at Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. The reproduction of familiar sounds via inorganic means situates the record in a moonlit, melancholy hole of its own. Old Gold was written, played and recorded by Andrew Wilson, and mastered by Mikey Young. Artwork is by Luca Schenardi. Andrew Wilson has released records as Andras, A.R.T. Wilson, Berko and House Of Dad and he is one half of Wilson Tanner. His work has appeared on labels including Beats In Space, Efficient Space, Growing Bin Records, Public Possession, Dopeness Galore, Mexican Summer and his own Punp imprint.