concern: misfortune

gordon ashworth has crafted "misfortune" as the final album and conclusion under the concern project which was recorded throughout 2011 to early 2012 and is entirely based on the 15 string box-harp (an american folk instrument also known as the "lap harp"). every sound on the album was initially created by this box-harp and field recordings. The three compositions are ashworth's direct impressions of traditional melodies for the valiha marovany (a box-harp instrument from madagascar) and the kora (a west african gourd-harp instrument). the emotional essences of these melodic lines and tunings were severely abstracted and magnified into new realms of emotional and psychological reaction. these recordings of the box-harp were gradually combined with social field recordings and drastically manipulated by several methods of cassette-based looping & delay, speakers and microphones, and using massive underground hospital parking garages as crude, guerrilla echo chambers. the effect is intended to recreate the overwhelming emotional effects of the original melodies, as well as the feelings of anxiety attacks, atheism, agoraphobia, failing health, and observing misfortune in others. recorded by gordon ashworth, mastered by mark burden and gordon ashworth. art and design by brandon nickell. edition of 300 copies printed with teal-foil graph structure tessellations on black matte jackets.