robert curgenven: they tore the earth and, like a scar, it swallowed them

"It is with regret I have had to record the existence of such large areas of desert land encountered in my travels in Australia." --Australia Twice Traversed (1889), Ernest Giles (1835-1897). They Tore the Earth and, Like a Scar, It Swallowed Them is a very physical negotiation of territories voided by history. Forged from the historical dynamics of the settler colonial trope, the album plays out across four scenes, through the eyes not of the invaded but of the invaders of a harsh and unforgiving land. Visceral psychogeography of settler colonialism rendered via field recordings gathered over 12 years in over 30 remote locations across Australia, mixed and expanded within immense, shimmering harmonics wrought via pipe organ, guitar feedback, dubplates, turntables, and low frequency oscillators. Amidst the heat and the dust, in a landscape populated only by the insinuation of characters, settler colonialists' blind enactment of will and violence against and into an unforgiving, arid interior is a manifestation of a mortal struggle -- a starkness dwelling within an unfillable horizon. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering. Released on red transparent vinyl.