music
Ilyas Ahmed, 1/3 of Dreamboat
Ilyas stopped by today and dropped off the new Dreamboat record. Hailed on Fact Mag as "one of the best albums of 2016", it has also been featured in the New York Time article, Songs That Take Their Time, Evolve and Ask Plenty of Questions. Congrats to this great team!
Limited edition of 500 with digital code, MIE Music ($ 21)
It’s been such a blast spending time with Jeffrey this past week and watching him work on his Sensitive pop-up for Nationale. A huge thank you to Brian Mumford of Dragging an Ox Through Water for his beautiful performance yesterday during the reception and to Spielman’s Coffee for the treats. It was just the feelings we needed to claim back about Portland.
The show runs through Monday, August 3rd. T-shirts are $30 and mural panels $200 each. We are also doing a special young collectors raffle next week. Get a $10 raffle ticket for a chance to win an original framed piece by Jeffrey Kriksciun!
Please join us Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. as we celebrate the release of Ilyas Ahmed’s new album, I Am All Your Own.
“Ilyas’ music is in service to dream investigation, at once still and impermanent as an August cloud and then sweeping like a strange breeze through your thoughts. “I Am All Your Own” will wrap you in serenity but is aware that any second now you may escape. Music of a sweet morning, and unforgettable.”
–Thurston Moore
Image Asif Ahmed
During its first six years, Nationale hosted monthly events, from poetry readings to intimate concerts, from serious lectures to silly dance performances. We built a strong community around them and even though we had to slow things down with the arrival of baby Lou, we are back at it this month with a special record release + concert by Nationale alum, Ilyas Ahmed. Please join us on Thursday, May 14 (7 p.m.) as we celebrate the release of I Am All Your Own, his newest album on Immune Recordings.
Ilyas Ahmed’s songs exist in a sublime moment of suspended animation, calmly dwelling in between modes of music making both timeless and contemporary - deeply imbued with stillness and peace. On I Am All Your Own, his first album in three years, Ahmed employs strategies gleaned from experimental and ambient musicians, such as Lawrence English and Fripp & Eno, and applies them to song-based guitar music. Building slowly and purposefully, each individual track adds to the album’s overall, scrupulously-forged contour. His most direct work, Ahmed’s voice is brought to the fore and unobscured. Like the best work of his friend and collaborator Liz Harris (Grouper), as well as classic touchstones such as the Velvet Underground’s self-titled third album and David Crosby’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name,” Ahmed’s latest is sentimental and emotive, while remaining hushed and understated. I Am All Your Own is a record for late nights and early mornings, those times spent in solitude and reflection.
