Anchor is Out Now.  You can order the 'Home silk-screened limited edition colored vinyl LP w/DL code' in our webstore.  

We apologize for the quietness this year... one of my sons has had cancer (for the third time) and he's been going through some very harsh treatments for the last 6 months.  He's a tough kid and the prognosis is good but it's knocked us out this year.  Thanks for your endless and beautiful support through all of this.  We couldn't do it without you. 

Contact us: nzammuto@gmail.com
or our Amazing Label: Info@temporaryResidence.com

WE JUST RELEASED A NEW  EP CALLED VERYONE:  YOU CAN HEAR IT AND PURCHASE IT HERE: https://zammuto.bandcamp.com/album/veryone




The amazing Filmmaker, Garret Harkawik, made a film about us:

No Needle, Just A Haystack from Garret Harkawik on Vimeo.




 
Listen to Anchor:




Official Video of for IO with the trebuchet we built:

Official video for Great Equator made using Electron and Light Microscopes:


Our Indiegogo Campaign Video from Summer 2013: 

Zammuto LP 2 from Nick zammuto on Vimeo.

A video describing my method of rhythmically scratching the 'locked groove' of vinyl records:

Scratch Edition from Nick zammuto on Vimeo.

Bass Projector from Nick zammuto on Vimeo.

Filmmaker Matt Day made a documentary about the studio, the home we built in Vermont, and the formation of the band leading up to our first shows in 2012.  You can watch it now on Pitchfork TV  

 

Blog

First Shows 

Hey Everyone,

I’m happy to announce that the new band is playing it’s first shows in early February! You can get tickets here:

FEB 3: Mass Moca, North Adams, MA

FEB 4: 92YTribeca, New York, NY

FEB 6: Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA

We had our first rehearsals in November, and it made us all quite giddy. It’s coming together better than we had ever hoped. Please don’t miss your chance to see these first shows: my brother Mikey has used the word ‘Epic’ more than once to describe what’s about to happen…

Here’s a (somewhat goofy) photo of the new band:

From left to right that’s my brother Mikey (Bass), Sean Dixon (NYC, Drums), yours truly (vocals, guitars) and Gene Back (From Brooklyn, who you’ll recognize from the Books, Guitar and Keys). And yes that is a bonfire, made of branches from the great ice storm of 2008. We lit it up last sunday:

The new show will focus mainly on the tracks I’ve been writing over the last year, with some classic and never before played ‘Books’ songs thrown in, plus a couple surprises. The show will have some video synched with the performance (as the books show did) although the band is so fun to watch, the video component will be more contained to short bursts and set peices, to allow eyes to be on the band most of the time. (Sean is one of the best drummers you will ever see.) I’m working on video now, based on the vast collection of stills and vhs i’ve put together over the years, along with a few commisions, and i’m not sure how much i’ll have done by February… but I think the show will fly either way.

And, before the show we will be screening ‘Achante’, the short film about Haitian Vodou that I scored this year. Here’s the trailer

Achantè Extended Trailer from Mazibel on Vimeo.

Really hope to see you there!

Nick


Ep Release on Make Mine Records 

Hey All,

My old friend Manish from London runs a 7” Label called Make Mine, and we decided to release three of the songs from the upcoming LP this December, gearing up for the full length release next year. (about 10 years ago ’The Books’ were his labels first release!)

Side A will be Idiom Wind

Side B will be F U C-3PO

And the bonus ‘digital only’ will be Weird Ceiling.

In fact Pitchfork was kind enough to post ‘Weird Ceiling’ today.

These are reworked ‘finished’ versions of the demo tracks I’ve posted in the past, so have a listen for the changes…

Once the EP is available for sale I’ll repost

And thanks for the slew of recent orders from the store, you all, it is extremely helpful in getting this project off the ground… and remember you can preorder a Home Printed LP to further help the project along. (design coming soon)

Also, I finished two more tracks recently, called ‘Zebra Butt’ and ‘The Shape of Things to Come’, as well as revisited/improved/mastered a lot of the older songs, so stay tuned…

Thanks!

Nick


Birth of Cy 

Hey All,

This is more on the personal side of my blog posts, but I wanted to share with you the birth of our third son, Cy:

He was born here at home in Vermont, in a big tub in our living room, on October 23. Molly’s water broke at around 4:30pm that day, and her contractions started in earnest around 6 pm. The boys, Sepp (5yo) and Asa (2yo), were busy messily painting their halloween costumes, so we let them finish. I put them to bed at around 7pm, as usual, and then went downstairs to set up the tub:

By then our incredible midwives, Tanya and Lucinda, were arriving and we started filling the tub. Also, Molly’s Mom, her sister, and our dear friend Libby were here to help. We got a nice fire going in the woodstove and had the house up to 80 degrees pretty quickly. We quickly ran out of hot water, so we put every pot we had on the stove to heat more. By 9pm Molly’s contractions were getting very intense and she decided to take a stroll outside. It was a particularly clear and dark night, with the Milkyway crystal clear and Jupiter brighter than I’ve ever seen it. (i’ve always loved stargazing so it felt particularly meaningful to see the sky so clear.) By the end of our walk around the house, with frequent stops for contractions, Molly was ready to get in the tub. By then it was full of hot water and ready to go, and we got in around 10pm. From here her labor progressed very quickly and intensely, and she gave birth to Cy at 10:22pm, catching him herself and scooping him up to the surface of the water. With barely a sound he looked up at her as if to say “Hi, Mom.” It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Here’s a picture of them just two hours after he was born:

They are both remarkably healthy, happy and seemingly unfazed.

This was our second homebirth. Asa was also born at home, up in his bedroom. After Sepp’s birth in a hospital, Molly was adamant that we have our children at home. Sepp’s hospital birth, although it wasn’t traumatic per se, was offensive to Molly on a number of levels. Her own birth experience and studies of midwifery and the birthing process has lead her to the realization that birth is not a risk-frought medical procedure as we are lead to believe by well meaning yet fearful OBGYN’s. It is a natural rite of passage for both mother and child; a sacred time to be experienced as fully as possible. From my limited perspective, it took me a while to see the truth in this, but having just witnessed what I can only describe as perfect, we highly recommend homebirth. Be sure to find an experienced and warmhearted midwife. As someone once said, “Locals are born in the hospital, ‘natives’ are born at home.”

Thanks for reading, Nick


Next New Track! 

Zammuto - Too Late To Topologize | zammuto
Here’s a working version of the fourth track from the new record. I’m sorry, Timbaland, but it had to be done. Dropping that syllable just drives me crazy, I needed to stick one back in to restore balance to the world ;)

Free download available for 48hrs here:

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1193548365/95a1ed6a89df516fcb8a57900d72c254

I made this track with a Korg Electribe (S) and a TC-Helicon Voice Live 2, and its made to be performed live 100%, so please come see our first shows in November. Special thanks to Sean Dixon for the acoustic drums, really looking forward to working more with him, he’s an extremely inventive player, and will Kill live.

Also i’m proud to say that my dream of composing, mixing and mastering all within one program was finally realized with this track. It is directly exported from the timeline of Sony’s Acid without post-sweetening. I’ll post more about the studio soon…

Thanks,
Nick


New Song – Zammuto – Idiom Wind (available for 48 hrs) 

Here’s the new track:

 

Just finished this afternoon. Pretty different, again, from Yay and Groan Man. I’m trying to carve out as much new territory as I can early on in the process, and stretch out a bit. This is more of a songy song this time, and yes, Dylan references are as irresistable to me as ever. and I’ve been loving playing the drums recently, I’m really into 3 over 4 polyrhythms, they are so wonderfully ambiguous and spacious. Please download and repost, since this will only be available for 48hrs. https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1171175787/4d4f9ac1572171efd82d082acd82f132 And extra thanks to Gene Back for his multitrack fiddle on this song. If any of you need a fiddle session, Gene is extremely capable and highly creative. You can contact him here: gene.back@gmail.com. So glad he’s in my band! For those of you who have requested a studio tour, I’ll try to blog about it soon… Thanks for listening! More soon, Nick


Introducing: Achantè – A Portrait of Haitian Vodou 

This is a brand new film that I composed the soundtrack/sound-design for: Here’s a trailer:

Achantè Extended Trailer from Mazibel on Vimeo.

It’s a 35 minute, image and music driven look at the vibrant, and often misrepresented, religion of Vodou (or Voodoo), native to Haiti. It’s directed by Emily McMehen, and also produced by Emily along with cinematographer Geoffrey Sautner (Mazibel Films). Last year, they invited me to score the film, and after seeing some of the early footage I was immediately enchanted.

You can read Emily and Geoffrey’s description of the film ‘here’, but to summarize:

The team arrived in Haiti just weeks before the devastating earthquake of January 12th, 2010, to begin researching the film. After the earthquake struck, they resisted the urge to document the devastation and relief efforts (or lackthereof), and instead spent time getting to know people within the Vodou community in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding countryside. As they gained the trust of the local Vodouisants, Emily and Geoffrey invited them to contribute something to the film (as they write):

‘In some cases the Vodouisants contributed stories of the Lwa (Vodou deities), but more often the participants preferred to be ‘mounted’ by the spirit they chose. In other words, they preferred to be possessed on camera… The concept of spiritual possession, perceived by most other religious groups as being dark or demonic in nature, or naive, is in fact a key component of the Haitian identity that draws Vodou’s practitioners together. Its theatrical elements are directed towards connecting strangers and resolving conflicts among friends and family, as demonstrated by elaborate handshakes and expressions of love. The possessed person will often seek out and confront another person with whom they have conflict, and the spirit reaches out and resolves the conflict uninhibited by pride or willfulness. (The film) invites us into the peristyle and treats us as familiars…’

As the composer I was awestruck by these images of ‘possession’. They are EXTREMELY intense, but instead of being dark or scary, I found a palpable sense of humanity and joy: a truly honest expression of deep-seated emotion (which, unfortunately, seems excedingly rare in our culture). You can imagine the challenge of writing music for these scenes! After a lot of trial and error I found a few threads that could unify the soundtrack… first were the incredible audio recordings (made by Erik Southey) of the singing and drumming that take place during the rituals, which I could use to recreate a pulsating rhythmic atmosphere. Second is the odd, and sometimes conflicted relationship of Christian and African influences in the music, where tight polyrhythms can give way to hymn like chords, which helps describe the syncretic origins of Vodou. And the third is the ‘otherworldliness’ of the possessions, which i was able to reflect using tweaked synthesizers and grooveboxes. It makes for a very odd mix, but somehow it works.

The film will be in shown in festivals worldwide this year, so please seek it out. Also, we plan on releasing the soundtrack as an LP on Temporary Residence (our label), along with some of the amazing field recordings and songs they recorded on location.

I’ll write more about that when it’s ready…

Thank you all for your interest!

Nick


New Track: Groan Man, Don’t Cry 

Hey All,

Thanks so much for the great response to YAY! Here’s a ‘working version’ the second track: ‘Groan Man, Don’t Cry’ from the new project. It will be available for 48 hrs here:

https://soundcloud.com/zammuto/zammuto-groan-man-dont-cry

and here: https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1163002003/61a92b22cdc821b47747b139cbb67bab

The organ theme in this track originally came from a soundtrack I did for a film about Haitian Voodoo, called Achante - Lives of the Saints, by Emily McMehen and Geoffrey Sautner of Mazibel films. It will be appearing in film festivals worldwide this year, with a soundtrack release to follow soon after… i’ll blog about this more in a couple days

Please feel free to repost the mp3 and otherwise share. Can’t wait to take the new band out… more music very soon, lots in the works,

Thanks!

Nick

zammutosound.com zammuto.wordpress.com twitter.com/zammutosound soundcloud.com/zammuto


Daytrotter 

Hey all,

Here’s the wonderful text the Daytrotter folks wrote for our session. Warms my heart… hope to stop by their studio again soon…

from Daytrotter.com:

The lemon of pink is a phrase that The Books brought new to me and it’s one that only makes any sense when we’re listening to the group’s glistening art. The songs that Paul de Jong and Nick Zammuto pin together are not so much pieces of music as they are pieces of weather, bits of sails flapping on slightly bumpy seawaters, and easels covered with thick, confident and meaningful paint. Every small part of these songs depict full days, full years and feel like a rush of sunshine, an onslaught of life and the lively discussions that come out of the air when guards are let down and there’s nothing to be afraid of any more. The lemon of pink feels like it’s a sound, as if we’re to hear it as the souring of the soft and the innocent, as if we’re witnessing that which is bound to happen, that which we can’t avoid. It can either be accepted or fought and most choose to fight – some for brief moments and others for the rest of their lives. The Books bring us to the wisdom from within the storm. All around are the flailing rifts and the off-shoots of what come from preparations and dreams. Used at the end of the song “Smells Like Content,” is an audio clip from some unknown source, a slice of a monologue or an aside, where a young man says, “Expectation leads to disappointment. If you expect something big, huge and exciting…,” and then trails off, with more than a touch of sadness and weariness in his worn out voice. It’s an overriding feeling that passes throughout The Books – where there are any number of beautiful combinations and places to put the appropriate punctuation points, but there are still only a very few number of ways that the circumstances can ultimately lead. There are these sensations of being overcome with the enormity of decisions and what they might lead to, as well as this scary ambiguity of not knowing if we’re having an epiphany or if we’re just really tired or really drunk, or both. We’re there in the moment, but more often, outside of it and around it, only able to string together our thoughts long after the origin of them and at that time, they’re somewhat crumbled and sticky, yellowed and slightly out of breath, but still tender as a shoot and a night.


The Books – Daytrotter Session 

The Books – Daytrotter Session
TheBooksDaytrotter

Hey All,

This will go live tomorrow, leading up to our giant free show in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park tomorrow (Friday) night.

We stopped by the Daytrotter studios during our fall tour to record a few tracks. Strangely, it was one of our first ‘real’ recording studio experiences, since we make all our music at home. It was a blast, the session had a great feel. Along with Paul and me, you’ll hear Gene Back throughout, my brother Mikey Zammuto on Classy Penguin, and our tour manager extraordinaire Brendon Downey on drums during Smells Like Content.

Enjoy,

Nick


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