Surgery 173

for Geraldine Pitre Hill (1930-2017)

My mother passed away in May. She had been suffering from a variety of illnesses and injuries for a little over six years, so the end was not a surprise. At the time I let the practical part of my brain handle the practical parts of death... the details, the paperwork, the logical letting go. The afterwards of a passing is a prolonged business, and it involves many occasional and unexpected confrontations with your emotions. Lately as I sort through the photos she left behind (and there are many) her absence makes a sudden and much deeper impact than at the time of her death. She loved music... her taste running to oldies, country, regional folk, the things she and her sisters and friends used to play and sing. These songs are not things she would have listened to, but they remind me or her and of the context we shared during the last half decade or more. They are for her, for me, for the spaces inside that we didn't always put into words.

Ramses III - I Could Not Love You More (Type)
Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun (Matador)
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops (2062)
Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain (Secretly Canadian)
Low  - The Curtain Hits the Cast (Vernon Yard)
Sylvain Chauveau - Un Autre Decembre (130701)
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)
Labradford - E Luxo So (Kranky)
Joel R.L. Phelps And The Downer Trio - Inland Empires (12XU)
Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (Capitol)
Stars Of The Lid - The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid (Kranky)
Red House Painters - S/T (Bridge) (4AD)

Track Listing

 

Ramses III - The Kindness in Letting Go [0:00]
Yo La Tengo - Take Care [7:01]
William Basinski - d|p 1.1(edit) [9:29]
Songs: Ohia - Didn’t It Rain [15:53]
Low - Over the Ocean [23:37]
Sylvain Chauveau - Neuf Cents Lunes [27:14]
Sufjan Stevens - Fourth of July [31:07]
Labradford - Recorded and mixed at Sound of Music, Richmond, Va. [35:42]
Joel R.L. Phelps And The Downer Trio - Songbird [43:11]
Sparklehorse - Sad & Beautiful World [47:19]
Stars of the Lid - Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part 2 [50:40]
Red House Painters - Sundays and Holidays [57:31]