More soon.

I've been thinking about the best way to release the album, and I think we've come to some conclusion of a limited run of hand-made packaging and then an online release. The songs are still standing up to many, many, many repeated listenings and I'm extremely excited to have this new music out and floating around in the world.

So, what have I been doing? I've been spending the last couple of weeks trying to get near an artwork to show in the January MFA show and gearing up for final projects/papers. Danielle and I recently made a video - it won for best cinematography and was played on a big LCD screen in downtown Windsor, very fun. I've also been working with some sound to go along with the artwork I mentioned above, somehow it's turned into something melodic and ambient, but I don't mind so much. I just find it humourous that I can't divide music from sound.

All else is well, I hope it isn't long before I have something more concrete to say.

By the way, how are you?

The last week or so found me preparing for a conference I had to speak at in Indiana, so I put my headphones in the drawer until tonight. After a good dinner, good family, and despite the heat, I'm mixing another song (currently instrumental, but likely vocals tomorrow night) and it's feeling extremely good.

All things have been good and wonderful. School is great, though it regularly scrapes away at any time I thought I might have for myself or for thoughts outside the realm of art projects/theory.

This song sounds like a really strong north-west wind with sudden impacts of cars crashing outside my window, but in a really pretty way. I'm heading to Toronto in a couple weeks to figure out what exactly to do with this new album, when and how it will be released and what I'll do after that.

Any ideas or submissions for an album cover photo?... my eyes are open.

Somedays there are little bits of motion and messages that always help to make me feel better about the length of time between Logistics & Navigation and now... However, things can't be rushed. I'm confident there will be some time shortly to devote to moving on towards completion, but I also know that it will happen because I will make time for it and it will be a welcomed relief to all of this school work so far.

Tomorrow it's supposed to warm up again - I have to admit that I was enjoying the cold air we've had over the last week. September is always a funny time.

I'm stuck with how to make a song get from start to end; it had been a short loop I was working with since last winter, only recently recording guitars and vocals long enough to extend it to around the 5-minute mark. Another song that doesn't seem to be able to escape me is one from just before I recorded Logistics & Navigation... I thought it would only need a remix, but then I began to wonder about just re-recording it, and now I'm wondering about completely changing the arrangement... there is something about the song that has stayed with me, I can still remember the day I recorded it, but I also think I may be getting the time of year confused. At any rate, I know it must mean that it has connected with me somehow, and for that I need to finish it.

At any rate, I've retitled the album, "Signals & Cities Are Forever" ... I'm working towards an early fall release...

And, in hopes that you'll forgive my slow pace of record making and gradual process of reorganizing the site and to give a small taste of a new song, I thought I should finally put up the small promo that Danielle and I did recently.

Watch it, and keep in touch.

I'll share something soon. I'm feeling very impatient to send a few songs out into the world, but not just yet.

It's August and in a few short weeks school will start up again. So, I may have wrongly anticipated a summer release for the new album... maybe it will be more of a late summer or early autumn release.

At any rate, I hope you are well.

Let's talk again soon.

What music have I recently acquired, you ask?

↪ I am Robot and Proud
↪ St. Vincent
↪ MONO

Well, now I have recovered and I cannot wait to get back to recording again tonight. Last night I did a couple quick takes in the audience of Danielle. A song I'm trying to finish was sort of just floating along, not really going anywhere... It felt like it could have been a nice sort of break between some of the dynamics of other songs, but at the same time, I know there are things (maybe buried at this point) that could pull out and make something from. I had tried to do a quick video recording of what I was playing last night, but Quicktime seemed to be fussy, so maybe I'll try again tonight...

In this office, with no windows, I can honestly say I miss the sky.

I tried listening to Romanticism Aside on my drive home tonight, to try to remember how I used to mix... things seemed less dense then, more breathing room, or something? A song like circuit seems to have breathing room, but has the static-drums... I remember I had a mic on the amp for recording that song, not sure how much that has to do with the way that mix settled in. I am listening to the songs on my headphones, which isn't helping this mixing situation, but it always marks a starting point.

I'll rest my ears for a while, try again later... there are still repairs needed on this track, but it might just mark #3 track for the album more or less finished.... only 9 more to go.

The songs are bunches of noise, like roses in my grandma's backyard. They have a long way to go, maybe mostly due to my scratch vocal takes, but also the mixes are throwing me off considerably. But, I think there may even be more this afternoon... sometimes there's so little movement. How to correct this stationary placement of sound...? Though I'm quite sure it's the drum's fault.

I just tried to do something worthwhile with the drums, not happening yet... but the drifting feedback from the delay on the piano is delightful. So, how to change,... what to change first?

Also, if any of you remember the online audio-only broadcast I did back in 2004(?), I am deeply appreciative for you sticking around for so long. I thought that later this summer might be a good time to do another one of those. I think I'll broadcast from my new studio at school, which is currently a white room with a desk and a broken chair. There's an air vent in the room that rumbles, but maybe it will make some nice background music. I'll keep you posted when/if I confirm this.

If you know of any silk-screener in Canada that uses vegetable-based inks or a Canadian paper mill that makes 100% recycled paper, let me know!!!

Here is my second attempt at a video documentation of my recording process of the new album. Excuse the sound at the beginning (it's the same as my first little video...oops) and also excuse the video hiccup near the end. thank you.

This one is about 10 minutes, a couple new songs, a couple revisited from last week, but more gradual steps towards something completed.

Good night.

For your pleasure:

Music downloads available for all previous releases, including b-sides from Romanticism Aside and some early work. Many of these songs are floating around the internet, I just wanted to collect them for you in one place.

I have my press page back up, though there's much to clean up. As always, if you have anything that I could add to this page, let me know.

In an effort to clear my head while working through the new album, I made a little videoblog where I sort through some loops and think aloud on what to do next. So, it's a bit of insight to my process and some examples of new sounds that may or may not end up on the album.

I'm also trying to make a regular effort of updating my blog/regular text section... Hope you're well.

b-sides:
Twenty Minutes Was Always There
Everything to Heart

There was one day this week when I felt more motivation than I have since sometime in the winter. I tried to take advantage, but there were so many things to do, I couldn't help but not starting any large projects. Today and tomorrow though, I will make something.

New music this week:

A Lily - Wake:Sleep
Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden, I Miss Everyone
Feathers - Absolute Noon
Panda Bear - Person Pitch

All recommended.

I have some photos to go through, my room is a disaster, my heart is hanging low today, but in a nice place.

So, to try to explain all of this, I've recorded a video of me going through the songs, or rather pieces of potential songs. It's about 14 minutes long.

Enjoy.

However, Danielle is on a short vacation for the next week or so, I'll fill my time with my guitar and hopefully my voice in a day or so. The track I last wrote about has stood the test of time and I wonder if it's now time to close the book on writing anything new and just start finishing some of the many pieces of songs I have lying around.

I also turned in my (borrowed) blackberry today; it was a pleasure. The incessant blinking light, I'm happy to have it no longer reflecting off my desk. That being said, I think work will slow down a bit again, or at least level off, no longer taking up evenings and weekends, more time to make something happen, seeing as it is summer and I'll have surely few moments in the fall.

The birds and rabbits are out in full force. My dog died a year ago April, this is the first summer the other animals have braved the open spaces... it's a sad and happy reminder of my lost friend. His name was Buddy, and my friend Jeff has a dog named Buddy... when I first met his dog, I was completely convinced that his dog was wrongly-named, but then I figured he would think the same thing had he ever met my dog.

Though I wish I had taken some time last night to complete the parts that were dancing in my ears, I'm sure it will come back to me. Danielle and I took my good friend, Dylan's, camera out into the summer evening. I'm not sure what will come of this footage, but more than likely it will sit idle for a little while.

I'm apparently trying to avoid working to complete this proposal that is due for a conference on privacy, surveillance and identity. I'm writing about the need for public artworks that actively challenge and subvert surveillance technologies and can potentially give rise to an understanding of the complicated destination of a surveilled city. It's finding something new to say within that realm that remains elusive at this point. It's a long weekend, thank goodness.

The music video for Put A Jacket On (directed by Sean Wainsteim) from "Romanticism Aside" was featured on MuchMusic's the Wedge, while the video for Summer Takes All My Time (directed by Danielle Sabelli & J.Anthony Langlois) from "Logistics & Navigation" was added into rotation on MuchMusic, featured on the Indie Spotlight and the Wedge.

The London Apartments have toured across Canada, showcased at NXNE and CMW and played online audio-only shows from various living rooms.

Music for the upcoming new album, "Signals & Cities Are Forever", has been in the works for the better part of a year, slowly being completed, reworked and nurtured.

Langlois is currently entering the MFA program at the University of Windsor, Visual Arts, studying Integrated Media, while working for the environmental art project, Green Corridor. Windsor is still industrial, automotive and a point of terribly aware contrast between its urban core and surrounding countryside. Though certainly not a concept album, "Signals & Cities Are Forever" will frame its sound around this contrast, matching the hardscaped reality of the city with the delicate nature around it. There is much to come.

View The London Apartments Press.

In the meantime, I've finally posted some more photos, regular text and something under the story section.

Summer is far from over, and it is still my plan to have an album released before the fall. Sorry for my absence, but I am still here.

I've taken lots of pictures, I think I'm documenting the flowers of the summer. I'm entirely in love with the natural beauty that somehow surrounds me. Alongside everything else, I've written pieces of songs. I've since decided that I need to finish songs, one at a time, and complete something soon. As always, it was a crucially important few hours spent talking to JC about music and process during the time we spent waiting at the airport. So, the conclusion is that if I just actually finish a song, then I can start on the next. I've completed so few since sometime in March, and I'm beginning to realize the summer is quickly moving, and I've nothing to share.

So, here's my declaration of hope that I will begin to finish some music, some songs, something. Also, discovering music that should help the process - Cornelius, the Field and Tracer AMC.

I wonder if I try to avoid thinking and wondering. I go through long spans of time falling asleep to the familiar sounds of movies and television shows, and then when I'm feeling especially anxious, I seem to force myself to face the dark and the sounds from the night. Throughout the minutes preceding my slumber, I worry and worry about worrying and waking myself up, and there's a few moments where I sink just below being entirely awake, but still able to float and think and it's only when I realize I'm in that state that I get myself out of it all over again. Those very few and precious minutes where I'm not thinking through the day's events or wondering about tomorrow's things to do are important and it's something like that romantic feeling of remembering a time when things felt more creative, when your haircut was better, when you still had that sweater that fit really well. I wish that came about more often. I spend so much time thinking about the things I should do and then wonder if it's my lack of concentration, or just the fact that I move things around so much that I think not being able to get back into a state of concentration is keeping me from doing anything, that I'm hoping some songs can find their way out of me.

the long goodnight indeed.

So, what does it mean? Slow, slow, slow progression on the album, but as songs gradually surface, they feel so very right again. Love is all.

I've been taking photographs, which has been great to find the time and resources to do so again. Music is such a strange mistress though, I long for the time and energy to write songs, and then I find myself becoming anxious about the idea of actually moving forward. It's slow, but it's coming. And it always makes me look back two months or more and wonder how I ever completed anything then.

The spring weather has been amazing. There are geese nesting nearby and another bird nesting right outside my back door. The water is so clear in a nearby pond, I think I might go swimming in it this summer.

Sometimes things feel so far away.

On the drive home, I listened to the songs I've been working on, really loudly and they sat well in the cold air and in my tired body. Nights like these, I'm not sure what should come next.

I found some old songs, I listened to them when I wasn't in a listening mood, so it made me feel a little strange afterwards. I assume nearly anyone who makes music feels much the same at times, but I have to wonder how everything that has happened to me because of my music, did happen. But then I think of the things that were happening to me when I made those songs and it all makes sense. I suppose I'm waiting for this week to figure itself out before I plug my microphone in again, but maybe I'm just making excuses. I think it's a fine line between finding time to make music and forcing yourself to make time - maybe it depends on the time of night or the amount of sunshine.

Now though, I'm listening to Buddy Guy and I'm ready for slumber. Good night.

I spent some time capturing some footage, I'd like to turn it into something. A song has sat on my computer for a week, sort of near completion, destined to play into the depths of night, unfinished.

I switched hard drives, more room = more music.
More tomorrow.

P.S. I'm glad I'm on the side of love...

There's so many video tapes to go through, I think I would like to create a huge collected archive of all the shows, the tour and the nonsense I have sitting in a box on my shelf. I'm also trying to figure out how best to make this new album something that is worth taking home and spending time with, while also trying to be as environmentally/carbon neutral as I can... Is the answer printing a small book(let) to go alongside a CD on recycled paper with vegetable inks? Is it making some type of DVD to accompany it? I know it does involve digital distribution, but there's something about holding it in your hands. Then again, the last physical CD I bought was Destroyer's Rubies, and I didn't like it.

Whenever I get around this finishing this song, it will mark 3 songs mostly done, though many revisions yet to be made. The album inches closer to completion.

Logistics & Navigation E.P. (Beggars Banquet)

Directed by Danielle Sabelli & Justin Langlois

Watch the video here

SUMMER TAKES ALL MY TIME

Logistics & Navigation E.P. (Beggars Banquet)

Directed by Danielle Sabelli & Justin Langlois

Watch the video here

STREETLIGHTS ARE SOLDIERS

Logistics & Navigation E.P. (Beggars Banquet), originally released on Romanticism Aside (Sound of Pop)

Directed by Danielle Sabelli & Justin Langlois

Watch the video here

CIRCUIT

Logistics & Navigation E.P. (Beggars Banquet), originally released on Romanticism Aside (Sound of Pop)

Directed by Danielle Sabelli

Watch the video here

PUT A JACKET ON

Romanticism Aside (Sound of Pop)

Directed by Sean Wainsteim

Watch the video here

I'm so excited to keep working and pushing forward. School is so close to being done and my ears are ready to be filled again with new sounds.

I also spent some time today busting it down on turn tables; I'm a terrible turntablist.

I'm near completion of my undergraduate degree in Communications at the University of Windsor. The next two years will involve some grad school, still in Windsor, but just waiting the final word before making it "official."

I've gradually been able to begin to steal some time on the weekends to begin tracking what will become my second album, "Dead or Dying." It's been a long process, since the tracks for "Logistics & Navigation" were done almost eight months before the release, I've been compiling a few folders worth of song ideas and loops, finally now taking moments to sift through it all.

The album will be released on Sound of Pop Records in Canada using the most environmentally-friendly packaging and distribution methods we can come up with and that's about all I know right now.

In the meantime, I'll be going through old archives of songs and videos and posting them. It'd be lovely to hear from you.

Take care of yourselves.