The Books | |
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| Origin | New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2000–2012 |
| Labels | Tomlab,Temporary Residence Limited |
| Members |
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The Books were an American-Dutch duo, formed inNew York City in 1999, consisting of guitarist and vocalistNick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong. Their music typically incorporatedsamples of obscure sounds and speech.[1][2] They released three critically acclaimed albums on the German label Tomlab, and released their fourth studio album,The Way Out, onTemporary Residence Limited in July 2010.
Zammuto and de Jong first met inNew York City in 1999 as they shared the same apartment building.[3] De Jong invited Zammuto to dinner at his apartment, where he played him some of his collection of audio and video samples, including aShooby Taylor record.[4] Zammuto said of their meeting that "we both kind of knew at that moment that we listened (to music) in interesting ways and had similar approaches to music".[5] Soon after, they began playing what they consideredpop music, in comparison to their own works, under the name the Books.[5]
In 2000, the Books started work on their debut album,Thought for Food.[6] Zammuto and de Jong moved often during this time,[6] recording in New York,Los Angeles,Boston, and finally in the basement of a hostel inNorth Carolina where Zammuto worked for a while after hiking theAppalachian Trail.[5][7]Thought for Food was released on October 22, 2002.[8] Praised by critics for its distinctive sound,[9] it featured extensive sampling from obscure sources coupled with mostly acoustic instrumentation.
Shortly after the release ofThought for Food, the band relocated toNorth Adams, Massachusetts, near where Zammuto had graduated fromWilliams College in 1999, studyingchemistry andvisual arts.[10] Zammuto and de Jong began the recording ofThe Lemon of Pink around this time. Anne Doerner, a guest vocalist on the album, said the process was much more arduous than the recording ofThought for Food, with Zammuto working on the album for five straight months.[5]
The Lemon of Pink was released to critical acclaim[11] on October 7, 2003.[12] It is similar in style toThought for Food, but oriented more around vocals performed mostly by Anne Doerner.
In 2004, the FrenchMinistry of Culture asked the Books to compose music for a new elevator in their building. The Books released aMini CD of this work in 2006, under the nameMusic for a French Elevator and Other Short Format Oddities by the Books.[13]
On April 5, 2005, the Books released their third studio album,Lost and Safe. Zammuto has a greater vocal presence in this album, and the album was criticized for this change of sound.[14] Aside from this,Lost and Safe was well received by critics.[15] Throughout early 2005, the Books collaborated with the electronica artistPrefuse 73. The Books appear on his albumSurrounded by Silence ("Pagina Dos"), and theEPPrefuse 73 Reads the Books E.P. collects remixes of material sourced from the Books' albums. The film "The Bridge" (a scientology drama) was released in 2006 and included "Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again" with permission of the band.
Before starting a three-month[16] tour of North America in April 2006, the Books had played only one concert,[7] in October 2003 at a festival inChicago, Illinois.[17] Zammuto wasn't always enthusiastic about performing The Books music live, stating in a 2012 interview with Seattle alternative stationKEXP-FM that "...The Books started to feel like a glorified karaoke, because we would play in sync along with these electronic rhythms."[18] Zammuto expressed apprehensiveness towards touring, but says it is necessary to make a living, given his belief that people downloading the Books' music viafile-sharing[19] has put him under financial strain.
Following the release ofMusic for a French Elevator, the band took a break from recording to tend to their new families, tour in support of their albums, and pursue some of their own projects, which included Zammuto scoring a feature documentary about theBiosphere 2.[10]
In 2007, the Books releasedPlay All, a DVD of thirteen music videos and three previously unreleased tracks.[20] ThePlay All videos are composed of found footage transformed into a collage that matches their music. The Books often screened these videos during their live performances.[21]
The Books toured heavily between 2005 and 2007, including two tours in Europe and two Canadian shows.[6] In early 2009 the Books covered theNick Drake song "Cello Song" in collaboration withJosé González for theRed Hot Organization'sDark Was the Night fund-raising album.[22]
The Books began working onThe Way Out in late 2008.[23] Zammuto spoke of the album'sNew Age themes in an interview in April 2009, saying they took samples fromself-help andhypnotherapy cassettes. When asked to describe the album, Zammuto said "You're getting verrry sleepy."[3] On April 5, 2010, the duo announced thatThe Way Out would be released throughTemporary Residence Limited in July.[23] On April 27Pitchfork began streaming the track "Beautiful People",[24] which Zammuto described as "a three part Christian harmony mixed with a sort ofeuro-disco-trash beat, an orchestra's worth of sampled brass and lyrics about thetwelfth root of two (my favorite irrational number),trigonometry andtangrams".[25] The album was released on July 20.
The Books played theATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York, in September 2010 and then toured North America withThe Black Heart Procession. The band had been chosen byPortishead and ATP to perform at the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror festival that they planned to curate in July 2011 at London's Alexandra Palace.[26]
In January 2012, Nick Zammuto announced in an interview viaPitchfork that the Books were splitting up to focus on other projects.[27]
On April 3, 2012, Nick Zammuto releasedZammuto, under the monikerZammuto. In 2014 he released another album, calledAnchor.
Paul de Jong released two solo albums,IF andYou Fucken Sucker, in 2015 and 2018 respectively.[28][29]
The Books are commonly cited by critics to be of a genre of their own.[30] Zammuto has described it ascollage music.[19] Paul de Jong described it as "the new folk music...[w]e make our own instruments, use our own libraries of sound bites while trying to create something universally human."[31] Although they have said that their influences includeNirvana,David Bowie,Roxy Music as well asnew wave and classical music, these do not show prominently in their music,[32] though Zammuto was directly influenced byelectronic musiciansBoards of Canada andAphex Twin.[33][34] The Books' music usually consists of acoustic instrumentation offolk melodies usually played onguitar,cello,banjo and more, combined with a diverse range of samples obtained from cassettes found inthrift stores,[19] which are digitally processed and edited.[5] They also rarely use adrum kit in recordings and performances, instead favouring everyday objects like children's toys and filing cabinets, which were sampled and looped.[32] Some observers contend that their music isaleatoric,[35] but Zammuto has disagreed, saying the music is very tightly controlled.[19]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)The Lemon of Pink may sound a bit like this duo's debut, but it also sounds like nobody else. The Books remain more or less a genre of one.
They (The Books) make aleatoric music, but that's the easiest thing to say about them.
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