Songs: Ohia – Protection Spells

Description

Secretly Canadian are proud to reissue Songs: OhiasProtection Spells, a collection of some of the most precioustime capsules in the greater Molina vaults. Protection Spells
has a spotty release history, with long periods out of print andlimited formats. It returns to print now for the first time in over adecade (possibly two) and for the first time on vinyl.

Of Protection Spells, Molina had this to say: Protection Spellsis a collection of songs recorded over a period of severalSongs: Ohia tours. Presented here are nine entirely improvisedpieces. The approach to these songs involved no rehearsals, nosecond takes, no additions and no going back. What you havehere are songs that just happened in real time.

The many musicians on these recordings were friends,bandmates, and, at times, total strangers. I have long hoped tooffer the listener a chance to have some of these great
accidents on record. It is a direct look at my songwritingprocess, only a little more risky, and nobody has any idea whatdirection we are going until we all start working on it together. Ithink that the years of improvised music I played in the pasthelped to strengthen the risk-taking with these songs.

Here, the goal was to still have basic songs without falling intolong freak-out noise experiments, saving that kind of explorationfor live settings. You will notice the appearances anddisappearances of ideas that could never be recreated, not that
they are all brilliant, but they are certainly not forced. Theseemingly arbitrary moments of strange repetition of the lyrics,the clear lack of a preconceived system of established songparts, all are the marks of improvised songwriting.

Since even the singing had no idea what the floorplan of thesong was to be, there were some unanticipated troubles andsome shy steps taken, but I have preserved these mappings ofthe dangerous musical byroads that Songs: Ohia has alwaysdepended on. I hope you enjoy this. – Jason Molina, July 10,2000

Available to independent retailers on black vinyl.

Tracklist

Trouble Will Find You
The Moon Undoes It All
Darkness That Strong
Keep Only One Of Us Free
The World At The End OfThe World
Fire On The Shore
Mighty Like Love, MightyLike Sorrow
The One Red Star
Whenever I Have Done AThing In Flames