Cody Drasser
Zachary Corsa and wife Denny, along with a plethora of friends have created another high-quality and excellent album of beautiful and melancholy sounds. While the guitar is most often the main prominent instrument, there is much more at work here than just a guitar run through an effects rack: voice, field recordings, static, noise and other unnameable sounds filter in and out of the album. A highly pleasing and engaging listen without a doubt.
Ohsaurus (Webelotrax)
During my listens - I found it easy to imagine myself wandering a mysterious countryside – with each track being a spontaneous road to turn down – a new adventure to experience...
Favorite track: Ceiling To Ceiling Transmission Antenna.
Limited Cassette Edition - Brown and gold cassettes in numbered hand-screened boxes with liner note sheet and download card
Includes unlimited streaming of Dead Roses, Digged Up Zombies, Broken Pieces Of Diamonds, Live Cats
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 6 days
edition of 300
Purchasable with gift card
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Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Nonconnah rose from the ashes. It may seem a tired image, but it couldn’t be more fitting for the husband-and-wife duo that is the experimental drone / noise project.
Once, they were Lost Trail. Primary soundsmith Zachary Corsa had to leave it behind. He watched himself become consumed by the project, sacrificing his relationships and health as he fell deeper into a seemingly defeating quest for his passion.
Thankfully, his wife Denny remained a constant, caring companion, and when they emerged from the other side, it was clear, if they were going to be able to keep making music, it’d have to be different.
Nonconnah was born.
Their first truly realized project under the new moniker, ‘Dead roses, digged up zombies, broken pieces of diamonds, live cats’, may seem a bit much at uninformed glance, but couldn’t have come from a truer place: it was taken from a friend’s young child describing what was in her heart, verbatim. The mixture of surprising, even jarring darkness and childlike adventurousness suited the music all too perfectly.
To develop a sprawling vision, Corsa called in just about every musically inclined friend in his contact list, leading to a truly exciting, collaborative process, in which every idea and voice blend into a gingerly arranged, unified whole.
Scott Cortez of Astrobite and Lovesliescrushing was a natural choice, as Corsa had already collaborated with him on a past project. They’d opened for Alyse Lamb (Parlor Walls), another easy call. Perhaps the easiest, and most meaningful, request was put in with old friend CJ Boyd; the Corsas had played their very first show opening for him, years ago.
From there, the guest list grew more diverse and surprising, an almost absurdly impressive bevy of underrated musicians.
To give even the slightest idea, one must name more than a few: Kenneth William from White Lung, Lori Goldston, who’s played cello for none other than Nirvana, Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, Jim Schoenecker of Volcano Choir and Collections of Colonies of Bees, AJ Annunziata of Sannhet, Dan Friel of Upper Wilds (not to mention his own ambitious work), Dustin Wong formerly of Ponytail - need we really go on?
From there, collaborators continue to range from names you’d recognize (or, at least, names you might not from projects you most certainly will) and local friends from Memphis, the band’s adopted home.
Needless to say, a lot of love, from a lot of people, was poured into ‘Dead roses, digged up zombies, broken pieces of diamonds, live cats’, but ultimately, Zachary and Denny Corsa’s vision was its guiding light, informed and greatly affected by its guests, but fastened down and crafted into something cohesive under their watchful eyes.
Many, many people worked together for a long time to bring you something special, and Ernest Jenning Record Co. is proud to be releasing ‘Dead roses, digged up zombies, broken pieces of diamonds, live cats’ far and wide.
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"Nononnnah have delivered a collection of music that is the very definition of beguiling. From the outset this stuff is immediate, engaging, mesmeric....if you have a mate that says shit like ‘Yeah, but what’s the point in drone rock?’ you can respond, ‘Dead Roses, Digged up Zombies, Broken Pieces of Diamonds, Live Cats’ - Popbollocks
"Abstracting the states of awareness induced by our machines, mentalities and media is what the best visual art regularly does in the contemplative surroundings of a gallery, and this album, with many layers of rich, visceral sonic textures packed into each track, does much the same. Give it a listen and imagine where a slow, increasingly unearthly elevator ride into space might take you." - The Memphis Flyer
"As gloriously spectral as ever...haunted Americana at its finest" - The Wire
"..hushed moments of uncomplicated beauty...rich and complex, capable of coaxing surprisingly deep emotions to the surface." - The 405
"The droning soundscapes...are as disorienting as they are absorbing." - The Austin Chronicle
"A noisy but tender selection of shoegaze-influenced drone music...it's like awakening thousands of years from now on a distant planet and the first thing your android eyes see is a gorgeous alien sunrise." - Issues
"Nonconnah really deliver with this full length – providing a listen that is truly rewarding and only improves on repeat" - Eternity Tree
'I’ve gorged on this album over the past few days, it’s wonderful. Apart from a few other bits and pieces I’ve not really listened to much else in that time. It’s an hour of superbly crafted noise and drones' - I Heart Noise
"It is quite impressive how this - in the most positive sense of the word - fragmentary and fragmented music and this high number of tracks does not create a fragmentary work, but a coherent album that reveals more details with each new listen." - African Paper
"Never less than a sonic feast covered in the best condiments, sometimes all at once" - Tiny Mix Tapes
"Tempts the listener to be impaled on the sonic rocks hidden in the aural spectre. The music is deep and complex adding to its devilishly dark sonic imagery. This is very cool stuff as we have come to expect from this accomplished group." - Floorshime Zipper Boots
"Sorta ecstatic, which lends a trippy yet happy feel' - Deep In The Music
"A long journey through the sound of light and the things found along the starlit path, the album also presents something alien to most people, making it particularly unique. The odd sounds, guest stars, and care given across the album are what sets this above..." - Skull Valley
credits
released March 15, 2019
"When You Begin To Blur"
Magpie (Zachary Corsa) - Guitars, Field Recordings
Denny Wilkerson Corsa - Accordion
Robert Poss - Synth Machines
“Half-Built Future Homes”
Magpie - Guitars, Field Recordings
Denny Wilkerson Corsa - Toy Robot
Paul Baker - Guitars, Piano, Synth, Tambourine
Jennifer Levenbook - Field Recordings
“All Those Days, As If Spent In A Fugue State”
Magpie - Piano, Guitars, Field Recordings, Tapes
Denny Wilkerson Corsa - Field Recordings
Lori Goldston - Cello
“A Shimmering Veil Pulled Taut Against The Sky”
Magpie - Guitars, Banjo, Field Recordings
Denny Wilkerson Corsa - Flute
Neil Jendon - Guitars
Malcolm Wright - Guitars
“Hill Country Harbinger”
Magpie - Guitars, Field Recordings, Mandolin
Denny Wilkerson Corsa - Percussion, Field Recordings
Dustin Wong - Guitars
“We Love Our Rotting Industrial Dystopia”
Magpie - Guitars, Marxophone
Denny Wilkerson Corsa - Guitar Noise, Field Recordings
Matt Finney - Spoken Word
AJ Annunziata - Synths, Field Recordings
“This Faded Glow Of Ours”
Magpie - Guitars, Tapes, Feedback, Field Recordings
Denny Wilkerson Corsa - Guitar Noise
Charles Wright - Violin
Jim Schoenecker - ARP Noise
Memphis dronegaze collective. Magpie Corsa (mostly guitars) + Denny Wilkerson Corsa (mostly field recordings) + various accomplices abroad. Mid-fi at best + DIY as fuck forever. Don't ask us to turn down.
B.E. Conley, armed with trusty Tele and lap steel, carves weary fever dreams and dust-demon mirages from raw materials and surplus entropy. The world is and isn't beautiful. This is our small victory. Nonconnah
Half-fucked drone incantations and bleeding-limb fuzz rot. Scarred pagan struggle against or alongside darkness. This is the future we'll inherit. It's a cathartic one. The resurrection falls upon us. Nonconnah
Casting out spirits in the name of science. Learning lab dust on cassette, Erlenmeyer flasks and mysterious sunshine. Something watches from beyond the frame. The world stills. Lovely dread seeps in. Nonconnah