“How This Ends” press release & sleeve notes

Press Release:

How This Ends is the 12th solo album by Chris Connelly, and it is certainly the most extreme. Picking up from where 2008’s Forgiveness & Exile tailed off. In some ways, this is an extension of that, where Chris uses an ensemble cast of musicians, orators and non-musicians to produce something that vacillates between an almost serenely melancholic paradise, and a terrifying hellish vortex of noise. There are no songs on How This Ends – rather one long poem that is both spoken and sung by Chris and his collaborators.



“I wanted to compose without any regard to the song-form. I enjoy writing songs, but I’ve done it, and I want to try and move forward. To me, my work now is all about the words, and coming up with the best sounds to augment these words. It doesn’t have to be a musical instrument. I have in my mind a very clear image, almost like an impressionistic film of what it should be like. The hard part is making sure that nothing is wasted, that every word can carry it’s own weight, and that the people I have asked to help are the right people”.



And the subject matter is no less grave than Forgiveness & Exile. Forgiveness (sic) was about torture and people being displaced from their homes in trying to escape fascism. How This Ends is about death, genocide, homicide by corrupt powers upon innocents. It’s about the people who didn’t make it, the ones who either tried, or were taken by surprise.



The ensemble cast is perhaps the most diverse Chris has assembled:


Izi Coonagh (Sugar Bullet)

Tania Bowers (Via Tania)
James Marlon Magas (Magas, Lake of Dracula)

Gordon Sharp (Cindytalk)

Zak Boerger (These Wonderful Evils)

Bill Rieflin (R.E.M., Ministry, Swans)
Brent Gutzeit (TV Pow)
Sanford Parker (Minsk, The High Confessions)
David Levine (Mucca Pazza)



2010 also sees the release of the first album by Chris’s new band THE HIGH CONFESSIONS with Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Sanford Parker (Minsk) and Jeremy Lemos (White/Light).

Sleeve Notes:

Izi Coonagh – voice / James Marlon Magas – ARP 2800 MK1 / Gordon Sharp – electronics / Zak Boerger – electric guitar / Tania Bowers – voice / Bill Reiflin – piano / Bren Gutzeit – electronics / Sanford Parker – bass / David Levine – saxophone / Chris Connelly – voice, harmonium, acoustic guitar, tapes, percussion, tools, piano

produced by Chris Connelly / engineered & mixed by Sanford Parker at Semaphore Studios, Chicago / Bill Rieflin recorded at Casa Nova, Seattle / Izi Coonagh in Leith, Edinburgh / Gordon Sharp at Roi Vert, Okamoto, Japan / Tania & Zak at West Armitage, Chicago / James at home in Rogers Park, Chicago / Brent at home in Wicker Park, Chicago / Crucial pre production & recording with very special thanks to Zak Boerger

written & conceived by Chris Connelly (with Gordon Sharp, James Marlon Magas, Brent Gutzeit, Zak Boerger & David Levine Part One) / art design and layout by Igloo Vacuum / concept by Chris Connelly / cover photo of Crammond Island by Andy Lobban with thanks / photo of Chris by Mican Morgan / mastered by Steven Seibold / dedicated to David Tibet & Gordon Sharp, true friends, true inspiration.