(Ambient, Drone, Alternative, Experimental, Folk, Americana, Contemporary, Modern Classical, Acoustic, Electroacoustic, Guitar, Improvisation) Western Skies Motel - Discography (5 releases) - 2013-2016, MP3, 320 kbps

Western Skies Motel is an instrumental project helmed by Danish musician Rene Schelbeck, operating in the cross-field between Americana and post rock. Rene spent many years performing as part of obscure Danish punk and indie bands before he took several years out to concentrate on raising his family. Recently, he has found himself experimenting with sound again and the music has been oozing out and thus, the Western Skies Motel project was born.
Western Skies Motel offers accommodation for the night to the traveller in a world where rain heavy clouds threaten to precipitate with dew fresh drops of melancholy. A resting place in the dark from where the blinding reappearance of light can be awaited from a safe distance.
In a hazy blur, the music tries to evoke cinematic atmospheres of a dusty landscape sliced open by destination-less labyrinthine roads where the meretricious fluorescent light of twinkling neon signs is the only variation in the futility of repetition. Where the hypnotic flickering of the traffic interferes with the reflection of the blue hour and the wind is the restless messenger of solitude, reflecting the basic conditions of rootlessness in a fragmented time of constant change and perpetual search for authenticity
With organic means like harmonium and acoustic guitar, Western Skies Motel explores sentiments of twilight and drought. The music has been created from a vision of an atmospheric, interwoven, textural sound ideal and the process characterised by improvisation and immediacy in the compositions. Noisy feedback blends into softer ambient timbres, harmonies evolve unnoticeably into dissonance, and the melancholy exudes equal parts of hope and despair. Reflections, the debut EP by Western Skies Motel is surely just the beginning…
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Written and produced by René Schelbeck
Artwork by Harry Towell

"Buried and Resurfaced [...] is an album that dwells in the twilight of a brooding dusk, a bruised and sullen sky where storm clouds gather and stillness forebodes."
stationarytravels.wordpress.com
"Ringing tones glide from bow or fingertips to string to the dust-choked air through this endless expanse as they slowly disintegrate, murmuring lullabies drowning in the red sky."
foreignaccentspdx.wordpress.com
"There is an ancient and mysterious quality to the music from the start. Tape decay and flutter produces wrinkles in the perceived time continuum. The electric guitar is also well disguised with bowing, modulation, and effects, often yielding qualities akin to a long-neglected Mellotron or Chamberlin."
wajobu.com
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Electric Guitar Improvisations and worn out tape machines by Rene Gonzalez Schelbeck.
Mastered by Kael Smith (kaelsmithmusic.com) and Matt Heron.
Cover design and layout by Phil Gardelis (zenjunglemusic.com)

"… pensive, peaceful and pristine." A Closer Listen
"His new full length album ... is an absolute gem … It has been an exquisite musical journey." Stationary Travels.
Western Skies Motel is the solo project of Danish guitarist René Gonzàlez Schelbeck. Exploring the intimate nature of the classical guitar, the thirteen pieces on Prism unfold around a theme of balancing light and darkness, uncovering an undercurrent of reflections on solitude in the creative process.
Relying on a variety of open tunings, mantric repetitions and droning strings, Western Skies Motel seeks to create a timeless space where the guitar becomes the lens in which the nuances reveal themselves.
The album also sees Western Skies Motel experimenting with the 3rd bridge technique, pioneered by such experimentalists as Fred Frith and Keith Rowe, to create porous harp like timbres that weave through the album, offering a lightness and transparency to the restricted sonic palette of the collection.
Drawing on inspiration from Glassian minimalism through simplistic flamenco to the pattern-based musical tradition of West Africa, Prism lands somewhere between contemporary classical and modern folk.
Prism is the debut full-length album from Western Skies Motel and was recorded live, with most of the material written spontaneously. Western Skies Motel has previously released the EP Reflections on Audio Gourmet.
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Written and recorded by René Gonzàlez Schelbeck
Thanks to Hayden Berry, Hank Tilbury, Ryan Keane and René F. Hansen
Photo by Thomas Mathie
www.preservedsound.com
2015 © Preserved Sound PS27

"Generations, it turns out, is no insignificant addendum to Settlers but a twenty-two-minute set that holds up impressively on its own terms, even if it's material that perpetuates the style and tone of the long-player" - TEXTURA
René Gonzàlez Schelbeck is a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. There’s a timeworn, arid, and almost badlands quality to Schelbeck’s hypnotic, cyclical guitar style. It seems to perfectly capture the lonely, barren landscape of the American West.
Yet, there are curious dynamics at play here as Schelbeck, who makes music under the alias Western Skies Motel, is from Denmark and far removed from any upbringing in the rough-hewn Americana style of folk guitar. Conceivably, his music has more in common with the lonesome, calculated tone of Berlin's modern classical scene or the rainy day folk of the UK. Those are intriguing parallels, since the collective mood of Western Skies Motel's music would adapt so well to either environment.
'Generations' is a six song EP that inhabits a very similar soundworld to his upcoming full-length album, 'Settlers'. The EP arrives the same day as 'Settlers', April 22nd, 2016 on Lost Tribe Sound.
'Generations' was mastered by Kirk Marrison of Kiln (Ghostly Intl.) All of album's art was provided by label owner, Ryan Keane's own photo archives. The images depict the settlement of his family in Montana during the early 1900's.
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Written and recorded by René Gonzàlez Schelbeck
Field Recording on "Pouring Down" by Abstraction
Atmospherics on "Leaving Behind" by Kyle TM
Mastered by Kirk Marrison of Kiln
Photos courtesy of the Keane, Thompson, and the Amundsen and Amundson Family archives
Layout and design by Ryan Keane
Copyright Lost Tribe Sound, LLC
Published by Settled Scores (ASCAP)

In the dry desert of Arizona that Lost Tribe Sound calls home, a letter is received from guitarist René Gonzàlez Schelbeck who’s eager to share a collection of intimately composed songs, titled 'Settlers'. Upon listening, we are immediately enthralled. There’s a timeworn, arid, and almost badlands quality to Schelbeck’s hypnotic, cyclical guitar style. It seems to perfectly capture the lonely, barren landscape of the American West.
Yet, there are curious dynamics at play here as Schelbeck, who makes music under the alias Western Skies Motel, is from Denmark and far removed from any upbringing in the rough-hewn Americana style of folk guitar. Conceivably, his music has more in common with the lonesome, calculated tone of Berlin's modern classical scene or the rainy day folk of the UK. Those are intriguing parallels, since the collective mood of Western Skies Motel's music would adapt so well to either environment.
Words hardly do justice to the rich, immersive experience of 'Settlers'; yet a few may help to set the stage. Schelbeck is a remarkably well rounded instrumentalist, who spent his early days losing his hearing in local punk rock bands. This youthful love for walls of sound and discordant guitar squalls survives in his modern sound palette. However, a more mature approach to these techniques brings moments of palpable tension, adding in uneasy waves of guitar feedback and droning harmonium.
But ultimately, the truth of what Schelbeck hopes to convey through his music may rest firmly in his subconscious. In hindsight, 'Settlers' is about moving between worlds: not in the dimensional sense, but more as a constant change in form. Each influence and sound Schelbeck incorporates into his music feels native to the delicate ecosystem of these songs and each turn feels as organic and nuanced as that of the natural world. Just as a tree’s leaves wither and fall; a fire sparks and expands only to expend its last bit of fuel, extinguished and left for ash. So true are the parallels we find in our own existence, the complex ritual of growing old and returning to dirt. Decay is inevitable for all life, yet through this it becomes the rich soil for all things proceeding. Western Skies Motel's weighty instrumental mantras may root in this and other meanings yet to be culled. One thing is clear, this music contains significant power, and, regardless of our conceived themes or geographic locations, it tells a story that is lasting and instantly familiar.
Mastered for vinyl by Taylor Deupree (12k), and with the additional step taken to create the master lacquers with Roger Seibel at SAE Mastering, 'Settlers' sees a 180-gram heavy weight gatefold release very similar to the recent Mute Forest debut, 'Deforestation'. The acetate and test pressings were scrutinized for anomalies on world-class vinyl setups at Arizona’s esteemed audio dealer, Arizona Hi-Fi. Purchasers of the physical edition of 'Settlers' will also receive the six song bonus EP, 'Generations'. Mastered by Kirk Marrison of Kiln (Ghostly Intl.), 'Generations' expands the 'Settlers' cause.
Western Skies Motel is building upon a busy year in 2015, having released two very different full-length albums 'Prism' (Preserved Sound) and 'Buried and Resurfaced' (Twice Removed).
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Written and recorded by René Gonzàlez Schelbeck
Mastered by Taylor Deupree at 12K Mastering
Cut to vinyl by Roger Seibel at SAE in Phoenix, AZ
Photos courtesy of the Keane, Thompson, and the Amundsen and Amundson Family archives
Layout and design by Ryan Keane
Copyright Lost Tribe Sound, LLC
Published by Settled Scores (ASCAP)