Roy Montgomery Temple IV 2LP

This is the first vinyl issue of Temple IV, arguably Roy Montgomery's finest solo album, originally released in 1996 on CD. The original album has been enhanced with two newer tracks that constitute side four of the album. Montgomery states: "The two new tracks recorded in 2018 were about asking the question 'Can you step into the same river twice?' Heraclitus said you cannot. I say you can." From the original press release: Few recording artists have aligned the quantity and quality of their releases as well as New Zealand singer/guitarist Roy Montgomery has in 1995. Beginning with Kranky's release of the soundtrack for an imaginary film That That Is... Is(Not) by Montgomery's duo Dissolve early in the year, a series of superb albums and singles have been issued by a variety of labels across the world. Each one of them is a must have. Most recently, the Drunken Fish label released a collection of pastoral drones entitled Scenes from the South Island, singles have appeared on the Roof Bolt and gyttja labels, and further singles are scheduled with Ajax, Siltbreeze, and others. Temple IV is the first solo recording by Roy Montgomery on Kranky. The album was recorded by Montgomery on a four-track tape deck and then thickened up with monophonic Moog. The tracks on the album are thick with interwoven guitar lines and Moog drone, inspired by the Guatemalan rain forests and the mysterious ruins of the temple and ruins Montgomery visited there.

Temple IV is literally a work of musical alchemy. It takes personal experience through the awesome - and awful - power of memory, and transforms it into a sonic presence that becomes an invisible aural storyteller to the listener's own psychic domain. It haunts; cajoles; taunts; seduces; and even comforts with its use of nuance, timing, and dynamic and opaque shape-shifting elegance.