Half-Handed Cloud As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-Out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth [Asthmatic Kitty]

The rather ponderously titled As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-Out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth (or just Stowaways for short) is the fifth full-length album from John Ringhofer's Half-handed Cloud project. He recorded it on a reel-to-reel tape machine in the sanctuary of the church where he works, and then mixed it with fellow Christian indie-rocker Daniel Smith of Danielson at the Familyre Studio in New Jersey. Although Ringhofer played the majority of this record himself, he recruited Brandon Buckner to play drums and several other friends for cello, clarinet, violin, trumpet and flute tracks. One of the themes running through this release is that of the role of water in the Bible, and Ringhofer's stated influences attest to a fascination with water: Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World, the moon's relationship with tides, the seascapes of Winslow Homer, and the north-Pacific gyre.

Abstract by Matthew Blackwell