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Unseen Universe

by Tim Motzer

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    For a recent solo concert, Tim Motzer handpainted & signed gatefold covers for a limited UU physical artifact release. There are 20 unique and beautiful covers with CD available, while they last. They also come with a vinyl art sticker/download, that features the original Samantha Keely Smith cover and a digital download/stream of UU. It's an opportunity to not only have Tim's music but his artwork too. All works are signed by the artist and each is a unique work.

    acrylic on white cover gatefold (front and back), 5in x 10in.

    photos show the original cover and 4 handpainted cover examples. questions?
    please email us at info@1krecordings.com
    (free shipping/handling except europe.)

    for more info about Tim Motzer's paintings:
    1krecordings.com/tim-motzer-abstract-paintings/

    Includes unlimited streaming of Unseen Universe via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 20  3 remaining

      $50 USD or more 

     

  • Limited Hand-painted Edition, signed by Tim Motzer
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD with a vinyl art sticker/download, that features the original Samantha Keely Smith cover and a digital download/stream of UU. It's an opportunity to not only have Tim's music but his artwork too. All works are signed by the artist and each is a unique work.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Unseen Universe via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Handpainted, signed by Tim Motzer
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Here‘s another handpainted cover limited edition. This one is for my album Unseen Universe, (5 in x 10 in, acrylic on white gatefold cardboard, signed & numbered. It also comes with a 4in x 4in vinyl art sticker with album credits and download, that features the original Samantha Keely Smith cover all in plastic slipcase with round sticker). I have a number of unique handpainted CD editions of my solo guitar & electronic soundscape releases.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Unseen Universe via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
Ring 07:17
2.
3.
4.
Cycle 09:10

about

Tim Motzer - guitar, and electronics

Recorded live on WLFR-fm, Stockton University,
Pomona NJ April 5, 2016

Doug Hirlinger - drums on track (2) Unseen Universe
recorded at 1k Recordings, Philadelphia December 2, 2016


Recorded, mixed, and produced by Tim Motzer
Mix assistance by Eric Bogacz
Mastered by Markus Reuter (Berlin)
Cover painting detail by Samantha Keely Smith (Brooklyn)
Title by Doug Hirlinger
Photography by Avraham Bank (TM photo)


catalogue: 1k031
© ℗ 2017 1k Recordings Inc.
Published by one k music co. 2017 (BMI)
Music by Tim Motzer
all rights reserved

credits

released April 12, 2017

Titles:
1 Ring
2 Unseen Universe
3 Magnetic Fields
4 Cycle

An edited version of 'Ring' was part of the WireTapper 45 CD, along with Tim Motzer profile, and Unseen Universe review in issue 405 of The Wire Magazine (UK), November 2017.

April 2017 Top 25 Airplay on Stars End Radio, Chuck Van Zyl, WXPN, Philadelphia

Tim Motzer - Unseen Universe
The foundation of this record is a live solo performance by guitarist Tim Motzer broadcast and recorded live on WLFR-fm in early April of 2016. Motzer's visionary guitar playing and sonic experimentation are in full force here. His unique approach on the acoustic-electric guitar transcends the instrument's traditional palette by utilizing clips, bows, hand percussion on the guitar body, electronic processing and live looping rendering the guitar almost unrecognizable. Ring, Magnetic Fields, and Cycle are all solo guitar pieces whereas on the epic 26 minute 4 part suite, Unseen Universe, Motzer invited longtime collaborator Doug Hirlinger into the recording studio to contribute his artful drumming to this stunning ambient trance landscape. Hirlinger has collaborated on previous 1k releases: Descending with Markus Reuter; Base3, Dark Matter & Live From Earth; and his own solo release Man From Nowhere. Unseen Universe continues to demonstrate Motzer's quest to push boundaries and unfold new sonic territory considering his already impressive catalogue of work on 1k. Recommended.
Ambient/electronic/trance Ian Weatherall

"Guitarist Tim Motzer has collaborated with the likes of David Sylvian, Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Jaki Leibezeit, and for the past 15 years has operated his own 1K Recordings imprint, publishing his own work and that of his close associates. The 1K catalogue demonstrates the breadth of Motzer’s interests, from abstract ambient to groove-oriented, jazz-tinged experiments.

Recorded last April at New Jersey based Stockton University’s WLFR, Unseen Universe cruises in the more serene and atmospheric lane of his work. “Ring” offers a swelling ambient bed punctuated by treated
guitar lines that come off almost as tuned drums. Rhythmic string tapping gets looped, some eerie sustained lines run over it. The looping starts to run backwards, each sound swells and the whole chorus recedes.

At 26 minutes “Unseen Universe” is the album’s natural centrepiece. Doug Hirlinger, who collaborates with Motzer in the Base3 project, lends percussion to the track, strengthening the piece’s rhythmic trance. Motzer’s guitar lines and treatments splinter out, with throbs and arcing lines overlapping. The guitar takes on a flute-like texture in the second movement, providing bedding for a few heroic leads, augmented by brush and mallet work from Hirlinger. Things click over into typewriter-like pulses that shift to pianos as shakers shake and frenzied flanges dance. The emergent bassline plays a bit predictably, an unfortunately terrestrial romanticism for a track that’s aspired to such cosmic heights. By the end it’s soaring like a science fiction soundtrack, but it’s not clear the requisite world has been built to justify the bombast.

“Magnetic Fields” moves from pained whining through pitch-shifted shards through phasers through insectoid flutters, while “Cycle” hinges on a sentimental guitar loop accentuated by drawn out electronic arcs, closing out a record that may not be exceptionally inventive, but which is pleasurable enough nonetheless." Matt Krefting, WIRE magazine, London

"My friend and brilliant musician Tim Motzer has a new ambient album out. The cover image is an early work-in-progress detail from what ended up being my 2016 painting Beget. Turns out that the music and the painting go together really well!" Samantha Keely Smith

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about

1k Recordings Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1K RECORDINGS
is an eclectic Philadelphia-based boutique label run by guitarist, composer, and producer Tim Motzer. The catalogue features genre-defying solo releases and adventurous collaborations, spanning ambient soundscapes to progressive to electronic to art pop and beyond.

"A catalog of music that is as unique as it is unpredictable."
- WXPN, The Key

Celebrating 24+ years of creative music
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