Amulets "Rema(i)nders " CD

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Amulets is the solo project of Portland-based audio and visual artist Randall Taylor. Amulets employs handmade cassette tape loops and live processed guitar loops to create live, l ush soundscapes and immersive drones. Through the recontextualisation of cassettes, sampling, field recording, and looping, these long-form compositions blur the genres of ambient, drone, noise, and electronic music. Amulets has steadily built a catalog defined by tactile intimacy and patient exploration. Taylor has performed across the U.S at numerous festivals and opened for such acts as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, This Will Destroy You, Covet, Midwife, and Efrim Manuel Manuck (of Godspeed You Black Emperor) to name a few. Taylor was also published in the Kim Bjorn book series “PEDAL CRUSH” as an artist and inspirational creator. Amulets’ new album Rema(i)nders marks his debut on Pelagic Records, a fitting home for a record that thrives in the liminal space between heaviness and fragility. Deeply immersive, the album navigates the dreamy boundaries between the tangible and the ethereal, where sound behaves as memory itself: unstable, layered, and quietly transformative. Known for his ability to weave soundscapes that evoke powerful emotions with minimalistic instrumentation, Taylor’s newest project is a masterful exploration of mood, atmosphere, and texture. “Rema(i)nders started as a fragmented collection of songs, memories, ideas, and feelings that I wanted to mash and warp together beyond recognition. What I ended up creating was a beautiful mosaic of texture and light in this darkening world. To remain is to remind. To remind is to remain.“ (Randall Taylor) Throughout Rema(i)nders, sounds recur in altered forms, dissolving and reassembling. This sense of transformation, of constantly shifting even in their stillness, speaks to Taylor’s keen understanding of how sound can evoke both a sense of permanence and transience. Throughout the ambient soundscapes is introspection, melancholy, and an almost hypnotic calm. The album resists forward motion, instead inviting the listener to linger inside its evolving textures, to sit with what’s left behind rather than rush toward resolution. Central to Amulets’ identity is Taylor’s insistence on working, quite literally, outside the box. While many contemporary experimental artists rely heavily on software, Taylor’s process remains rooted in physical interaction with sound. “Each album is a little different, but as a set process most things are processed through tape loops and pedals and effects before hitting the DAW. I love making my sounds physically outside the box and bringing them in, plugins aren’t really for me.“ (Randall Taylor) This hands-on approach gives Rema(i)nders its distinct warmth and instability. Ambient guitars, reverberating echoes, the unpredictability of analog gear, and the use of vocals and saxophone; all become part of the emotional language of the record. “This album differs from previous albums because it’s a lot of found sounds, song fragments, and other samples that I have that I wanted to fuse together. I also heavily relied on a lot of ambient guitar and live guitar recording to marry all the sounds together.“ (Randall Taylor) These elements are carefully stitched together so that the album feels both expansive and intimate, creating the sense for listeners of standing inside a vast, decaying structure where every surface hums quietly with history. The partnership with Pelagic Records came together organically, rooted in mutual respect and shared aesthetic sensibilities. Long admired by Taylor for its curatorial vision and artist-first ethos, the label was already part of his extended musical community. “I have been a fan of Pelagic for a while and expressed my interest in them with my friends New Miserable Experience and Glassing who are on the label. Dave Grossman ended up talking to Robin for me, only to find he was a fan of my work as well. We hopped on a call and decided to work together!“ (Randall Taylor) Despite the album’s introspective nature, Taylor never loses sight of how the music might exist beyond the studio. Live performance remains an important and challengingly flexible consideration. “I always think about the love aspect when recording my songs, but never make it stop me from exploring new sonic territories. If I really want to play it live I’ll make it work. I actually really love reverse engineering my songs to figure out the best ways to perform them with my live tape loop and Digitakt setup.“ (Randall Taylor) This spirit of experimentation mirrors the album itself. Where soundscapes are curious, unafraid, and open to transformation. Rema(i)nders is not an album that demands attention, it earns it slowly through patience and immersion. It asks the listener to sit with ambiguity, to find beauty in erosion, and to recognize how sound, like memory, can both fade and persist at once. In a world increasingly defined by immediacy and excess, Amulets offers a quiet dynamism that is reflective and enduring. FOR FANS OF Tim Hecker * Ben Frost * Lawrence English * Alessandro Cortini * This Will Destroy You * Mono * Windy & Carl Show more