Releases Sept 5, 2025

order: Digital (Bandcamp)

The third live report from Setting, ‘at Public Records,’ finds the trio outside their home state of North Carolina and inside the hearts and minds of the New Yorkers who choose to keep their ears to the dirt. After navigating bridge-and-tunnel Friday exodus traffic to record a WFMU session for Jesse Jarnow’s Frow Show, Nathan, Jaime, and Joe eased themselves and their gear back into Brooklyn-bound traffic and through the load-in doors of Public Records in Gowanus for a gig with their Philly buddies BASIC. With one sesh already under their belts since the sun came up, Setting here sounds both limber and ponderous; the hi-fi sonics and architectural reinforcement of the PR main room allows the trio space to shine a light into some of the more shadowy corners of their sound. Jaime’s deep, inky well of synth and harmonium are of particular interest in this set, providing a foundation for Nathan and Joe to stretch out into zones both rhythmic and monolithic, where deep keyboard drones and processed percussion manipulation weave in and out of their octopus one-mind/no-mind approach to sea-floor churn.

This capture of Setting gives a solid sense of where their particular creaking weathervane was pointed at this spot on their journey up and down the coast before heading west for a string of California dates (one of which is being prepared for a future release). It gives the discerning listener some valuable views into those darker corners of the room — not only as to how they developed some of these structural ideas that would start to fracture and reconfigure by the time ‘at Eulogy’ is recorded that summer, but also what elements of breadcrumb trails the band will choose to follow when they headed back into the studio in Winter of ’25. 

Released Sept 6, 2024

order: Cassette / Digital (Bandcamp)

A second live report from Western North Carolina: the smoldering, incandescent ‘at Eulogy’ finds Setting returning to Asheville after a run of performances up and down both coasts.  Returning sun-baked and wind-worn, their performance here crackles with vitality, glowing with an inner light both photosynthetic and magmatic.  Where ‘at Black Mountain College Museum’ floated and weaved aloft the mountain thermals, ‘at Eulogy’ chooses to stalk the underbrush, eyes aglow and limbs akimbo.  Captured with multi-track clarity and mixed for maximum impact, ‘at Eulogy’ presents a deep focus, saturated snapshot of Setting’s specific brand of limbic dynamism while also suggesting neural pathways forward for their next studio LP.



Bandcamp Album of the Day

Released Dec 1, 2023

order: Digital

Following a string of dates across the Midwest, from a low-slung backyard in Louisville to the Driftless hills of Wisconsin, this recording finds us responding to what seems to be an unanswered question posed by those previous performances: which criteria of group improvisation connote forward movement? Or maybe: which elements are born of this moment, and which are the fruits of previous plantings? Distinctions irrelevant in the playing become something else upon listening – a flowing out from and also back into. A coursing. Waves churned from the pebbled underneath: rising, crashing, dissipating, but all of one body. What need to ask whether waves move forward? Or if they move at all?