Album Notes

Description:

It is an all too rare and precious kind of sound that reminds the listener how it was to be a child. It's even more rare when that sound can, in the same stroke, feel both immediate and new, suited in resonances that go beyond simple reminiscence and into revelation. And yet, with 'The Garden of Scissors,' the second full-length album from American composer Jeffrey Butzer from Lona Records, there is no single phrase among its 26 songs that does not radiate some wonderfully strange light. Taking off from where his acclaimed first record 'She Traded Her Leg' began, Jeffrey continues in his knack for the infectious melodic heart that makes up the backbone of his compositions, elucidating each therein with his impressive array of instrumentation including piano, accordion, organ, melodica, guitar, and more. Also notable is the addition of the beautiful vocals of Sanni Baumgartner of Dancer vs Politican on several tracks, whose incantatory German intoning gifts the record with a sultry mystique that in collaboration with Butzer's masterful layering become reminiscent of both Serge Gainsbourg and Ennio Morricone. Composed as a soundtrack for an also Butzer-penned screenplay of the same name, 'The Garden of Scissors' throughout maintains, by turns, tones of Jeunet, Cocteau, and Tati. At times delicate and enchanting as on 'Broken Clock Waltz,' other times more evocative of the haunted or surreal, as with the album's brilliant noir-Western-tinged second act in four pieces, titled 'Suit of Flies,' the whole of the album remains end-to-end enchanted, stuffed for every inch with light "light that might open doors inside your body" light that will surely, in time, make you young.

Credits:

Jeffrey Bützer: piano, accordions, toy pianos, toy accordion, chord organ, organ, melodica, glockenspiel, electric piano, acoustic and electric guitars, drums and percussion

Sanni Baumgartner: vocals

P.w. Shelton: banjo, bass

Music written and produced by Jeffrey Bützer
Lyrics by Sanni Baumgartner
Additional recording and vocals recorded at Subhollow Studio by Justin Curfman
Engineered by Claire Lodge
Mastered by Nerve
Photos and layout by Luciano Gerianno

TRACKLISTING:
ACT 1
01. The Garden of Scissors
02. A Popular French Hairstyle (vocal)
03. Theme For a Tailor
04. These Branches Are Not For Thee
05. Blue Ink Tears (vocal)
06. House Made of Cake
07. Theme For a Seamstress
08. Broken Clock Waltz
09. Invitation
10. Lucy 5's Egg
11. Disappearing Language (vocal)
12. Toy Parade
13. Woolgatherer
14. Bicycle Eater
15. Valse 2 (vocal)
16. The Whale in the Hotel Room

ACT 2
17-20. Suit of Flies: 1-4

ACT 3
21. A Popular French Hairstyle (instrumental)
22. Blue Ink Tears (instrumental)
23. Disappearing Language (instrumental)
24. Valse 2 (instrumental)
25. House Made of Cake (solo organ)
26. The Garden of Scissors (solo piano)

The Garden of Scissors is based on a screenplay written by Jeffrey
If you wish to read it or have any comments or inquiries
Please write to:
jeffreybutzer@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/butzermusic