Spool is the collaboration between jhno (John Eichenseer) and John Ridenour, who met in Austin, TX in the early nineties. They played music together there in several bands, including the ground-breaking John Ridenour Cluster. jhno moved to San Francisco, where he helped sculpt the legendary ambient scene of the late nineties and early two thousands. John Ridenour moved to Chicago, where he joined the Aluminum Group, founded Card Table, and became famous. John and jhno realized that the musical vacuum of their separation was gnawing at their very souls, so they reunited in 1998 to record what would become the first, self-titled Spool record. Spool was signed by New Dog/World Domination, who released their debut CD to the extravagent praise of listeners and critics alike.
Riding the crest of this wave, they played various shows and put together a four-piece band to undertake the epochal Ambient Brunch Tour, with drummer Bryan Bowman (from the first Spool album), and Bay Area bassist John Christensen. While preparing for the tour, they recorded the basic tracks for a second Spool release. At the last moment, John Christensen left the project to embark on a life of great joy, and bassist Hillel Familant was brought in to complete the tour. This was the summer of 1999. After that, things more or less fell apart in various ways, and the second album was neglected while Spool pursued other music and other life processes.
During this interval, jhno wrote music software, played with the band Crater (with Scott Amendola and Nels Cline), and eventually moved to Europe. John Ridenour moved to Austin to complete his second solo CD (Goodbye Songs) and then to Urbana where he spawned.
Finally, jhno finished mixing Spool Saves the World between 2005/2006 in Germany. To the surprise and delight of hard-core SPOOL fans everywhere, the CD was finally released on Delicate Ear Records. The world continued to unfold.
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