It feels as if it's been quite some time since we released a new music project. After reissuing two timelss albums from Kalapana's early days, followed by a collaboration with the legendary Brother Noland, we're decidedly taking a break from the spotlight-filled stage of classic local music to focus on our roots: bringing attention to lesser known, often under-represented artists in these islands.
Max High is a multi-instrumentalist of Japanese-Filipino-French descent, currently living and working on Oahu. He moved to the islands in 2021, and has since called Honolulu his home. Each year since the pandemic, Max has used his ongoing Recordings series as a process of archiving sessions and improvisations into mixtapes as a way to keep track of his creative time.
Some of you may recognize Max High from our shop and DJ gigs — including the recent Japan tour we did in six cities, from Tokyo to Hiroshima. He joined the AGS team in 2022 and quickly became an integral part of everything we do.
At the end of 2022, Max independently released a collection of mostly improvised recordings on his Bandcamp page. We gave it a listen, and then another, and then... we posed the idea of pressing his new album to vinyl. The rest is history :)
The music is varied and vast — Max, in his own words, sometimes describes it as "weird". These 16 left-field solo jam sessions find the artist exploring his favorite modes: ambient, experimental, electronic. While the original digital release of Recordings 3, found on Max's own Bandcamp page, featured 19 tracks in total, Max and Roger Bong worked together to pare down the selection to fit onto a single LP. Roger also made some suggestions to the track sequencing to create an album-like experience. The LP, like most every Aloha Got Soul release, is meant to be listened to in full, from start to finish.
Mastered for vinyl by Jessica Thompson, Recordings 3 is available on black vinyl in a limited run of 300 copies. Releasing November 24, 2023. No repress.
If you're in Honolulu, please join us for an in-store album release party with live music by Max High, on Sunday, November 26th.
