NIGHT KEEPER

An Album by Aaron Landsman, Norman Westberg, and Jehan Young

Night Keeper is a collaborative album by New York City-based theater artist Aaron Landsman and former Swans guitarist Norman Westberg. It originated from Landsman’s theater piece of the same name, first performed in the Spring of 2023 at The Chocolate Factory Theater in New York City. Westberg then took it to the studio, recording it with performer Jehan O. Young, for the Swiss label Hallow Ground. In addition to writing the text, Landsman served as the record’s producer. The result merges Westberg’s textural sounds, based on loops and samples, with Young’s soothing, sonorous vocal performance. 

Night Keeper is an act of urban communion borne by insomnia. Westberg and Young let sound and meaning layer elegantly in this 44-minute experimental album. Westberg complements Landsman’s text with ominous drones, soaring melodies, and rhythmic bass sounds. Written at a time of flux, living in multiple dwellings in multiple city neighborhoods, Landsman dedicates this album to wandering, mentally and physically. Drawing on the writer’s obsession with informal cartography, the end of side one invites listeners to map their first sleepless nights, as audience members were asked to do at the original performances.

The release of Night Keeper will be celebrated with two listening parties.

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Night Keeper