Burlington, VT – Longtime collaborators Daniel Bishop and Kevin Bloom have reteamed for a new four-track album, THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER, which they recorded in a single session
at the Leilani Sound studio in Burlington. The project is a meditation on the COVID-19 pandemic, one that turns the constraints of recording during lockdown into an ambient sound experiment. Without the backing of a room full of musicians, Bishop & Bloom deploy asynchronous loops and live radio clips to build a full, complex atmosphere on the fly. The resulting tracks offer not only a snapshot of the moment as experienced by the artists but also a reprieve for the listener as well – a feeling of being surrounded even in the midst of isolation.

THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER was recorded on August 25, 2020, with only minor overdubs and remixing later in the year. To arrange their set-up, Kevin drew inspiration from “Tomorrow Never Knows,” the famously psychedelic track of off The Beatles’ REVOLVER. “We borrowed enough looper pedals from friends to make 9 asynchronous and continuous loops,” recalls Bloom. “The first half of the session was us just trying to set up all the looper pedals while I made enough cables to get everything hooked into our console – a Yamaha PM1000 from 1973 that originally belonged to Vermont Public Radio!” Each track was recorded first on a looper pedal, and then the loops were mixed live through the recording console, along with 2 tape delays and a radio.
Instrumentally, the pair went in some unexpected directions as well. Acoustic and clean electric guitar is joined by synth pads and bowed upright base for a gentler sound than you’d find in a lot of ambient music on the market. “It was nice to step out of my comfort zone and play a bunch of guitar for a change,” Bishop says. “I have been writing and producing a lot more this year and I really enjoyed working with Kevin to craft something neither of us had done before, without electric bass or drums. Even space itself became an instrument as the pair sought out unusual places and ways to capture their sound, visiting empty parking garages and aiming mics into Styrofoam model toilets to catch the right reverb.

Dan and Kevin first met in 2014 and have made music together ever since, including collaboration in Kevin’s genre-bending outfit The Dead Shakers. This is their first release as a duo, and it’s dedicated to an attempted serenity amidst chaos. “Hopefully listeners will find time to light some candles, stretch a little, and allow themselves a few moments to process all the things that have made this year so difficult,” Bishop says.

About the artists:

Daniel Bishop has been performing music professionally since he was 16 years old. He’s a
bassist, educator, producer and songwriter who can be heard locally performing with Matthew
Mercury, Sabouyouma, Troy Millette, and others.

Kevin Bloom is a composer, musician and sound engineer who has earned praise for his band
The Dead Shakers. Seven Days called their first album, ALL CIRCLES VANISH, a “hallucinatory
odyssey” and noted, “Bloom comes into his own as a bandleader, visionary composer and
student of the golden age of analog recording.”