Guardian Alien Guardian Alien is a free wheeling ensemble coming into its own, having found just the right balance between structured arrangements and wild abandon. Helmed by Greg Fox, who has lent his percussive force to the likes of Teeth Mountain, Dan Deacon, and Liturgy, the ensemble was initially an extension of his solo music (GDFX). It rapidly took on its own identity and expanded to a core group of Greg (drums, vocals, electronics, arrangements), Alex Drewchin (vocals, synth), Turner Williams Jr. (shahai baaja), Bernard Gann (guitar and also of Liturgy), and Eli Winograd (bass), all of whom have lent their expansive talents to numerous other projects. Guardian Alien's Thrill Jockey debut, See the World Given to a One Love Entity, is a 40 minute psychic/psychedelic meditation that is driven by an intensity that is at once expansive, focused, and heavy on multiple levels. The overall arc of the album is transportive and trance inducing. The cover artwork painted by Turner Williams is based on a specific and particularly weird experience of Greg's. It mirrors the music in its open-ended playfulness and true psychedelia. To say that the music of Guardian Alien is also meant to be an experience is an understatement. Guardian Alien was very much born of the live performance so it is fitting that their first fully conceived album was recorded at Shea Stadium, the band's spiritual home, which is run by Greg's cousin Adam. It was mastered by Heba Kadry at the Lodge (Wooden Shjips, Eternal Tapestry). See the World Given to a One Love Entity is a single composition with a strong, singular vision. It is the culmination of a band coalescing as a group while heedlessly delving into the depths of the psyche driven by their core desire to expand their horizons, both musical and otherwise. Diamond Terrifier DIAMOND TERRIFIER is Sam Hillmer of ZS. Diamond Terrifier is Sam's saxophone and electronics solo incarnation. Named after the english translation of the indo-tibetan god-name Vajrabairahva, Diamond Terrifier is concerned with the potential positive qualities of destruction as mediated by noise/drone sheets of sound music. Diamond Terrifier's debut release 'Himalayan Appalachia' appeared this past September and is soon to be followed by the follow up tape 'Shrine Flu' on Words+Dreams. This coming fall Diamond Terrifier's first full length effort will be inaugurated on Brooklyn avant killers Northern Spy label. 'KILL THE SELF THAT WANTS TO KILL YOUR SELF' is due out September 2012 and will be produced by the formidable rocker Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. In the mean season, Diamond Terrifier will be playing hella shows in and around New York, across North America, and beyond… Higgins. Described by The New Yorker magazine as one of the "prime movers of the local avant-garde", and an "exacting avant-classical guitarist" by TimeOut NY, Patrick Higgins (b.1984) is a New York based composer/performer of experimental music. He plays guitar in ZS. Higgins is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied philosophy and comparative literature. An active presence in the NYC independent music scene since 2004, Higgins composed and played guitar in the post-rock duo Animal. Recently, he has turned his attentions to the Baroque, arranging and performing the music of J.S. Bach for acoustic guitar and stereo electronics: Bachanalia. Among numerous other compositions for small ensemble and chamber orchestra, a recording of Higgins' String Quartet No.2 is currently in production with the MIVOS Quartet. A record of video-game inspired electronic works is now available on ELE Records, Monkey Mountain. Hailed as "visionary ... master craftsmanship on guitar" by Tiny Mix Tapes, Higgins' new record STEREO is available on Words+Dreams. Read a recent interview on the Free Music Archive with Higgins here. He will be on tour with ZS across the US, Canada, Europe and Japan in 2013. $8.00