LOS ANGELES, CA. (TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2023) –Details are emerging from the recently announced Independent Project Records (IPR) expanded reissue of A Produce’s 1988 experimental electronics/ambient album The Clearing on March 31.

Whilst the album was originally released on vinyl and later reissued in a very limited CDr version, this forthcoming version will be the first-ever on compact disc and will feature three bonus tracks that were previously available on cassette only. There will be six different letterpress-printed cover variations, closely mimicking the geometric designs of the original vinyl release. Pre-Save and Pre-Add via smartlink here for A Produce.

1. Farming in Arabia
2. Tunnels
3. Owachomo
4. Pulse
5. October 1^st
6. Ashes of Love
7. For Jackson Pollack (#3)
8. The Raw Silk, The Uncarved Block
9. The Clearing
10. Raga Riley (Bonus Track)
11. Erosion (Bonus Track from LA Mantra I)
12. Dorian Imagination (Bonus Track from LA Mantra II)
13. Industrial Edge (Bonus Track from Phantom Takes – LA Mantra III)

Experimental electronics cult LP The Clearing was originally self-released on vinyl in 1988 by A Produce, the moniker used by the late Barry Craig (1952 – 2011), who was a prolific artist operating on the fringe of the experimental and DIY music scene in Los Angeles from the 1980’s up until his premature death in 2011. First becoming known in underground circles as guitarist in early 80’s post-punk group Afterimage, then via his Trance Port Tapes label, Craig was responsible for documenting what he coined in his own words as “the growing trance music scene” emerging in LA at the time. Craig described his privately released, small-run debut LP as “an album of conceptual space,” rooted in LA’s early post-punk / DIY scene but containing an intersection of styles incorporating the new experimental or ‘trance’ music that was starting to coalesce in the mid-to-late 80’s. The result is a masterpiece of flow and cohesion, blending early electronic rhythms with keyboards, guitar and synthesizers which careen from lively, hypnotic grooves to deeper, inward-looking minimalist ambient passages.

In 2008 Craig re-mastered the album with the help of electronic artist Loren Nerell, and self-released a very limited CDr version which included one bonus track (‘Raga Riley’) that was included on the Independent Project Records compilation Source in 2021. The original album was licensed to the UK label All Night Flight in 2019 for a limited edition vinyl re-issue of 500 copies, and this will be the first time that the album is being made available as a replicated CD. This expanded edition adds three more bonus tracks, solo recordings that were originally included on Craig’s three L.A. Mantra compilation cassettes released on Trance Port Tapes between 1983 and 1985.

Additional IPR releases will be announced shortly and will feature both remastered and expanded IPR classics (and in some cases bring long out-of-print titles back in print) as well as new music that fits the IPR aesthetic both musically and in design. By utilizing IPR’s iconic hand-letterpress printed artwork created at Independent Project Press, the label will carry on with the design aesthetic that began in 1982 and has become its hallmark.

ABOUT
Founded in 1980 by musician and artist Bruce Licher, Independent Project Records has created more than sixty releases since its inception. IPR and its sister entity Independent Project Press are known for their instantly recognizable hand-printed record covers for bands including Camper Van Beethoven, For Against, Polvo, R.E.M., Savage Republic, Silversun Pickups, Stereolab and more. Aside from creating all artwork on his vintage two-ton hand-fed letterpress, Licher was nominated for a Grammy Award for his design work on the IPR released debut album from For Against. In 2020, the label was relaunched by both Licher and Jeffrey Clark with new and archival releases and is distributed by MRI/The Orchard & via Proper Music Group, outside the USA & Canada. It is based in Bishop, California, at the base of the Eastern Sierra Mountains.