TREES out now
Jim Coleman started playing music when he was 8. Screaming and kicking, he was classically trained through his earlier years, learning to play both piano and french horn. What he really wanted to be doing was to be making his own music, making manifest the thoughts and feelings running rampant inside him.
The process of making music & sound collages on his own terms began in his late teens and early twenties. He began by layering loops of scuba diving documentaries, snippets of late night radio recordings, existential lo-fi recordings that were bounced multiple times on 4 track cassette recorders, live mixing multiple microphones in various rooms during house parties, and weekly DJ gigs where he would be mixing the Hindenburg disaster with Run DMC's Sucker MC beats.
He became an integral member of seminal NYC based band Cop Shoot Cop in the late 80's and stayed in that family until it's demise in 1996. Since then, he has been scoring music for indie films and TV series, putting out solo releases and numerous remixes as Phylr, collaborating with Teho Teardo as Here, collaborating with JG Thirlwell as Baby Zizanie, and is now releasing a neo-classical ambient album called TREES under his own name.
Jim on TREES
"TREES for me is kind of a personal antidote to the anxiety and stress of the world not just around me, but within me as well. I know that I can be my own worst enemy, that I can get trapped in that life of disappointment, where there is never enough, and I can make my own discontent through projecting future negativity and lamenting the past. TREES is… about finding peace in the present, about taking a minute to breathe, to be rather than do.”
Hear a Sample
Praise of TREES
"I’ve been listening to this on a daily basis now for a couple of weeks and I can’t see any reason to stop yet." - DB, progress-report.uk
"The atmospheric quality is cinematic in scope; each song seems to slowly unfurl itself before the listener, slowly expanding and receding like a living organism. He leaves enough air within each song to allow the piece to breathe, move at a distinct pace, and provide the listener ample time to identify and relish each subtle stroke of brilliance. Ambient and challenging without ever becoming monotonous…" - Rich Quinlan, jerseybeat.com
"I absolutely think this is the oddest cd I have ever listened to…a must buy…I cannot recommend enough for fans of music with depth and a break from the norm. This is by far one of the most creative and innovative cds I have heard…" - James D, WickedChannel.com
"…Jim Coleman continues to blaze a path of greatness as a craftsman of electro-acoustic music on his latest studio LP, Trees." - Ron Hart, Blurt Online
"This one surprised the hell out of me...'exquisite' is the only adjective that comes to mind." - Mark S. Tucker, the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
"Coleman may be playing to a completely different kinda audience now...but he's just as successful because his motivation is pure and real ....Soothing...organic...dreamy..." - BabySue