International Anthem releases EXTRA PRESENCE, a double LP album by Carlos Niño & Friends, available in record stores and on digital music platforms. The album is a 90 minute, 17-track collection showcasing the Los Angeles modern music scene pioneer Niño’s unique, highly developed, self-described “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” sound, and featuring an incredible cast of collaborators (including Jamael Dean, Nate Mercereau, Shabazz Palaces, Deantoni Parks, Sam Gendel, Laraaji, Jamire Williams, Iasos, and more).
EXTRA PRESENCE is an expanded edition of a 10-track suite that Niño self-released exclusively via his Bandcamp page in 2020. Despite its very limited initial release, the original album, which was titled Actual Presence, received glowing praise from dedicated followers of Niño & Friends. In Pitchfork, writer Marty Sartini Garner said:
Carlos Niño believes in a big, beautiful universe that exists in spite of the present suffering. The sprawling, ever-changing sound of Actual Presence is his best attempt yet to recreate the joy of losing yourself to it.
Garner also contributes digital liner notes for this new release EXTRA PRESENCE, in which he writes:
Rather than simply remixing old tunes, Carlos opens new doors that reveal new rooms. ‘Youwillgetthroughthis with Koto’ isn’t just augmented by a koto; it’s wound up in a new tension that was barely suggested in the original track. ‘Luis’ Special Shells,’ an Actual Presence highlight, dips us into a subaquatic world painted in inky blues and forest greens, the shells themselves the only clear element that remains from the original.
Niño himself reflects:
The title Actual Presence is a direct reference to a profound experience that I had in the Marin Forest with Iasos. It is a way of describing the awareness of Eternal Now. It is a way of expressing the consciousness of Being . . . EXTRA PRESENCE is a continuation of that feeling, experience, state . . . Listening back today I feel great about this Music. I actively, intentionally project myself into a future of sorts (when I am making a record), imagining how I would feel emotionally about it, later. I only intend to make records that I actually want to listen to and to share, and this is working, the meaning of the Title is clear, the same. I’m stoked and grateful that it has been expanded and that it will be available to/for more people who may enjoy it . . . Thank You for checking it out.