Track Listing

01 The Hunter #1
02 The Hunter #2
03 Djien (mp3)
04 Stone Giants
05 Sin Like Holy Men
06 She Owl #1
07 She Owl #2
08 She Owl #3
09 A Pillow
10 Bloody Knife #1
11 Bloody Knife #2
12 Bloody Knife #3
13 Celebration Time
14 Good World #1
15 Good World #2
16 Warrior #1
17 Warrior #2

The Robot Ate Me

Good World, the follow-up to 2005’s Carousel Waltz, was recorded by Ryland Bouchard alone in a near-freezing firehouse with a thrift store clarinet, an eighties drum machine, an eighties synth, and an out of tune 1800s piano. Vinyl LP on Swim Slowly Records.

With 17 tracks in under 23 minutes, Ryland Bouchard presents the listener with a imaginative world that presents mythical characters like Djien (a monster spider the size of a man whose heart is buried in the ground causing it to survive the most critical attacks), the Stone Giants (who are invulnerable except on the soles of their feet) and She Owl (the wife of Bloody Knife).

Musically, the arrangements are simple and delicate, with harmonized falsetto vocals and staccato clarinet lines floating above minimal percussion and the occasional synth. Choruses and verses blur into musical interludes that travel with the characters they represent. Songs become puzzle pieces as parts of a much larger narrative that is alluded to but ultimately left up to the listener’s imagination.