Written by: Dave Cantrell

At their best, record labels are idiosyncratic ventures, on the one hand defining – then exploring – a particular, if often growing, corner of the music world while on the other not turning a blind ey- or, umm, rather, deaf ear to the possibilities that might emerge from some heretofore unforeseen (unforeheard?) direction. It’s by definition a challenging remit that most eventually stray from if only from the sheer focus required to maintain that core principle, finding it easier to be distracted by the ever-tempting flavors of the day than to stick to what turns out to be a hard-won core philosophy. We have found that labels like Tapete, Tiny Global, Third Man and HHBTM are among the few current labels that have been able to resist the slide toward a, shall we say, blander accessibility by maintaining something approaching an almost zen-like discipline. We get it, one can hardly imagine a more exacting task, but at the same time we find a kind of offbeat inspiration not just in those mentioned but in the label that doesn’t only best fit those somewhat strict parameters but could reasonably be considered the ur-example: the Kramer-founded, seemingly unkillable Shimmy-Disc and it’s there where, rather unsurprisingly, we find today’s debut video, a piece that, as timing would have it, is the perfect soundtrack for Halloween 2024.

Taken from the full-length POE – To One in Paradise (for Hal Willner), released digitally today and on vinyl next February and a simply stunning collection of spoken-word collaborations between Kramer and a salivating who’s-who of vocal collaborators – among them Lydia Lunch, Allen Ginsberg (RIP), Britta Phillips, Thurston and Eva Moore, Joan As Police Woman, Rick Moody and Anne Waldman – today, with “Eldorado,” we’re treated to a formidable mic appearance from the actor, poet, performance artist and playwright Edgar Oliver, who aside from having an eerily perfect name for this project also happened to be born on…Halloween Day, 1956.

While, sure, a somewhat spooky outing, “Eldorado,” both visually and song-wise, proves to be among the two most elegiac minutes you’ll spend today or, for that matter, ever. At once timeless and immediate, limned in both longing and a never-fading hope that something promising, or at least more hopeful, lies over that rise, beyond those shadows, the track, while indeed quite appropriate for the day, proves to be a piece that could well serve as a kind of daily, morning ceremonial, a kind of audio ablution that resonates throughout the coming day. Curious, yearning, exquisite in its bare grace, “Eldorado,” as can be said for the album entire, exudes that rare quality of being delicate in its strength, which isn’t a surprise. It’s a pursuit of sorts that Kramer, in both ambient and spoken-word form – or, as here, those two combined – has shown untiring interest, seemingly seeing in that challenge an expression of existence itself. If that indeed be the case, POE – To One in Paradise (for Hal Willner), is so close to the mark as to balance on the edge of a masterpiece. We beseech you, pay heed…