For the past eight years the duo of Rob Lowe and Michael Muller have nurtured and refined their creative partnership as the core members of the band Balmorhea. Though their first album on Western Vinyl Rivers Arms (2008) garnered some remarkable press, their ST debut, recorded in 2006 and released in 2007 best captures the duo’s unique magic as it first blossomed. With no label, distributor, manager, publicist, or booking agent the duo quietly self-released their first recordings and started playing live shows. Now, seven years later Western Vinyl is honored to have the opportunity reissue the band’s ST album, and make it available on vinyl for the first time ever. In preparation for this special reissue, the audio was lovingly remastered, drawing out even more of the nuances…magnifying the sounds of Muller and Lowe’s fingers on the instruments, and teasing out the textures that set these recordings apart from the rest of their catalog. Simple and sincere, these songs and ambient sounds the duo captured in these recordings are strangely inviting. Throughout the album the distant sounds of Texas grackles, the warm summer rain, the steady rhythm of crickets chirping, and creaking wooden stools, all seeping in to cradle the notes in a restrained din of primordial wonder. “It’s hard to imagine Western Vinyl without Balmorhea. After our fateful meeting in 2007, we forged a deep and lasting relationship we’re all grateful for. We met at an Austin performance on the eve of their first US tour in support of their recently self-released debut album. Their show that night was one of the most powerful performances I’d ever seen, and as I looked around the room, it was apparent that I wasn’t alone. With the help of a cellist the group briefly transformed the dingy lounge into a vibrant pulsing cell. I had experienced deeply moving shows before, but the ecstatic emotions they conjured were new to me. Calling it electrifying, might sound cliché, but as the hair on my arms and legs stood at attention, my eyes squinted a bit with concentration, and my head cocked to the right, the electricity that passed over me felt very real. Over the next few years I had the pleasure of experiencing dozens of Balmorhea shows, each with a slightly different story to tell.” Brian Sampson, Western Vinyl.