Josh Mason
Selected Works ︎︎︎
Selected Works ︎︎︎
Kicking A Dark Horse
Jun 2026
Unincorporated Community Fight Song / Traumahawk (Volunteer Corps.) / Would Go / A Tomb / Hellified Ire / No Vacancy Loose And Violent In The Socket / Repair 22,000,000 / Live, From Behind The Power Curve / A Garden
Program
54:11
Jun 2026
Unincorporated Community Fight Song / Traumahawk (Volunteer Corps.) / Would Go / A Tomb / Hellified Ire / No Vacancy Loose And Violent In The Socket / Repair 22,000,000 / Live, From Behind The Power Curve / A Garden
Program
54:11
A multi-modal work articulated across sound and text: a 9-track electronic album alongside a book-length work of experimental writing.
Across both forms, Kicking A Dark Horse is governed by controlled instability—chaotic structures that cohere without repetition and evolve without resolution. The text unfolds in fragments—part diary, part landscape study, part fever dream—extending the disjunctive, textural logic of the music into literary terrain rarely inhabited by a music edition.
“ To observe “Florida” (both the physical space and my on mental state) is to watch someone who refuses to tie their shoe and then proceeds to trip and fall down the stairs. It is a place so full of promise and possibility, but also one that seems incapable of getting out of it’s own way, or even acknowledging what it’s hurtling towards, which is at once both stupefying and predictable.”
︎
Label Greyfade (US)
Edition 300
Sound, Text and Layout by Josh Mason
Technical Assistance from Joseph Branciforte
Across both forms, Kicking A Dark Horse is governed by controlled instability—chaotic structures that cohere without repetition and evolve without resolution. The text unfolds in fragments—part diary, part landscape study, part fever dream—extending the disjunctive, textural logic of the music into literary terrain rarely inhabited by a music edition.
“ To observe “Florida” (both the physical space and my on mental state) is to watch someone who refuses to tie their shoe and then proceeds to trip and fall down the stairs. It is a place so full of promise and possibility, but also one that seems incapable of getting out of it’s own way, or even acknowledging what it’s hurtling towards, which is at once both stupefying and predictable.”
︎
Label Greyfade (US)
Edition 300
Sound, Text and Layout by Josh Mason
Technical Assistance from Joseph Branciforte
Careless approval without examination, and a subsequent deception for want of warning. Honors rendered to sampler detritus—the bones and dust of pilgrims and martyrs; of thieves and asses—enclosed in a vessel with candles lit before it.
︎
Art and Sound by Josh Mason
︎
Art and Sound by Josh Mason
Utility Music
Sep 2021
Newport, 5 July, 1969 / Juan-les-Pins, 25 July, 1969 / New York, 20 August, 1969 / Copenhagen, 4 November, 1969 / San Francisco, 9 April, 1970
Program
32:12
Sep 2021
Newport, 5 July, 1969 / Juan-les-Pins, 25 July, 1969 / New York, 20 August, 1969 / Copenhagen, 4 November, 1969 / San Francisco, 9 April, 1970
Program
32:12
Westheimer's Discovery: A couple of months in the laboratory can frequently save a couple hours in the library.
Utility Music is the result of a year long exploration of a Doepfer A-100 modular synthesizer system of my own planning, beginning on January 1, 2019 and ending December 31, 2019. It was my attempt to learn more about the foundational building blocks of synthesis and to explore the idea that interesting and compelling synthesizer-based music can be realized without the aid of modern DSP and "shiny" hardware within the format.
The final audio portion of the project is a mosaic assembled from these weekly stems. Accompanying the CD is a 72 pg. perfect-bound book containing further information on the project as well as weekly point-to-point patch notes and insights into process.
︎
Edition 4 (50, 50, 75, 25)
Artwork, Writing and Design by Josh Mason
Technical Assistance from Andrew Weathers
Utility Music is the result of a year long exploration of a Doepfer A-100 modular synthesizer system of my own planning, beginning on January 1, 2019 and ending December 31, 2019. It was my attempt to learn more about the foundational building blocks of synthesis and to explore the idea that interesting and compelling synthesizer-based music can be realized without the aid of modern DSP and "shiny" hardware within the format.
The final audio portion of the project is a mosaic assembled from these weekly stems. Accompanying the CD is a 72 pg. perfect-bound book containing further information on the project as well as weekly point-to-point patch notes and insights into process.
︎
Edition 4 (50, 50, 75, 25)
Artwork, Writing and Design by Josh Mason
Technical Assistance from Andrew Weathers
Hellified Irie
Jun 2015
Century Ambulance / Florida Light & Power II / Wavewalker / Timecode Beach / Continued On Chart 11484 / Warp Thing / Joy Will Not Protect You
Program
37:47
Jun 2015
Century Ambulance / Florida Light & Power II / Wavewalker / Timecode Beach / Continued On Chart 11484 / Warp Thing / Joy Will Not Protect You
Program
37:47
Hellified Irie, at it’s core, is a ‘surf’ record both in tone and concept. Continuing ideas laid out in Timecode Beach, there is a focus on change and adaptation. One minute you’re riding a wave and the next you’re bobbing, waiting for the next set with your mind wandering to who knows where and when. As adults, we often do not have the luxury of embracing that drift.
The style and sound of the recording is an homage to the guitar-centric bands of the mid 60’s such as the Ventures and The Challengers as well as compositional techniques found in Smile-era Beach Boys material, which lends itself nicely to that theme of changing gears. Like a Wallace Stevens poem, it’s a meditative and philosophical sound. A sonic discourse from a deckchair that skates a line between imagination and the reality of every day.
The accompanying 70 pg. book contains found images and personal photos (taken with a disposable camera that fell into a pool,) as well as recollections of the recording process, the concept of home, the weather of the mind, and family.
︎
Label FET Press (NY)
Edition 50
Mastered by Seth Chrisman
Artwork, Writing and Design by Josh Mason
The style and sound of the recording is an homage to the guitar-centric bands of the mid 60’s such as the Ventures and The Challengers as well as compositional techniques found in Smile-era Beach Boys material, which lends itself nicely to that theme of changing gears. Like a Wallace Stevens poem, it’s a meditative and philosophical sound. A sonic discourse from a deckchair that skates a line between imagination and the reality of every day.
The accompanying 70 pg. book contains found images and personal photos (taken with a disposable camera that fell into a pool,) as well as recollections of the recording process, the concept of home, the weather of the mind, and family.
︎
Label FET Press (NY)
Edition 50
Mastered by Seth Chrisman
Artwork, Writing and Design by Josh Mason
