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
On The Brink
w/ Nathan McLaughlin
Feb 2017
Markers & Surveys (I-VI)
Program
54:29
w/ Nathan McLaughlin
Feb 2017
Markers & Surveys (I-VI)
Program
54:29
Failure, or perhaps more accurately, the possibility of failure, provides one with unique perspective. Better to cash out, or to ramp up right to the edge of possibility and chance? On The Brink is our first true collaboration - we traveled together with the wind on our faces, holes in our shoes and short that one layer that can provide the necessary comforts we tend to rely upon. Raw nerves, biting hunger and a drive to see the unknown corners kept us moving forward. We can offer these markers and surveys as proof of our trip and as evidence of what lies slightly beyond our immediate purview but with a combined effort - within reach.
—Nathan McLaughlin
︎
Label Eilean (FR)
Edition 180
Mastered by Seth Chrisman
Photography by Martin Vlach
Design by Rémi Verdier
—Nathan McLaughlin
︎
Label Eilean (FR)
Edition 180
Mastered by Seth Chrisman
Photography by Martin Vlach
Design by Rémi Verdier
