Cloud Time by Emily A. Sprague
Emily A. Sprague’s Cloud Time traces an audio-spiritual journey through time and place, recorded across a long-awaited debut tour of Japan in the fall of 2024. Compiled from environmental improvisations captured in and for the moment, material at once welcoming, responsive, and inimitable, the album distills a voyage guided by psychic wayfaring, unbound presence, and activating performance for a reciprocal exchange with space, listener, and each fully engaged instant. Cloud Time is a series of postcards penned to the energetic possibilities of each lived moment, deeply felt and in dialogue with the eternal now.
Tracklist
| 1. | Tokyo 1 | 4:42 |
| 2. | Osaka | |
| 3. | Nagoya | |
| 4. | Matsumoto | |
| 5. | Hokkaido | |
| 6. | Tokyo 2 | |
| 7. | Each Story | |
Credits
releases October 10, 2025
All songs improvised and performed by Emily A. Sprague
Recorded live in Japan, September 27 through October 6, 2024
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering (Bonn, Germany)
Vinyl cut by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering (Brooklyn, NY)
Diptychs by Emily A. Sprague
Design by WWfG
Cloud Time is live recordings of improvised music manifesting from a specific time and place. It is recorded music now as much as it was the practice of being momentary, welcoming in and reacting to the energy within a room. Humans in time and place. An effort to find symbiosis, and to let go of the sense of control which ultimately I do not wish to have over any energy.
This album archives my first time ever performing in, and also visiting, Japan. After multiple unforeseen circumstances caused previously scheduled introductory Japan tours to remain only plans, I began to think a lot about what it means to bring something into a place where I am invited as a temporary guest.
While configuring and rehearsing many different iterations of tech setups for my live show over the years, I was oftentimes rooted in wanting things to be as deliberate as possible, with little room for “error.” At the emergence of this trip, when I knew it would finally be real, I found myself feeling very strongly that I would prepare almost nothing at all. Not in any kind of defeat or apathy, but in vehement intention.
I wanted to bring to the space that I would be performing within an entirely present and unique version of myself and therefore the music. Something that existed only there, with anyone who was also there, as everyone else was. The moments and all the energy inside of them became a part of the music in a way I could not anticipate or ever replicate. Just as the moments in life which remain only memory really are. It is a kind of time that just passes you by with very little grasping on to.
Cloud Time consists of excerpted audio from each night of my first tour as a performing artist in Japan, making improvised environmental music. Captured as stereo files by my recorder on stage, it is the sonic archeology from this journey.
Special thanks to Oshi Kunii for making these sonic memories possible, and for being our shadow. To Sean Hellfritsch for your magical performances each night which inspired and energized me to take the stage, and for being the greatest travel companion. To V Haddad for the most generous care and support behind the scenes of my life. Lastly but equally as salient, thanks to all who organized, worked, and attended these shows across the beautiful country of Japan.
September 27, 2024 - Hokkaido
September 28, 2024 - Tokyo @ Soup
September 29, 2024 - Tokyo @ Soup
September 30, 2024 - Osaka @ Circus
October 1, 2024 - Nagoya @ KD Japon
October 4, 2024 - Matsumoto @ Give me little more.
October 6, 2024 - Nagano @ Each Story
© + ℗ 2025 RVNG Intl. All rights reserved. rvng.com
All songs improvised and performed by Emily A. Sprague
Recorded live in Japan, September 27 through October 6, 2024
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering (Bonn, Germany)
Vinyl cut by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering (Brooklyn, NY)
Diptychs by Emily A. Sprague
Design by WWfG
Cloud Time is live recordings of improvised music manifesting from a specific time and place. It is recorded music now as much as it was the practice of being momentary, welcoming in and reacting to the energy within a room. Humans in time and place. An effort to find symbiosis, and to let go of the sense of control which ultimately I do not wish to have over any energy.
This album archives my first time ever performing in, and also visiting, Japan. After multiple unforeseen circumstances caused previously scheduled introductory Japan tours to remain only plans, I began to think a lot about what it means to bring something into a place where I am invited as a temporary guest.
While configuring and rehearsing many different iterations of tech setups for my live show over the years, I was oftentimes rooted in wanting things to be as deliberate as possible, with little room for “error.” At the emergence of this trip, when I knew it would finally be real, I found myself feeling very strongly that I would prepare almost nothing at all. Not in any kind of defeat or apathy, but in vehement intention.
I wanted to bring to the space that I would be performing within an entirely present and unique version of myself and therefore the music. Something that existed only there, with anyone who was also there, as everyone else was. The moments and all the energy inside of them became a part of the music in a way I could not anticipate or ever replicate. Just as the moments in life which remain only memory really are. It is a kind of time that just passes you by with very little grasping on to.
Cloud Time consists of excerpted audio from each night of my first tour as a performing artist in Japan, making improvised environmental music. Captured as stereo files by my recorder on stage, it is the sonic archeology from this journey.
Special thanks to Oshi Kunii for making these sonic memories possible, and for being our shadow. To Sean Hellfritsch for your magical performances each night which inspired and energized me to take the stage, and for being the greatest travel companion. To V Haddad for the most generous care and support behind the scenes of my life. Lastly but equally as salient, thanks to all who organized, worked, and attended these shows across the beautiful country of Japan.
September 27, 2024 - Hokkaido
September 28, 2024 - Tokyo @ Soup
September 29, 2024 - Tokyo @ Soup
September 30, 2024 - Osaka @ Circus
October 1, 2024 - Nagoya @ KD Japon
October 4, 2024 - Matsumoto @ Give me little more.
October 6, 2024 - Nagano @ Each Story
© + ℗ 2025 RVNG Intl. All rights reserved. rvng.com
License
All rights reserved.
Emily is a synthesist and songwriter from the Catskill Mountains.
mlesprg.info
all inquiries:
mlesprg@gmail.com