New York's Lower East Side in the mid-late 1980s was a boiling cauldron of explosively creative, genre- defiant music. Countless bands emerged to then sustain or devolve as musicians drawn to the scene experimented and evolved their signature sounds. Angling, formed 1984 / 1985 by four musicians who would soon become pillars of the NY Downtown scene, individually and in other ensembles – saxophonist George Cartwright, bassist Fred Chalenor, guitarist Chris Cochrane, accordionist & harpist Zeena Parkins – was one of the most interesting of these brief-lived, early groups. Angling played two live shows and one studio recording session before its members moved on to other endeavors. In 2023, George Cartwright, longtime leader of the Downtown NY band Curlew, unearthed those recordings, resulting in this Angling release.

Cuneiform has previously released numerous albums from NYC's remarkably dynamic Downtown scene. These include the extensive studio and live catalogue of Curlew, one of the Scene's most acclaimed ensembles; reissues of three albums by the post-Angling group No Safety, which included two Angling members; and two post-Curlew albums by George Cartwright.

Angling's members recall:

Angling was a band either in 1984 or 1985.

Zeena was in between News from Babel recording projects, and was about to join Skeleton Crew.

George was in between the first and second Curlew recordings.

Fred had just come east with his band with Myles Boisen, Face Ditch.

Chris was improvising with a range of “downtown musicians” and curating shows as the Director of NYC'S Improvisor's Network.

The band No Safety [with Chris and Zeena] wasn’t even in the planning stages yet.

Fred wrote many of the compositions, with some additional tunes from Chris and Zeena and a Uruguayan folk song to showcase Zeena’s acoustic harp playing.

We rehearsed in Chris’s small apartment on Ludlow Street, once a week or so.

There were 3 names for the band that we never could come to consensus on: CCCP, Her Hat and Angling.

We did two gigs and one recording session, which is what this recording is a composite of.

George unearthed these recordings in in 2023.

Was It 1984 0r 1985? press release