Squanderers: Skantagio (Coloured Vinyl LP)

Squanderers return to deliver Skantagio, the follow up to their debut album, If A Body Meet A Body (Shimmy-Disc, 2024).

From David Grubbs: Skantagio is a word from Ancient Greek that means ‘sounding lead’ -- a rudimentary navigational instrument to determine depth in water -- and I learned of it through an interview that I did with Tony Conrad, where Tony had this to say: "All of this is a part of dredging the past up into the present and, like a sperm whale, taking in a huge mouthful of stuff and spitting out the water to leave the food behind. That idea of time as something that you see ahead or behind and then may not see at all straight ahead is an interesting metaphor. You can think of it that way, or you can think of time being visible in all of those aspects in the present."

It appeals to me as a word for taking a measurement, understanding the depth one finds oneself in, and doing so with the simplest means possible. This new album follows upon the more active, preliminary explorations of If A Body Meet A Body with a deepening of trust and comfort with one another that one can practically hear unfolding in this sequence of improvisations -- still part of our first meeting. “First meeting, best meeting”.

Clear vinyl version.

1. Theme for Skantagio
2. Theme for Narcoleptics
3. Theme for Insufficient Overpreparation
4. Theme for Fruitful Tangents
5. Theme for All Unawares
6. Theme for the Path Made Visible
7. Theme for Undivided Neglect