Biography
Portland duo Golden Retriever craft meditative yet vividly expressive experimental music grounded in improvisation, deploying modular synthesizers alongside amplified bass clarinet. Their early work, exemplified by the 2012 album Occupied with the Unspoken, established a distinctive sonic identity that later broadened through the fully orchestrated Rotations in 2017 and the 2020 project Rain Shadow, a collaboration with guitarist Chuck Johnson.
Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson formed Golden Retriever in Portland, Oregon, in 2008. Sielaff’s experimental pop project Au occasionally shared bills with Parenthetical Girls, the dramatic indie ensemble Carlson had joined, prompting the pair to exchange solo recordings and begin working together. Carlson handled modular analog synthesizer while Sielaff played bass clarinet; both monophonic instruments were processed and layered to generate polyphonic drones and evolving ambient pieces. The duo quickly became regulars on Portland stages and issued their self-titled debut CD-R on Root Strata in 2010. Later that year they followed with Golden Retriever 2 and the Static Rain cassette on Gift Tapes. Two additional cassettes, Arda Viraf and Emergent Layer, preceded the 2011 Root Strata LP Light Cones.
A more polished and less spontaneous approach surfaced on 2012’s Occupied with the Unspoken, issued by Thrill Jockey Records. The duo’s next album, Seer, was tracked gradually across two years in their home studio before appearing in 2014. Remaining committed to a contemplative fusion of spontaneous and structured elements, they augmented their instrumentation with a chamber ensemble of strings, woodwinds, pipe organ, and percussion on 2017’s Rotations, again for Thrill Jockey. The pair subsequently joined guitarist Chuck Johnson for the seamless joint release Rain Shadow, which surfaced in 2020.
Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson formed Golden Retriever in Portland, Oregon, in 2008. Sielaff’s experimental pop project Au occasionally shared bills with Parenthetical Girls, the dramatic indie ensemble Carlson had joined, prompting the pair to exchange solo recordings and begin working together. Carlson handled modular analog synthesizer while Sielaff played bass clarinet; both monophonic instruments were processed and layered to generate polyphonic drones and evolving ambient pieces. The duo quickly became regulars on Portland stages and issued their self-titled debut CD-R on Root Strata in 2010. Later that year they followed with Golden Retriever 2 and the Static Rain cassette on Gift Tapes. Two additional cassettes, Arda Viraf and Emergent Layer, preceded the 2011 Root Strata LP Light Cones.
A more polished and less spontaneous approach surfaced on 2012’s Occupied with the Unspoken, issued by Thrill Jockey Records. The duo’s next album, Seer, was tracked gradually across two years in their home studio before appearing in 2014. Remaining committed to a contemplative fusion of spontaneous and structured elements, they augmented their instrumentation with a chamber ensemble of strings, woodwinds, pipe organ, and percussion on 2017’s Rotations, again for Thrill Jockey. The pair subsequently joined guitarist Chuck Johnson for the seamless joint release Rain Shadow, which surfaced in 2020.
Albums
Singles
