Weeks Island - Droste

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The Weeks Island project began in 2018 when, itching for something during a break from his gig playing guitar for the Grammy-winning Cajun group Lost Bayou Ramblers, Jonny Campos ventured to his bandmate’s house and recorded a series of deep, amoebic, ambient pedal steel passages across two afternoons. It wasn’t all heavy, though: he paid that bandmate, Kirkland Middleton, in Cane’s chicken strips.

The tracks on Droste are named for bodies of water that no longer exist, their names wiped from maps thanks to the disintegrating shorelines of Southern Louisiana. That feeling of impermanence hangs over this record - the tracks don’t so much begin and end as slip in and out of your consciousness. It can be a serene passive listen or a deep one that marinates long after the runout.

Droste originally appeared in 2020 on a local label named Nouveau Electric Records. We heard about it through LCD’s Korey Richey, an erstwhile Lost Bayou member, and began a years-long process to cut the record to vinyl, a task made difficult by the sharp crests of harmonic distortion that dot the record. After more than a few tries and the addition of three brand new tracks, Bob Weston, as he does, sank a beautiful sounding cut, and then passed it to the gentle hands at Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, VA. (Always sweat the details.)

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