Absolutely Kosher Signs Memphis Duo Nonconnah

Bay Area independent Absolutely Kosher is thrilled to announce its first new signing to the label since its relaunch earlier this Autumn, after a 12-year absence, of the Memphis duo Nonconnah.

 Discussing bringing Nonconnah to the label, owner Cory “Brownbutter” Brown stated, “Nonconnah completely charmed and stunned me, with their sonic innovation, their feeling of kinship with our aesthetic, and their willingness to collaborate generously, in their music and in the releasing of their music. I'm a big fan of drone, folk, shoegaze, and ambient music, but these are genres that are difficult to distinguish oneself in. I'd fallen in love with Nonconnah's recent album ‘Unicorn Family' because this warm, modest couple imbues their music with joy, movement, and originality, qualities that are difficult to find in these often serious and academic forms of music.

The songs of Nonconnah bubble with wonder, a rare quality in any genre of music, a band who brightens the world just by making the music they make. It's for these reasons that we've partnered with Nonconnah for an unprecedented 4-album minimum, 7-year exclusive deal, the first of its kind for me in my 25 years running Absolutely Kosher. And that's just what the contract says. This relationship is a transcendental psychedelic love story.”

On what it means signing to Absolutely Kosher, Nonconnah's Zachary “Magpie” Corsa offered, “I was at college in western North Carolina during the 2000s indie rock boom. Starting with Sunset Rubdown's ‘Shut Up I Am Dreaming', I quickly came to recognize Absolutely Kosher releases as music that would push boundaries and resist easy classification. Whenever I'd fantasize about what labels I'd love to work with most, AKR was always near the top of the list. To reach out to Brownbutter and discover he was already a fan of our work was a career highlight, and we're so grateful that we've finally found our perfect label ‘forever home'.

Nonconnah's newest music expands significantly on our sonic world-building without sacrificing the ethereal, haunted qualities our cult of devotees expect, and we're thrilled to present our finest work yet under the Absolutely Kosher banner.”

Prolific partners Zachary and Denny Wilkerson Corsa are currently working on the first two of their new full-length albums for Absolutely Kosher, though release plans are still very much in the works.

Over the course of the past 7 years, Nonconnah have released 6 official full-length albums, surrounded by numerous EPs, singles and various collections, that have seen them garner critical praise for their experimental sonic endeavors.

Regarding their 2021 album, Songs for and About Ghosts, Pitchfork called it, “a slow-motion carousel of musical surprises, with each new sound causing you to reconsider the context of what you've already heard… Nonconnah work like magpies, webbing together their own idiosyncratic renditions of sounds they love.”

That album saw Zachary and Denny working with Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy and solo on Domino Recording Co). Previous releases has seen them collaborate with Dustin Wong (Ponytail, solo on Thrill Jockey), Dan Friel (Parts & Labor, Upper Wilds, also on Thrill Jockey), Lori Goldston (Nirvana, Earth, Secret Chiefs 3) and Greg Saunier (Deerhoof, on Joyful Noise). Key to understanding Nonconnah is that you will never, fully. And that to know what to expect is an impossibility.

Nonconnah will release their first music for Absolutely Kosher in 2024.

Recent Absolutely Kosher releases include the first new music from Wrens songwriter Charles Bissell under his new Car Colors moniker, along with new music from Chicago's Sybris, and first ever vinyl editions of Edinburgh School for the Deaf's New Youth Bible and BraBraBra's Mangooona.

Watch the newly released Absolutely Kosher Christmas Holiday Special.

Absolutely Kosher was founded by Cory Brown (aka Brownbutter) in 1998 in the San Francisco Bay Area and released more than 85 records over the next 13 years, including notable work from the Wrens, Frog Eyes, the Mountain Goats, Wax Fang, Azeda Booth, Okay, Sunset Rubdown, The Court and Spark (pre-Hiss Golden Messenger), Pinback and a number of Rob Crow projects, the Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, Xiu Xiu, and more, receiving international accolades across the media of the day, seemingly making magic by rubbing two nickels together.

The label's legacy is recognizing considerable talent early and often, in a catalog of classic records, some of them still unsung. In an era of turnkey distribution, dubious anti-label rhetoric, and the nauseating encroachment of A.I.'s simulated perfectionism in an algorithmic monoculture, Absolutely Kosher embraces its own handmade charm, historic irreverence for the norm, and the perfectly imperfect authenticity of the avant-garde that has always guided the label's aesthetics. 

Ever the underdog, the venerable label is a fortress for weirdos, queerdos, and beardos, the highly sensitive, the neurodivergent, misunderstood masters and prodigies alike, and visionaries of all races, genders and orientations.

Photo Credit: Maggie Trisler (Nonconnah - Zachary + Denny Wilkerson Corsa)

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