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The Books are an American music duo, formed in New York City in 1999, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong. Their releases contain a combination of electronic music and folk, typically incorporating samples of obscure sounds and speech. They have released three critically-acclaimed albums on the German label Tomlab, and currently reside in North Adams, Massachusetts, where they are working on an upcoming studio album.
Zammuto and de Jong first met in New York City in 1999 as they shared the same apartment building. De Jong invited Zammuto to dinner at his apartment, where he played him some of his collection of audio and video samples, including a Shooby Taylor record. Zammuto said of their meeting that "we both kind of knew at that moment that we listened (to music) in interesting ways and had similar approaches to music." Soon after they began playing what they considered to be pop music, in comparison to their own works, under the name The Books.
In 2000, The Books started work on what would become their début album Thought for Food. Zammuto and de Jong moved locations constantly during this time, recording in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and finally in the basement of a hostel in North Carolina where Zammuto worked for a while after hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Thought for Food was released on October 22nd, 2002. Praised by critics for its distinctive sound, it featured extensive sampling from obscure sources coupled with mostly acoustic instrumentation.
Shortly after the release of Thought for Food, the band relocated to North Adams, Massachusetts, where Zammuto had graduated at Williams College in 1999, studying chemistry and visual arts. Zammuto and de Jong began the recording of The Lemon of Pink around this time. Anne Doerner, a guest vocalist on the album, said the process was much more arduous than the recording of Thought for Food, with Zammuto working on the album for five straight months.
The Lemon of Pink was released on October 7th, 2003. Critically acclaimed once again by reviewers, it is similar in style to Thought for Food, but oriented more around vocals performed mostly by Anne Doerner.
In 2004, the French Ministry of Culture asked The Books to compose music for a new elevator in their building. The Books released a Mini CD of this work in 2006, under the name Music for a French Elevator and Other Short Format Oddities by the Books.
On April 5, 2005, The Books released their third studio album, Lost and Safe. Zammuto has a greater vocal presence in this album, and the album was criticized for this change of sound. Aside from this, Lost and Safe was well received by critics. Throughout early 2005, The Books had collobarated with electronica artist Scott Herren under his moniker Prefuse 73. The Books featured on his album Surrounded by Silence on "Pagina Dos", and on July 12, Prefuse 73 released the E.P. Prefuse 73 Reads the Books E.P. which featured his remixes of material supplied by The Books, sourced from their entire catalog of releases to that point. Criticism of the album was generally favourable.
Until this point, The Books had only played one concert together in October 2003 at a festival in Chicago, Illinois. They began their first tour with a show on the 26th of April, 2006 at Northampton, Massachusetts,[6] touring North America for three months. Zammuto has expressed apprehensiveness towards touring, but says it is necessary to make a living, given the financial strain he's put under due to people downloading The Books' music via file-sharing.
Following the release of Music for a French Elevator, the band took a break from recording to tend to their new families, tour in support of their albums, and pursue some of their own projects, which included Zammuto scoring a feature documentary about the Biosphere 2. In 2007, they also released a DVD, entitled Play All, containing thirteen music videos and three previously unreleased tracks. Much like their music, the Play All videos are composed of found footage transformed into a collage that matches their music. The Books usually screen these videos during their live performances. From the start of 2005 till July in 2007, they have toured heavily, including two tours in Europe and two Canadian shows. In early 2009, The Books covered the Nick Drake song "Cello Song" in collaboration with José González for the Red Hot Organization's Dark Was the Night fund-raising album.
In an interview in April 2009, Zammuto spoke of The Books' upcoming studio album, "The Way Out." Taking samples from self-help and hypnotherapy cassettes, the album is themed around New Age philosophies. Asked to describe the album, Zammuto said "You're getting verrry sleepy."
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