Liner Notes

The Soft Focus

Sarasota, a double LP

Recorded July of 2016 – January of 2022, principally in Tucson, but also in Orlando and L.A.

Pretentious Audio Fidelity Disclaimer:

Limitations on my skills as a studio engineer (i.e., I'm working with only a basic competency of the process of mastering) necessitate the following disclaimer:

For an accurate representation of what's been recorded, please only listen to these songs with either (a) headphones, (b) studio monitors, (c) a stereo system, or (d) a car stereo.

Doing otherwise (i.e., listening on your laptop's, tablet's, or phone's speakers) may create the illusion of clipping, whereas in point of fact no track ever exceeds -0.04dB.

A Note on the Thematic Inception of this Album:

In short, this album is about the people and places of Sarasota, FL.

PART I:

1. bad medicine

2. you kept me here

3. furniture [schuler, potter, orem, clark, kim]

4. the quiet

5. barely knew you

6. like a banyan tree

7. the cellar

8. bursting [schuler, ozkan, clark, mccann, braun]

9. a desert song

10. quick and to the pointless

11. sarasota, synchronic

12. sui generis

13. softly

14. this ouroboros

PART II:

15. always in or out of love [schuler, potter, orem, bar/van zyl]

16. pyramid

17. you kept me here, just briefly (reprise of track 2: alternate version)

18. shadow play

19. never a right time

20. the lazarus sign

21. you’re a bad dream and i’m a moth to that flame

22. but if i moved my lips thus and so

23. there you are, moon, mine for now

24. quickened the pulse

25. tourniquet

26. cut from the same cloth, please never die

27. things left unsaid, and you’re already dead

28. everything you never knew, or maybe did

Thanks to Meg McGivney (2018)

All songs written, recorded, produced, mixed & mastered by Matt Schuler, except the following, where writing credits are shared:

Track 2, written by Schuler, Clark, Kim
Track 8, written by Schuler, Ozkan, Clark, McCann, Braun