Nora Stanley and Benny Bock - Distance of the Moon

Distance of the Moon, Nora Stanley and Benny Bock’s first album together as a duo, is a deep journey into acoustic, electronic, and improvisatory realms. With a friendship dating back to high school in Berkeley, CA, the saxophone/ keyboard duo has been making music together for nearly a decade. Hikes through the Marin Headlands and Mt. Tam set the landscape for a long friendship that only deepened when the duo found themselves both living in Ohio, attending Oberlin Conservatory. Cross country road trips and weekend excursions through cornfields further solidified a connection both personal and musical that Nora and Benny have continued to build throughout the past four years, despite being situated on opposite coasts.
 
For their debut album, the two friends draw on a trove of shared musical, literary, and cinematic influences. Their connection to and love for the natural landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area is also present throughout the album, referenced in songs like “Into The Flats” and “Hawk Hill”, the latter, an homage to the late Pharaoh Sanders.

Distance of the Moon features the duo on a plethora of instruments, capturing a variety of textures and sounds from pump organ and prepared piano to Oberheim Four Voice synthesizer and baritone guitar. Featured guests include Abe Rounds, CJ Camerieri, Daphne Chen, Doug Stuart, Jacob Richards, Jeff Parker, Mark Giuliana, Myles Martin and Owen Clapp.
 
Nora and Benny draw influence from the duo recordings of Charlie Haden and Ornette Coleman as well as the playful and exploratory music of Argentinian composer Juana Molina. Other influences include LA artists Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, Keith Jarrett, Pharoah Sanders, composers such as Olivier Messiaen, Caroline Shaw, Arvo Part, and Indonesian Gamelan.