'Blindness' album
https://moochinaboutltd.bandcamp.com/album/blindness
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/1qHuRR8HuuAkPb1VTPSExd
LinkTree https://linktr.ee/fredabong

Alternative crooner-philosopher Fred Abong presents his new 'Blindness' album, released via Moochin' About Records. Previewed by the lead track 'Heaven', these ten tracks comprise his eighth long-player to date. At the same time, he's shared a new video for the album's title track.

Now based in New Orleans, Abong is no stranger to the US music scene, having got his musical start in the 1980’s on the Rhode Island hardcore punk scene. In the early 1990s, he played bass for Throwing Muses and then Belly.

Putting music on hold for academic pursuits, he then earned a PhD in Humanities and taught at various universities for eight years before returning to music. Now back as a solo artist, Abong also plays bass in the Kristin Hersh Electric Trio. He has also been a practicing Vedic astrologer for the past 20 plus years.

"This album is a first for me. Composed entirely on keyboard/piano, I wanted to challenge my songwriting, to not rely on guitar to guide or limit what showed up. The first and biggest problem with this is that I don’t play piano. So I really had to have faith that the gods of music would show mercy on me … would be there for me if I was earnestly there for them. As always, I’ll let the listener decide whether or not my instrumental humility was divinely rewarded, but I personally feel that the Blindness album, if nothing else, reflects a willingness to follow artistic intuition wherever it may lead. This is something of a credo for me. In love as in music, I follow my heart," says Fred Abong.

A Filipino-American singer-songwriter, Abong's music has a raw and unpolished production aesthetic with an overall direct, though deceptively imaginative and oblique, presentation. Taking a detour from the musical road most traveled, Abong wrote the material for this album on the piano rather than bass or guitar, effectively opening up a new compositional and emotional space for him.

“Love is blind. Is this a truism or just true? I suppose it depends on where you are on the romantic journey. If the romance is fresh, then infatuation and sexual desire are usually foregrounded. You are ‘blinded by love’ and can see nothing else. Anyone who’s ever fallen in love is familiar with this. It’s dizzying," says Abong.

"As things progress, or in order for things to progress, another type of blindness must develop. Being blinded by love, in this case, means accepting or even loving difference - being blind to competing or incompatible attitudes. It means placing the other’s happiness on an equal footing to one’s own. It’s not dizzying; it’s grounding. True love, then, combines both forms of blindness. It’s ‘blind in both eyes’, you could say. I think Blindness, both the song and the album, reflects (among other things) a pursuit of this total love blindness - it’s hopeful and aspirational in that sense.”

Between the bookends of the new 'Blindness' album and 'Homeless', the first set of songs as a solo artist, originally self-released in 2018, Abong has released several critically acclaimed records, including his self-recorded 2023 'Fear Pageant' and earlier albums 'Yellowthroat', 'Pulsing' and 'Our Mother of Perpetual Help'.

On May 9, the 'Blindness' album will be released on CD, along with his 'Homeless' album, both of which can be pre-ordered via the label's Bandcamp. It will also be available everywhere digitally, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp.

CREDITS
Music and lyrics by Fred Abong
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Fred Abong
All instruments performed by Fred Abong
Videos by Fred Abong
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
Album reeleased by Moochin' About Records

“Purity and honesty in his approach that gets more and more intense with each track... like you’re riding a wave of energy” ~ Higher Plain Music

“Beautifully raw, uncluttered and quite cinematic... Melodically infectious and lyrically mysterious" ~ Newport Naked

“Abong’s vocal delivery is a testament to his storytelling prowess. His voice carries the weight of experience, each phrase brimming with authenticity and emotion... connecting on a profound level with the emotions that make us human” ~ Skylight Webzine

“So unique that there is no possible way this music could be mistaken as being performed by anyone else" ~ Amplify Music Magazine

“An almost painful intimacy to his words despite the oblique phrasing and imagery he conjures” ~ Isolation Records

New Orleans-based alternative folk-rock artist Fred Abong presents 'Heaven', the first taste of his new 'Blindness' album, to be released on May 9 via Moochin' About Records. While most famously associated with the bass guitar, Abong wrote this material for this album on the piano, effectively opening up a new compositional and emotional space for him.

His eighth long-player to date, Abong is no stranger to the US alternative music realm, having got his musical start in the 1980’s on the Rhode Island hardcore punk scene. In the early 1990s, he played bass for Throwing Muses and then Belly. Putting music on hold for academic pursuits, he then earned a PhD in Humanities and taught at various universities for eight years before returning to music. Now back as a solo artist, Abong also plays bass in the Kristin Hersh Electric Trio.

“Heaven is probably the most straightforward song on 'Blindness'. It's kind of an anthemic rock ballad, delivered in my own understated version of theatricality and drama. There's maybe even a touch of Broadway in there, much to my embarrassment … but there you have it. Lyrically, it's pretty downbeat, but what else is new? I am, always have been, and always will be a seeker after something truer and more ideal than what I find in the social and cultural sphere," says Fred Abong.

"Heaven is just one of many musical snapshots of an ongoing struggle to find or create an earthly paradise for myself and my loved ones and the disappointment and growing exhaustion of coming up empty again (and again). To be clear, Heaven is not an ode to the afterlife … it's more prophetic and atemporal, about finding eternity here and now rather than in an imagined future.”

This first single introduces one of the album's primary themes - salvation. In some sense, it's the album's only theme. Where and how is heaven found? Through some kind of spiritual awakening or realization of the ephemerality and impermanence of material life? In mystical union with the beloved? By living in the moment? By freeing oneself from the strictures of 'straight life' and going off the grid? By being blind to present reality and living in the glory days of the past? Or maybe there's only ever momentary salvation, such as experienced when being kissed? What about suicide? All of these questions and more are explored here… but hopefully temporarily resolved when set to music, which “hath charms to soothe the savage beast' in all of us.

A Filipino-American singer-songwriter, Abong's music has a raw and unpolished production aesthetic with an overall direct, though deceptively imaginative and oblique, presentation. Abong has also been a practicing Vedic astrologer for the past 20 plus years.

Between the bookends of the new 'Blindness' album and 'Homeless', the first set of songs as a solo artist, originally self-released in 2018, Abong has released several critically acclaimed records, including his self-recorded 2023 'Fear Pageant' and earlier albums 'Yellowthroat', 'Pulsing' and 'Our Mother of Perpetual Help'.

As of April 9, 'Heaven' is available everywhere digitally, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. On May 9, the full 'Blindness' album will be released on CD, along with his 'Homeless' album, both of which can be pre-ordered via the label's Bandcamp.

CREDITS
Music and lyrics by Fred Abong
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Fred Abong
All instruments performed by Fred Abong
Videos by Fred Abong
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
Album released by Moochin' About Records

'Blindness' album pre-order
https://moochinaboutltd.bandcamp.com/album/blindness
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/1qHuRR8HuuAkPb1VTPSExd
LinkTree https://linktr.ee/fredabong

Fred Abong (Throwing Muses, Belly) releases eighth full-length album 'Blindness' via Moochin' About Records

American alternative crooner Fred Abong (Throwing Muses, Belly) presents 'Heaven', previewing new 'Blindness' LP