Distant Reader

This is unlike anything you've experienced at Clio's before.

Distant Reader—a project helmed by East Bay–based editor, writer, and musician Emmerich Anklam—celebrates in performance the release of Place of Words Now Gone, available November 8 from Lily Tapes & Discs.

Place of Words Now Gone is a fully-realized narrative suite: It describes an eerie spell of silence that spreads through a remote community, leaving pain and desperation in its wake. The story, which gestated over a series of long train rides through the continental US, comes across as an open-ended fable, one that accomodates both grief and—even in times when words fail us—repair. Around the margins, lush accompaniment and production by Andrew Weathers serves as a form of text painting, bolstering the contours of Anklam’s vivid storytelling and heartfelt delivery.

At Clio’s on November 19, starting at precisely 7pm, Anklam will perform Place of Words Now Gone in its entirety. More information about the project is available at lilytapesanddiscs.bandcamp.com.

Emmerich Anklam is managing editor at the independent publishing house Heyday, where he has been on the staff since 2015. His essays have appeared in the magazines Dispatches and Protean, and he has written for music publications since 2014. Anklam has performed music under the name Distant Reader since 2016. He was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California, and lives in Berkeley.

Host or Publisher Clio's Books