During the pandemic, I spent what free time I had working with a handful of authors, artists and labels to help bring physical editions of their work into the world. I adopted the name Mutual Skies for this…imprint or whatever you want to call it. It’s a continuity of work and input, a way of tagging things I had a hand in. It’s not a label, it’s not a vanity press. That’s not how we order music or anything else anymore. The artist is everything.
What I most wanted to bring out, more than any music I’d come across in years, was an album that Will Kraus scrapped in 2019. We’d exchanged notes on these tracks as he worked them up from as early as 2016, but ultimately he decided to pivot to a more focused sonic onslaught with View No Country.
Today, I’m happy to announce the release of Eye Escapes, in a limited edition of 300 Super Jewel Box CDs. We’ve been scheming for about two months on this, Will balancing out my nostalgia for bootleg record design with the long view on his catalog as Kraus. I put this package together, but the music is all him. Two tracks — “Into You” and “Depend” — are exclusive to the first edition CD, and will not be available on any streaming platform, or potential future editions of the record.