Nora Stanley & Benny Bock Share | "Distance of the Moon"

On their first album together as a duo, Distance of the Moon is a deep journey into acoustic, electronic, and improvisatory realms by Nora Stanley and Benny Bock. 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. 

Nora and Benny share uncanny similarities in their upbringing including the music, art and cultures they were exposed to from a young age. These similarities are reflected in a parallel musical connection with the duo reacting on a deep instinctual level, completing each other’s musical sentences and drawing from a vast wealth of shared experiences, values and interests. The opportunity to convene at Pete Min’s studio, Lucy’s Meat Market, allowed the duo to finally document the powerful musical connection they have been developing with the help of many friends. Distance of the Moon brings together shared musical, literary, and cinematic influences. Improvisation, spontaneity and instinct make up the heart of the creation process for this record, which was co-produced by Min. 

The duo’s connection to and deep love for the natural landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area is present throughout the record and is referenced in songs like “Into The Flats” and “Hawk Hill”, which is also 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. 

Distance of the Moon features guests Abe Rounds, CJ Camerieri, Daphne Chen, Doug Stuart, Jacob Richards, Jeff Parker, Mark Giuliana, Myles Martin and Owen Clapp. This is the first full length release from Nora Stanley & Benny Bock and Benny’s second release on Colorfield Records. 

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.