After 2002, we were thinking that perhaps it was time to "retire". Although we've always strived to cover different ground with our musick, everything was starting to sound the same, the process was getting tiresome, the playfulness and invention seemed to have gone out of it. We decided to continue but only if we could break out of most of the habits we'd fallen into. With that in mind, we set out to make a guitar-only album, figuring that concentrating on an instrument neither of us was any good with, we might find an untapped vein of creativity and create an album that didn't end up sounding "dark & somber" but rather a light, flowing work of peaceful bliss.

In September of 2003, after about a year's work, we released Remission, an album of mostly improvised pieces, with samples and some lyrics overdubbed (again, new ground for us), but mostly recorded direct and "live". 2002—2003 were not good years for us by any stretch; at best we can say they were poor and full of disappointments and unhappy drama, and unfortunately those outside circumstances crept directly into Remission, despite our best intentions.

There are certainly upsides to self-released musick. Most obviously, it's allowed many a musician or band to get their work out there and known, without the absolute headache of and wallet-destroying need to tour and live out of a van. It has made musick something more accessible as a form of expression, akin to painting or writing — just about anyone can afford to do it if they have the desire and drive. And we have a ton of musick we love that was either self-released or got the artist their start in the business.

It's also nice not to have to be beholden to an outside party who may or may not share your vision for your project (this is why all of our releases are also completely designed, hand-made and hand-assembled by us) and who may not be able to live up to your expectations or their guarantees as to what they can do and when. (Note to artists: finding a good label that will support you and work with you is extremely rare. We can recommend a few if contacted.)

But there are downsides to self-released musick too. We spend much more time putting together the packaging for our releases than we do writing and recording these days. Financially, we've always lost and keep losing money and will unlikely ever break even, although that's often the case when dealing with a label. But most importantly, having your music released or distributed through someone else is much like a writer having an editor, or at least a publisher. It provides some kind of feedback on whether or not your musick, at least at the beginning, is something actually worth releasing.

We have spent much time trying to decide if things were good enough to put out, if we should have in hindsight, and so on. Of course, most artists are never totally happy with the end result, and like most of life learn to settle for "good enough", and there are plenty of established artists who can sell material just on their name/reputation value alone, but being the type of overly-snobby and persnickety "artist" types we are, we spend quite a bit of time trying to decide whether or not a release is worth doing. And while we certainly look back on some more fondly than others (which is to be expected), we have always been extremely disappointed by what we set out to do with Remission and while in some ways it was exactly what we wanted, in most others a complete failure in our eyes.

But there is one other upside to self-released musick that we discovered after months of wondering why we were producing copies of Remission at all - if one can self-release musick, why can't one self-unrelease it just as well? And without a label/distributor, there's no need to worry about reissues or moving unsold product or all the other burdens that come with such a commitment. So one day we grinningly decided that Remission would be retired and replaced by a re-issued, re-released version that would live up to our exceed our original expectations. New tracks were recorded, others finished, some replaced, and everything was remixed and remastered.

We are finally happy with the results, which we are pleased to announce:

Remittance - a "reissue" and new release combined. Disappointed by Remission in many ways, we have atoned for our sins with a recording that fulfills our original ideas and expectations. We are finally happy with the results.