John Ringhofer

👀

NEW 13min Free-streaming Fan Fiction LP: Link In Bio or here: https://youtu.be/zWS8kk_yi-s Back in the spring of 1999, when Wookieback was the main project that I tried to write songs for, I noticed that a group of the ones I was working on for the science fiction-themed Wookieback also seemed to be about God, almost as if God was writing himself into my Wookieback songs. So I set those ones aside and decided to begin a new solo project with them called Half-handed Cloud, built upon that handful of songs. But what if I'd kept them for Wookieback's final release instead? So here's an imaginary restoration: four songs from Half-handed Cloud's Learning About Your Scale (released later in 1999), along with an additional unreleased 1999 Half-handed Cloud science fiction-themed song! These five other songs--new limbs + a tail, fused onto the robotic torso of Wookieback's final release, June 1999's Let Me Tell You About This Machine EP! Together they unite to form a gigantic 13-minute(!) make-believe album: Wookieback's Learning About Your Scale! Here's to fan-fiction thought experiments! = John = "Restored version" of what could've been Wookieback's Learning About Your Scale is streaming on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/zWS8kk_yi-s = = = = = The original 1999 Wookieback Let Me Tell You About This Machine EP is here: /album/let-me-tell-you-about-this-machine And Half-handed Cloud's Learning About Your Scale [1999] can be found here and regular streaming services (courtesy of @asthmatickittyrecords ): /album/learning-about-your-scale Thanks to @thematthewvollmer & @bdbuckner ! #wookieback #cornerroomrecordings #halfhandedcloud

Here's a post about my uncle, Mark Alan Wing (who died this year on Palm Sunday)--and I'm starting with this picture of me in the early 1980s: I broke my left arm on the first day of 1st Grade in Ackworth, GA by falling off the monkey bars. I remember there being an early cast for it, but when they had to replace the original, my Uncle Mark drew this laser on the second cast! It was incredible--he turned my bum arm into a LASER ARM! Art is powerful! When my parents divorced, my sister and I moved from Oklahoma to Topton, NC, living with our grandparents for awhile. Uncle Mark was there too--my sister and I stayed in the attic above his bedroom. After class, he and I would watch re-runs of David Carradine's "Kung Fu," or play Intellivision video games. He blew my mind by telling me that Superman's hair was sometimes so black that it looked blue, and the comics proved it. After they moved to Florida, we'd visit in the summer, and play with his sampling keyboard. The first time I heard The Minutemen, or Elvis Costello's first album, or "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers was on cassette mixes he made us. Uncle Mark (like his father) was an artist, and a fun Ray Johnson kind of character--sent me mail art (like these portraits of Andy Warhol pictured here). At one point, I drew my own series of Uncle Mark portraits with my short-lived high school Pointillism technique (last slide). Unfortunately, about 13 years ago, Uncle Mark had a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed for the remainder of his life. He is survived by his his three sisters (and their families), and daughter Arin ( @arinosaurusrex ) and her family. God bless kind, fun, and inspirational uncles! PS: If he were still alive, he'd want me to say that all artwork, except the final slide (c) Mark Alan Wing. #markalanwing

SIX-MONTH ANNIVERSARY! Half-handed Cloud's "Foiled EP N°3" is a half-year old, and is now streaming in full on the Half-h YouTube channel--link in bio's icon row or copy this: https://youtu.be/9OBU2vOa3Uc Also available on Bandcamp; /album/foiled-ep-n-3 This 8 song / 9-minute mini-album was recorded on a Tascam Porta02mkII 4-track Cassette Machine (with tape-manipulated sound effects instead of synthesizers) at the Bureau of Radiophonic Research, during the mornings of two weeks when my wife took our kids to the pool for swimming lessons in Helsinki, July 2025. Other sounds sourced from my old self-recorded Berkeley, CA 4-track demo tapes [2002-2009], with contributions from Bert Hiscock (RIP) on cello, + a couple cassette tape loops, recorded with my kids during Covid times. Children, let us not be heartless! #halfhandedcloud #bureauofradiophonicresearch #portastudio

Why pick just one @half.handedcloud LP when you can get the “Collect-Them-All” bundle? The bundle includes ‘What’s the Remedy?’ 7-inch, ‘As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth’ LP, ‘Flying Scroll Flight Control’ LP, ‘Gathered Out Of Thin Air ‘LP, and ‘Flutterama’ LP. Visit our store or link in bio to purchase.

Can't go wrong with Dear Nora's New Year EP on New Year's Day: /album/the-new-year This 2002 self-recorded 11-song 24-minute EP was mostly captured on a Tascam 8-track cassette tape machine, my favorite thing they ever put out. My friends initially saw Dear Nora ( @dearnorareality ) play at the Berkeley, CA church venue (The Ramp) that I helped with (while I was away on tour), and bought me this disc because they knew I'd love it. They were right. Got the vinyl version too (with bonus tracks) as soon as it was available. Happy New Year! #dearnora

OUT NOW: Half-handed Cloud contributed the exclusive NEW FREE song "Seasonal Soup Sabotage" to 2025's Badgerland Christmas compilation [Link in bio]! /album/seasonal-goop-2025 These Canadians' 2025 Holiday compilation is titled "Seasonal Goop," and @the_vries invited me to make the artwork this year (photos included here). The Half-h song is about trying to trick my kids into thinking that pepper comes from a place closer to home. In the process, it becomes a carefully-guarded secret ingredient, and someone is eyeing it on the sly! BONUS--GREAT GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST!!!--there are two(!) different Half-handed Cloud Holiday playlists full of older original Christmastime songs?!? [Links also in bio] 1. Pre-2019 Christmas songs on streaming services, courtesy of @asthmatickittyrecords https://halfhandedcloud.lnk.to/11songsofchristmas 2. Five (2020-2024) Christmas songs with minimally-animated dancing trees: https://youtu.be/WFNddnV3wuw • And don't forget--I self-released the still-fresh Half-h Foiled EP N°3 just three months ago, [Link also in bio] /album/foiled-ep-n-3 Things can be dark now, but turning brighter soon, Merry Christmas! #badgerland #halfhandedcloud #BureauOfRadiophonicResearch Thank you @badgerlandmusic !

Half-handed Cloud is bringing the holiday cheer with “11 Songs Of Christmas” - A 15-minute holiday digital EP! Tracks 1-3 are from @half.handedcloud ’s 2009 “Cut Me Down & Count My Rings” singles compilation, and 4-11 are from his 2019 “Gathered Out Of Thin Air” singles compilation. Stream it wherever you get your music, or head to @YouTube for ‘12 Songs of Christmas’ - featuring a bonus cover of “Star Carol.”

Yesterday was the 20th Anniversary of Sufjan's final Illinoisemaker show (at Amsterdam's Paradiso). It was incredible getting to be part of that family, tour the USA, discover Europe for the first time, etc. Here's photos (including a cartoon of me(?) by Laura Park + a picture from today of my remaining Illinoisemaker cheerleading artifacts), & something I wrote: In the summer of 2005, in order to support his recent "Illinois" album, Sufjan Stevens decided to assemble a band mostly made up of his buddies, like his Michigan Militia band tours in 2004. What we lacked in spectacle, professionalism, & sophistication (I'm primarily talking about myself), we made up for with cheerleading enthusiasm, pyramids, "spirit fingers," & genuine camaraderie. We had so much fun! Here's the breakdown of who was on stage for Sufjan's Illinoisemakers U.S./Canada/European tour during the second half of 2005: The core players: - - - - - - Bridgit DeCook - singing/glockenspiel James McAlister - drum-kit (+ Wurlitzer) Craig Montoro - trumpet/singing John Ringhofer - trombone/banjo/Melodion/singing Sufjan Stevens - lead vocals/guitar/banjo/Wurlitzer/piano Jeff Shoop - bass/singing Shara Worden - guitar/singing With: - - - - - - Liz Janes: singing/glockenspiel (west coast/midwest/NYC) Katrina Kerns: singing/glockenspiel (scattered shows/NYC) All 9 of us were on stage for some shows in the midwest, + NYC Bowery Ballroom concerts. Sufjan had us switch instruments too, all of us taking turns on piano, etc. For instance, if you hear an acoustic guitar mess up on a 2005 live recording of "The Fifty States," it's me playing the guitar, not Sufjan. I read on Wikipedia that Sufjan's 2005 Illinoisemakers band included "a string section of eight to ten members," but this confuses the spunky and dorky 2005 Illinoisemakers band (us), with 2006's jaw-dropping grand & majestic bird wings band (including strings) that toured in support of Sufjan's "Avalanche" album. We didn't have a string section in The Illinoisemakers, though Shara and James were also in Sufjan's 2006 bird wings band. Let me know if you have questions about the Illinoisemaker tour (etc), Long live The Illinoisemakers!

Visit to Graz, Austria (Österreich!) Last week, my older kids and I got to take a cheapo flight from Helsinki to Vienna, plus a train trip on the Alpine Railway (stunning!) down for a quick visit to Graz--Austria's second biggest city (which some joke about as Italy's northernmost city). My wife has a job offer at the University Of Graz, so our sons and I went down to check it out. In this day and age, decent university professorships are hard to come by, so we're taking it seriously, even though we love Helsinki too. Here's some pictures. Fun fact: my paternal grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Austria as a 2-year-old, which is why our family name is very very Austrian. And Aldi grocery stores in Austria are even named "Hofer."

Hi! It's Bandcamp Friday & there's a new 8-song Half-handed Cloud release, Foiled EP N°3--out now! Link in profile, or copy this handy link into your browser: /album/foiled-ep-n-3 In 2015 (10-years this month), I began Half-handed Cloud's Foiled EP series as a way to gather song leftovers, and serve them up as new and nutritious snack. Foiled EP N°3 follows in her older sister's footsteps, with some songs written during sessions for 2022's Flutterama album, some more recently, and some recorded material dating from as long ago as 2002. About 99.9% of this new nine-minute Foiled EP installment was tracked on 4-track cassette tape (with other portions recorded on hand-held cassette). The two older Foiled EPs were eventually included in 2019's Gathered Out Of Thin Air, released by @asthmatickittyrecords . But Foiled EP N°3 is exclusive to Bandcamp. Okay, thanks for checking this out, and have a nice day. = John = PS: thanks to @bdbuckner for fixing the 4-track, and to @ezrajustin for generous support + wormholes! #halfhandedcloud #bureauofradiophonicresearch

Some Ringhofer Family summer 2025 pictures, mostly away from Finland on a USA road trip.