Funky grooves with driving bass and hihats soothed by a lovely saxophone. xx

Kelpland

Kelpland_(Original)

Embark on a celestial journey with Moonday. This sonic odyssey captures the essence of the cosmos, blending ethereal soundscapes with rhythmic beats that pulsate like the universe's heartbeat.

As you immerse yourself in Moonday's otherworldly vibrations, you'll feel the gravitational pull of its hypnotic basslines while celestial synths soar through the auditory stratosphere. Organic elements intertwine with futuristic electronic textures, creating a mesmerizing fusion that feels as if it was plucked from the lunar surface itself.

Each layer of Moonday is meticulously crafted to evoke the mysterious allure of our closest celestial neighbour. As you explore this astral landscape, you'll be transported to a realm where technology and nature intertwine seamlessly, creating an audio experience that defies convention.

Close your eyes and let this track guide you on an interstellar adventure as boundless as the night sky. With Moonday, the cosmos is at your fingertips, and you'll never look at electronic music the same way again. Connect with the universe, and let the music illuminate your path on this cosmic voyage.

Moonday

Moonday (Original)

Made over a few weeks of exploring the dense wooded ravines of Table mountain, tumbling into the vast Atlantic horizon, a selection of songs accompanied me that would form a story of rocky screes and sprawling roots and salt worn granite boulders, draped in Autumn's golden mantle. The sounds of the Hollow.

The Hollow

JAMES K
"ELEKTRA (Scream Through the Eyes of a Statue)"
CD in jewel case w OBI strip
Edition of 250
Release 19.01.2024

“Why is female sound bad to hear?” - Anne Carson

ELEKTRA (Scream Through the Eyes of a Statue), is a multimedia performance broadly conceptualizing the female voice as an “X-ray to the bones of sound.” It was commissioned by Issue Project Room and performed April 26th, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York.  Taking poet, essayist, and Classics professor Anne Carson’s translation of Sophocles’ tragic play Elektra as a point of departure, James K monstrously externalizes the inner sonic world of female vocalization through a scored collaborative framework interpreting each of Elektra’s “screams” in the Greek tragedy.

The piece develops unique methods of screaming through musical and non-musical objects -- performed through manipulated text, videos, and live contributions from James K (voice, electronics, violin, video) Brooklyn-based musician Eve Essex (alto saxophone, various winds and electronics), electronic producer and performer Dylan Shir (electronics), composer and cellist Leila Bordreuil (cello), and poet/artist Eli V Manuscript (textual alchemy, projections).

Within this collaborative framework, James K scores “the scream” to express the various relations between hysteria and the “gender of sound” -- a blurred and overlapping feminine sound defined by its fragmentation and resistance to scripted narrative. Elektra’s presence is emblematic of a radical alienation that occurs as a standing discrepancy to tragic convention. Amongst society, she is the anti-dialogue, a symbol of protest.

‘my cries are wings, they pierce the cage’

Elektra’s vocalizations pierce through language, revealing a shattered interior of multifaceted reflections constructed against habitual linguistic or vocal expression. In tragic convention, such habitual vocalization takes the shape of the often terse, patriarchal voice of the Greek philosopher -- a didactic, conceptual container in opposition to the expressive “becoming” of Elektra’s cries that riot against fixity. As a tragic character, Elektra is radical and alien for Sophocles and his audience -- an ever-present conviction that demonstrates how female shame has constructed a life-size funeral urn around her.

Through translating a text within layers of translations, a fragmentation of the firsthand into traces, James K mirrors Elektra’s deconstruction of reality into siren shards, offering an experiencing of female sign language as a means of sabotage to the world of normal utterances. By sliding on the edge of convention to sharply abandoning rational speech and sonic construction, K’s piece aims to embody Elektra’s strained and stretching screams, as cuts against the glass; her sabotage bound within the blanket loop. In response to rigid vocalization and fixed sonic understandings, ELEKTRA (Scream Through the Eyes of a Statue) takes the scream as an unruly, emotive sonic experience projecting outwards into objects and audience: to the very bones of sound.

This is a live recording of its single performance. Recorded by Bob Bellerue at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY. Mixed by James K. Mastered by Jack Callahan. Performed by James K, Eve Essex, Via App, and Leila Bordreuil. Conceived and scored by James K for four players, and written in collaborative improvisation with the performers. Textual alchemy by Eli V Manuscript. Design and layout by Nicola Tirabasso and James K.

JAMES K - ELEKTRA (iDEAL225 CD excerpt)

A tonal journey inwards. 

- Compassion is needed, perhaps the most, when looking IN. 

Living Room

Looking In

This song began from the melody; sent to me from a higher form of being, one late summer night while sitting with my brother on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. 
The words, written later on, just kind of rolled off of my tongue...

Loop

This is the only song on the album in which the lyrics are not origional. 
This passage is a rearrangement of a few paragraphs from the book 'Cloud Atlas' written by David Mitchell.

Atlas

Promises is the bonus track to the album Lifing. 
Not your usuall love song..
It's about overcoming the stories we tell ourselves about love, and the limitations and stress that derive from these stories.
It's about letting go of all of that and coming back to our true selves.

Promises

RITUAL (evocation)

RITUAL (evocation) [feat. Ishq & Cherif Hashizume]

Tachérie's set at Petit Paris, AfrikaBurn - Thursday night 7-8:30pm 

Enjoy this upbeat ethno and tribal house set and fall into the magic of Thursday night on the Binnekring

Tachérie @ Petit Paris AfrikaBurn (Upbeat Ethno House)

A magical sunset session, on top of the beautiful rhino Loki, at AfrikaBurn 2025. Incredible to return once again to Loki!

Kelpland_(Original)

Jakob Slabbert