Two tracks from the EP 'For A Closer Walk (With You).' Full EP on https://butlerandbutler.bandcamp.com/album/for-a-closer-walk

For A Closer Walk sees musician and composer Jessica Sligter take a deep dive into her decades long fascination of shapenote singing.

For this purpose Sligter founded ‘The Shapes,’ an ensemble curated from a niche pool of experimental or contemporary musicians who also cultivate a shapenote singing practice. With a line-up consisting of Tom Oldham, Meittam Govreen, Owen Gardner (from Horse Lords) and Sligter herself, ‘For A Closer Walk’ sees The Shapes explore the singing practice of a small shapenote community from the swamps of Georgia, USA. They meticulously studied their sweeping, ornamented singing style, and Sligter playfully pulled apart its fabric in her compositions, in an attempt to understand its DNA, and in an attempt to understand her own relationship to this area of practice.

For A Closer Walk (With You) traces the roots of this intimate material back to settlers and back towards Europe, and tries to lay a new path for shapenote, a re-appropriation, a secular, anti-colonialist way forward that retains community and egalitarianist values from shapenote singing practice.
With four strong voices unbothered by commercial ethical norms, paired with electric guitar and a lonely set of sine waves, this collection of works defies the definition of ‘product,’...  more
credits
released November 26, 2024

Compositions by Jessica Sligter. Text of Port Song by Berryman Hicks or Wiliam Walker (original title "Hick's Farewell"), with a one word-modification by Sligter. Bonus Track So Long, My Dear Friend text and music by Sligter.
Recorded, re-amped, and edited by Jessica Sligter.
Mixed by Kyrre Låstad.
Mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus Lab.
Cover picture by Camille Blake.

For A Closer Walk

Polycrisis:yes! by Jessica Sligter (Butler & Butler, september 2018). Sale:
https://smarturl.it/Polycrisis 
On Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, a.o.

Polycrisis:yes!

Nuts And Bolts Podcast is back with the first episode of Season #4, where host Jessica Sligter interviews composer, sound artist, and researcher Cathy van Eck (1979 Belgium/Netherlands), whose work combines elements from performance art, electronic music, and visual arts. 

Cathy teaches at the Department for Sound Arts of the University of the Arts in Bern, Switzerland. In 2017 her seminal book Between Air and Electricity was published, detailing how musicians have explored how to transform microphones and loudspeakers from “inaudible” technology into genuinely new musical instruments. 

This episode was edited and mixed by Jessica Sligter. Made possible with the support of Norsk Kulturfond. 

Go to https://nutsandbolts.space for information about all Nuts And Bolts’ activity, such as tutorial videos and workshops, and to become a member of Nuts And Bolts association.

© Nuts And Bolts 2021

Nuts And Bolts S4E1 Cathy van Eck

The Dream Has Died

The State Of The Union

Outtake of demo-version by Sligter for Two Figures, a commissioned work for Oslo14 vocal ensemble in 2015.

Two Figures - outtake of demo-version (Sligter, 2015)

Outtake of State Of Insecurity (2021). Composition by Sligter, with improvised contributions by Audrey Chen and Xavier Lopez. Text by Sligter and quotes from Isabell Lorey and Elizabeth A. Povinelli. 
Audrey Chen - voice, objects
Xavier Lopez - synthesizer
Jessica Sligter - voice, electronics, artistic direction

Recorded by Baptiste Moulin in april 2021, mixed by Jessica Sligter.

State Of Insecurity (2021) Outtake

Buy full release at https://butlerandbutler.bandcamp.com/album/room-one

Played and recorded by Jessica Sligter at Elektronmusikstudioen EMS in Stockholm.
Edited and Mixed by Jessica Sligter.
Mastered by Lasse Marhaug.

released March 21, 2023
© Butler & Butler

Shrew (2023)

Concept and composition by Jessica Sligter. 
Co-composition by Magda Mayas - prepared piano
Deborah Walker - cello
Sarah Saviet - violin
Recording by Jessica Sligter

Outtake soundtrack for Celler og Vev video-work by Mai Hofstad Gunnes (2022)

Jessica Sligter live @ Silent Green, 20th of June 2024. Update: fixed file now uploaded!

Live Solo Set @ Silent Green 20.06.24

Two tracks from the EP 'For A Closer Walk (With You).' For A Closer Walk sees musician and composer Jessica Sligter take a deep dive into her decades long fascination of shapenote singing.

For this purpose Sligter founded ‘The Shapes,’ an ensemble curated from a niche pool of experimental or contemporary musicians who also cultivate a shapenote singing practice. With a line-up consisting of Tom Oldham, Meittam Govreen, Owen Gardner (from Horse Lords) and Sligter herself, ‘For A Closer Walk’ sees The Shapes explore the singing practice of a small shapenote community from the swamps of Georgia, USA. They meticulously studied their sweeping, ornamented singing style, and Sligter playfully pulled apart its fabric in her compositions, in an attempt to understand its DNA, and in an attempt to understand her own relationship to this area of practice.

For A Closer Walk (With You) traces the roots of this intimate material back to settlers and back towards Europe, and tries to lay a new path for shapenote, a re-appropriation, a secular, anti-colonialist way forward that retains community and egalitarianist values from shapenote singing practice.
With four strong voices unbothered by commercial ethical norms, paired with electric guitar and a lonely set of sine waves, this collection of works defies the definition of ‘product,’...  more
credits
released November 26, 2024

Compositions by Jessica Sligter. Text of Port Song by Berryman Hicks or Wiliam Walker (original title "Hick's Farewell"), with a one word-modification by Sligter. Bonus Track So Long, My Dear Friend text and music by Sligter.
Recorded, re-amped, and edited by Jessica Sligter.
Mixed by Kyrre Låstad.
Mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus Lab.
Cover picture by Camille Blake.

Port I

Weaving Shapes

Port Song

The Finest Hour

The Endless End

In the first episode of this series, Sligter talks to Norwegian artist and author Jenny Hval. Known for concept albums such as Blood Bitch, and the accompanying 'bloody' performances, Jenny Hval divulges her how concept and technology merge in her work process.

Nuts And Bolts is a podcast for music-lovers and music-makers. Jessica Sligter, a recording artist and producer herself, re-introduces listeners to some of their favourite artists from an angle otherwise rarely touched upon. Womxn artists are deeply involved in hardware and software, and Nuts And Bolts is there to nerd out with them.

Picture by Jenny Berger Myhre

Nuts And Bolts S1E1 Jenny Hval

Listen with headphones! 
Jessica Sligter with Sarah Hennies plays The Great Unveiling off Polycrisis:yes! (Butler & Butler 2018) at Femme Brutal, Kafé Hærverk, Oslo, november 2018.

The Great Unveiling - Jessica Sligter + Sarah Hennies - Live

Swedish composer and electronic musician Maria W Horn is our guest at Nuts And Bolts gear-talk podcast, episode #2.

Horn works immersively with electronics; her main weapon of choice, Supercollider, is but one of many software and hardware tools that she interacts and experiments with to create and manipulate her compositions. From mechanical electronic beats to multidisciplinary installations, to textural conceptual works, Horn lets us in on some of her techniques and thoughts about gear.

Nuts And Bolts is hosted and made by Jessica Sligter, co-engineered by Bridget Ferrill, and co-produced by Anne Gerd Grimsby Haarr. This episode was supported by NOPA and FoFoGoFo.

Nuts And Bolts S2E2 Maria W Horn

Season #2 of gear-talk podcast Nuts And Bolts comes to an end with a fourth episode, where host Jessica Sligter meets Maja S. K. Ratkje, at her home in the Norwegian woods. A prolific performer, improviser and composer, technology is a part of Ratkje’s practice across the board.

Chance versus control, working versus broken, throwing away versus fixing. Also oscillators, cassettes, making contact mics, tailor-made plugins, and more, where woven together with many impromptu demonstrations. A dense conversation, fuelled by skill and play.

An immenselysatisfying experience to end our season with. Before season #3 hits, Nuts And Bolts will be publishing their first video-series of artist portraits and gear-tutorials.

Seek us out on Instagram and Youtube, and stay tuned! Nuts And Bolts is hosted and made by Jessica Sligter, and co-engineered by Bridget Ferrill.

This episode was supported by NOPA and Norsk Kulturfond.

Nuts And Bolts S2E4 Maja S. K. Ratkje

The Great Unveiling from Sligter's upcoming album Polycrisis:yes! (2018). Featured in the HBO series The New Pope by Paolo Sorrentino.

The Great Unveiling

For this new episode, we’re thrilled to meet Jana Winderen, researcher and artist (Goldsmiths, university of London) with a background in mathematics, chemistry and fish ecology from the university of Oslo.

Jana focuses her work around audio environments and ecosystems which are hard for humans to access, both physically and aurally. We will discuss her practice, and the environmental stakes it holds (underwater noise pollution) as well as technical topics (hydrophone, portable pre-amps, ultrasound, recording techniques).

Nuts And Bolts is hosted, recorded and engineered by Jessica Sligter, with editing by Julia Reidy. This episode was made possible with the support of Norwegian Culture Fund and Komponistforeningen.

Check out the Nuts And Bolts gear-tutorial videos, get there via our Instagram page @nutsandboltspodcast

Nuts And Bolts S3E2 Jana Winderen

Our special guest for this episode is Nadah el Shazly, Cairo-based producer, composer and performer. Her work both radically reinvents the popular music of her homeland from the early 20th century and explores new sonic and harmonic frontiers. She released her critically acclaimed debut album Ahwar in November 2017 via Nawa Recordings. We met Nadah in her studio and talked about amongst others synths, creative process, beat making and sound manipulation.

Nuts And Bolts is hosted, recorded and engineered by Jessica Sligter, with editing by Julia Reidy. PR videos by Sara Yahia and Liz Kosack. This episode was made possible with the support of Norwegian Culture Fund and NOPA.

Picture by Jason Champney

Support Nuts And Bolts by becoming their patron on patreon.com/nutsandbolts, and check out the Nuts And Bolts gear-tutorial videos, get there via our Instagram page @nutsandboltspodcast

Nuts And Bolts S3E3 Nadah El Shazly

The final episode of Season 3 features Nuts & Bolts founder herself, Jessica Sligter. Sligter is a performer, composer and producer based in Berlin, whose practice lies at the meeting point of various experimental expressions, in a 'noir,' conceptual space. Exploring conflict and border-crossing both in her music and text, Sligter has been touring and releasing under the radar for years.

Among her releases are the critically acclaimed Polycrisis:yes! and A Sense Of Growth, and her compositions for ensemble include Movements 1, Two Figures for Oslo14 ensemble, and Dark Passenger in collaboration with Jenny Hval.

This episode has been edited and engineered by Jessica Sligter, and was made possible with the support of Norwegian Culture Fund and NOPA.

Support Nuts And Bolts by becoming their patron on patreon.com/nutsandbolts, and check out the Nuts And Bolts gear-tutorial videos on our Youtube channel, get there via our Instagram page @nutsandboltspodcast

Nuts And Bolts S3E4 Jessica Sligter

musician/composer/text writer
artistic director @ Nuts And Bolts
2024: For A Closer Walk, by The Shapes (Butler & Butler)
2023: Room One (Butler & Butler)
2022: Celler og Vev suite & Shapes I
2021: State Of Insecurity 
2018: Polycrisis:yes! (Butler & Butler) & Untitled #2/The Mute (Unsound) & Movements I (performed by Tøyen Fil og Klafferi)
2016: A Sense Of Growth (Hubro)
2012: Fear and the Framing (Hubro)
2010: Balls & Kittens, Draught & Strangling Rain (Hubro)
2008: The Forming of the Shaping EP(Dansefot)

2011: Window's A Fall (Trust Me Records) - Sacred Harp band
2007: Someone New (D'Autre Cordes Records) - The Story Of Modern Farming

Jessica Sligter

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