Hunger (demo)

Surrender, Sleep (demo)

Recorded at Capitol Records. Music and lyrics completely freely improvised.

Voice, improvised lyrics - Rachel Epperly 
Piano - Michael Echaniz

Free Improvisation (My Skin)

(photo taken from http://www.moonassi.com, by Daehyun Kim) 

“Appulse” is inspired by Draw A Curtain, a drawing by Korean artist Daehyun Kim. The drawing depicts two black and white figures reaching out towards each other. While one is revealed in full dimension, the other is dissipating into a two-dimensional figure. It appears as if the two are trying to unify and help each other but are too weak to do so. My composition depicts a similar situation in which three instruments struggle to unify but repeatedly fail. This is represented in the tense, reactive relationships among them, which are full of rhythmic and harmonic misalignment. Although the piece contains lyrical melodies, the lines are disfigured by dissonance and never resolve.

Violins: Adam Millstein, Krissy Zlatareva 
Piano: Rachel Epperly 


APPULSE

What if your body is unfurling into an ocean?

What if all that is bruising you isn’t bruising you, 
what if your flesh is sieving and softening,
growing see-through just to herald 
all the flames inscribed in your bones?

What if your eyes are turning black 
not because they are leaving you
but because of all the impossible light 
pouring through them?

What if these scars that have claimed you 
are burning longer and larger, purpling 
just so as to crystallize into rivers
of amethyst, searing, deathless? 

What if your clamped, aching throat is a cannon, 
charged tight with sequins and with disco balls 
ready to erupt upon any of your exhalations, 
poised to sing with the force of a lifetime?

What if you aren’t rotting inside, not rotting 
but blooming, your whole body twist-tying 
and blooming into a white, atomic peony 
far and wide enough to encroach the sun, 

And what if this peony perspires centuries’ worth 
of morning dew, wilting down to earth in exaltation, 
candying its expanses in snowy tongues that drool oceans, 
oceans proclaiming everything that's been lost of you-- 

You and all of your illuminance.

What if your body is unfurling into an ocean?

GLOSSY WARS

Yeeee

Performed by Glitter Glam (Rachel Epperly, Andrew Grossman, Evan Veasey) 
Written by Rachel Epperly 

Recorded by Raisin Toast Records

Performers: 
Colleen Bernstein -- bongos, melodica, shaker, kick drum 
Griffin Harvey -- vibraphone, glockenspiel, bongos
Karalyn Schubring -- piano 

Recorded by SlyPup Production Team

GLOCKNROCK

Chant of the Ghost Pipes

http://www.rachelepperlymusic.com
Rachel Epperly is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who is passionate about composing across genres, making music about gender, and exploring the bodily vulnerability of the voice.

Rachel Epperly

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