Steps

Malaise-2011-08-28

This is a tribute to Anton Webern for the 70th anniversary of his tragic death. Based on his base row drafted for unfinished Opus 32. I was curious what it would sound with alternate tunings in a slow, droney development. I've run it through just intonation and la monte young tuning provided by SuperCollider. I let the computer make some decisions.

SerialDrone Just

Once again messing around with things I don't understand. Manipulating a complex, self-perpetuating, patch. 

Further, Deeper

Synth experiment from my writing retreat. 

Storm

FF091116

Cher Sylvain,
J'espère que cette humble offrande saura s'inscrire au baume dont tu as besoin en ce moment.
2017-12-13

Esparhélie

Eartheater — IRISIRI 
Format: LP/CD/Digital
Cat.No: PAN 86
Release Date: 08 June 2018
Purchase: http://p-a-n.org/product/eartheater-irisiri-pan-86/
BC: https://alexdrewchin.bandcamp.com/album/irisiri

Eartheater (aka Queens based artist Alexandra Drewchin) distills foley-filled digital production, a three-octave vocal range, and classical composition into works suspended between obsessively detailed sonic tapestries and almost recklessly romantic and gestural electronica. A body of viscerally emotive live performance stands alongside her recorded output, realized by her fearless physical investment and gut-wrenching vocal sincerity.

IRISIRI, Eartheater's third full-length record, lays out a shifting network of abstract song craft, laced with sudden structural upheavals and collisions of mutated tropes from numerous sonic vocabularies. Modular synth staccato plucks hammer out in arrhythmic spirals over a carefully muzzled grid of pumping kicks - unleashed in unpredictable disruptions.  Technoid stabs mingle with crushed black metal. An icy OS reads poetry against a bed of granular synth swells.  Drewchin's sirening whistle-tone vocals drape over relentless harp arpeggios. Eartheater confounds expectations of structure and resolution before deciding to thread in a sugary melody that snaps us back into some conception, however hazy, of pop songwriting. Guest spots on  IRISIRI charge Drewchin's ideas with concordant energies, from the stark imagist poetry of Odwalla1221 on Inhale Baby, to the sheer lacerating force of Moor Mother's unflinching verse on MMXXX.

Drewchin's lyrics, strewn with flourishes of wordplay and symbolism, explore themes of her autodidactic experience - playing with the tutelage of the ‘pupil’ within the ‘iris' mirrored in the palindrome  IRISIRI. One motif appears as a song name,  C.L.I.T., which Drewchin breaks down into "Curiosity Liberates Infinite Truth." The acronym stands as a microcosm of the Eartheater project in its holistic combination of idiosyncratic spirituality and cheekiness, presented with an earnest confidence that some could consider confrontational. In spite of this lexicon’s maximal effect, it comes from a very personal place as she states, “curiosity has had to be the currency of my education". On OS In Vitro, she reminds us that "These tits are just a side-effect," and "You can't compute her," as if to acknowledge the clouding effect of sexuality and technology in the face of a higher self-significance. In the record’s accompanying video piece, Claustra,  she slides between "the owning of my loneliness" and "the end of the loaning of my onliness”, encapsulating images of self-purifying 
isolation and the rejection of artistic exploitation with the flip of two syllables. The transmuting landscape of IRISIRI is riddled with evocative poetry and evidence of Drewchin’s development as an artist since her debut in 2015.

Drewchin performs and collaborates with art duo and close friends FLUCT. In February 2017, she starred in Raul de Nieves and Colin Self’s opera The Fool at the Kitchen. In April 2017, featured on two tracks from Show Me The Body’s  Corpus I mixtape alongside  Denzel Curry  and Moor Mother. She’s currently composing work for the contemporary chamber orchestra,  Alarm Will Sound, that will debut in May 2018. Her new live set sees her accompanied by the concert harpist Marilu Donivan.

The release is mastered by Rashad Becker at D&M, featuring photography by Elise Gallant.

@alex-drewchin
http://www.eartheater.solar/
http://www.p-a-n.org/

IRISIRI

Eartheater — Trespasses (PAN 86)

This week in the series, we are treated to a very special ambient set from a principal figure amongst the Seattle landscape. A celebrated collector and devotee to vinyl, Explorateur (https://soundcloud.com/djexplorateur) has assembled and molded an hour of atmospheric emotions to help guide and soothe you. 

Making use of three turntables for the first time, the set feels like a large quilt - built with sturdy, warm chords and tastefully adorned with light touches and ornate sounds. Unsure where one record ends, and other begins - it’s all too easy to get wrapped up and lost in an ethereal embrace. Inspiration for the mix comes from a somewhat recent set Explorateur played in an “ambient treehouse” for a ‘Believe You Me’ event. Based in the outdoors, and intended for an audience of thirty - the intimacy and close camaraderie are palpable and inspiring. 

Explorateur has turned heads with her local ambient night - Rare Air. Occupying club and dance-focused spaces, and repurposing them for intimate-listening experiences paired with breathtaking visuals. This set is illustrative of what you might hear at these nights. You can read more about that with the link below. Take a breather, and enjoy your week.

Rare Air: https://bit.ly/2N3s1IC
More on Rare Air: https://bit.ly/2ZvZbCk
Instagram: https://bit.ly/2XTD20j

LCM069

Explorateur

LCM069 - Explorateur

Dronesmuir for brain waves, waterphone and hydraphone performed at the Wheelhouse in Dunsmuir CA Oct. 19, 2019.

Dronesmuir

Minimalist composer and percussionist. Contact at StuartSMcLeod@gmail.com

Dronesmuir

stuart mcleod