PopMatters is presently streaming Future Fossils, the newest EP from INSECT ARK, in its haunting entirety! The premiere comes prematurely of the EP’s launch this Friday, September twenty fourth through Consouling Sounds.
INSECT ARK is the long-running exploratory endeavor led by Dana Schechter and Future Fossils is step one in a seamless revisitation of Schechter’s solo work. Aspect A options three all-synthesizer compositions by Schechter: “Gypsum Blade,” “Oral Thrush,” and “Anopsian Volta.” Notably absent on these three “synth” songs are two of Schechter’s “fundamental” devices: lap metal guitar and bass guitar. However their omission just isn’t a brand new path, as a lot as an alternate aspect and an train within the spirit of stark minimalism, as INSECT ARK frequently grows and metamorphosizes.
The album’s B Aspect, “Gravitrons,” a dwell noise improv set, was carried out at a transformed church in Brooklyn in 2016, with Schechter on lap metal/synths, and former collaborator Ashley Spungin on synths/percussion. This efficiency was a one-off occasion; the 2 musicians weren’t accustomed to improvisations collectively, usually performing within the “band” duo format of bass, lap metal, drums, and synths.
Writes PopMatters of the EP, “As a substitute of the strong rock kind that INSECT ARK possessed, right here the armor has been stripped away, exposing the underlying core. It is a journey to the land of the ambient and the minimal. Future Fossils lingers within the ethereal area, increasing in a cinematic vogue. By its passages, components of improvisation and darkish ambient mix to create this fascinating realm. Whereas in some ways, Future Fossils is a departure from the sound now we have come to know from Insect Ark, it nonetheless radiates with the act’s distinctive perspective. Hallucinatory and otherworldly, however nonetheless potent and condensed, it’s a meditative journey for the darkish aspect of the thoughts.”
With two extra new albums on the quick horizon – a new full-length “duo/band” LP as properly as one other of all-solo-synth materials – Schechter’s musical output as INSECT ARK has as soon as once more confirmed to defy genres, resist tendencies, and thwart expectations, leaving us all guessing to the place she’s going to traverse subsequent.
At the side of the discharge of Future Fossils, Schechter will embark on a weeklong stretch of European performances together with an look at Consouling Sounds’ 24 Hours Of Deep Listening Competition October 1st. See all confirmed dates beneath.
INSECT ARK (solo):
9/25/2021 Hatumoa Tattoo Studio – Tábor, CZ
9/26/2021 Soulkostel – Vernéřovice, CZ
9/27/2021 Underdogs – Prague, CZ
9/29/2021 Cafe Central – Brussels, BE
9/30/2021 La Malterie – Lille, FR
10/01/2021 Consouling Sounds 24 Hours of Deep Listening Competition – Ghent, BE
10/23/2021 Borsig Amp Fest @ Kesselhaus Herzberge – Berlin, DE
9/29/2021 Volkstheater Rote Bar / Peter Cat’s – Vienna, AT
When Dana Schechter began INSECT ARK as her “true” solo mission in 2012, she got down to construct desolate and hallucinogenic galaxies of sound solely on her personal. Writing and taking part in solo supplied an escape into the deepest realms of self-reflection, dredging and birthing a hitherto sonic beast that was, it seems, completely unhinged and completely liberating. Specializing in experimental, drone, noise, and avant-garde noise, INSECT ARK’s first years produced information that have been uncooked, ominous, and completely distinctive. Whereas defying comparability, these new sounds possessed Schechter’s distinct musical spirit, woven all through her twenty-plus years of band/collaboration work.
After three releases (2012’s Collapsar 7”, 2013’s Lengthy Arms 10”, 2015’s Portal/Nicely LP), INSECT ARK added dwell drums to the combo, and the ensuing albums — 2018’s Marrow Hymns (with drummer Ashley Spungin) and 2020’s The Vanishing (with drummer Andy Patterson) — confirmed that her singular imaginative and prescient might additionally increase into heavier and extra crushing territory inside a collaborative area. The facility that dwell drums dropped at INSECT ARK helped collect a brand new fanbase within the heavy-music world, including one other layer to the band’s palette. Now, after 9 years of existence, INSECT ARK has come full circle to as soon as once more embrace solo work on 2021’s Future Fossils.
Future Fossils EP recording data: “Oral Thrush,” “Gypsum Blade,” and “Anopsian Volta” have been recorded and carried out by Dana Schechter at EMS Studios in Stockholm, Picasso Equipment in Brooklyn, and D. Diamante in Berlin between 2018-2021 and combined by Simon Goff at Hiddenseer Studios in Berlin, June 2021. “Gravitrons//Reside Improv,” was written and carried out by Schechter and Ashley Spungin and recorded and combined by Josh Wertheimer in Brooklyn in November 2016. The EP was mastered by James Plotkin.
“It’s fairly a feat to play inside a limiteless area, but make the listener really feel enclosed and small, even threatened and uneasy. Pulsating hums burrow into your head and every synth scream pierces the ear in slow-motion, all whereas subjected to an unpredictable and busy array of moans that present a eager sense of texture…” – Every little thing Is Noise on “Oral Thrush”
“…a very eerie dose of darkish ambient music that sounds prefer it might rating a David Lynch movie.” – BrooklynVegan
“…a darkish and oftentimes difficult hear. It’s a report that isn’t intent on going wherever quick. As a substitute, it’s centered extra on being within the second, appreciating the darkish ambient groundswell and letting listeners be enamored with the brooding darkness that has come to outline a lot of INSECT ARK’s music.” – Two Guys Steel Opinions
“…one of many underrated artists of our time.” – Veil Of Sound
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