Resonance Series

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Monthly experimental music series

Lucrecia Dalt (Berlin, Germany)

Website - Soundcloud

The name Lucrecia Dalt may recall her past five albums (her last, Ou, on Care Of Editions), or her previous collaborations with Laurel Halo, or Julia Holter. Her sixth album, and first venture on RVNG Intl, Anticlines, is a volume of bodily and geological substrates within poetic theory and sound. It explores the boundaries and limitations of human consciousness.

Dalt, A former geotechnical engineer from Colombia (now residing in Berlin), crafted the lyrics and music of Anticlines with great concern for boundaries and edges. Paying careful attention to pace, breath, and texture, Dalt microtonally shifts the distance between speech and song while using traditional South American rhythms to support her contemporary electronic composition. The album’s poetic lyrics were written collaboratively between Dalt and Henry Andersen during a weekend in Brussels, Belgium.

Interspersed with the lyrical pieces of Anticlines are instrumental interstitials that demonstrate preceding concepts — as if to say, “this is what antiforms sound like, and this is what the universe’s indifference sounds like.” Dalt’s ongoing experiments with visual artist Regina de Miguel support these ideas, their practice allowing the objects of their attention to slip in and out of being.

Bitchin Bajas

Website - Bandcamp

Bitchin Bajas began in 2010 as a solo side project for Cooper Crain, guitarist of Chicago Krautrock revivalists Cave. The early sounds of Bitchin Bajas were equally psychedelic but decidedly less aggressive than Crain's primary band, opting for more textural exploration than rhythmic force. The project quickly became prolific in its release of music, starting with the Tones & Zones full-length in 2010 and trickling out split singles, EPs, cassette-only releases, and the like among more actualized full-lengths every year that followed. The solo project was expanded to a duo with the inclusion of Mahjongg's Dan Quinlivan, adding more synth and guitar textures to Crain's web of spectral sound. Rob Frye, also of Cave, eventually became a member of Bitchin Bajas, contributing flute, saxophone, and guitar. Albums documenting the group's development arrived often, with 2011's Water Wrackets, 2012's Vibraquatic, and 2013's more fully realized Bitchitronics. Though the band had either self-released its music or worked with a variety of lesser-known indie labels, Bitchitronics arrived on indie giant Drag City. The next year, a self-titled double album materialized, seeing the band branch out into more sprawling fields of sound over its eight-song and almost 80-minute running time. Transporteur, a shorter LP on the French label Hands in the Dark, was released in 2015. That same year saw the group collaborating with fellow Chicago spell-casters Natural Information Society on Automaginary, and 2016's Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties brought Bonny "Prince" Billy along for the ride. Also in 2016, the group collaborated with filmmaker Olivia Wyatt (Sublime Frequencies) for the film Sailing a Sinking Sea, which was released as an LP/DVD set. The double album Bajas Fresh appeared in 2017.

M. Sage

Website - Bandcamp