“Clouds” is MOLTENO’s third single from her Element 2 EP as part of her series of releases celebrating the elements and the way we’re connected with nature. With a pulsing beat like a train running along tracks and streams of bright drone MOLTENO intones about connecting with others through the vehicle of clouds which most humans experience as a phenomenon in the sky in all their diversity of shapes and manifestations and features like thunder and lightning and which have the capacity to stir the imagination and perhaps to wonder who else might be sharing a similar experience. Molteno’s clear and warm vocals and uplifting tones, , in moments reminiscent of Björk, provide vivid tonal imagery enshrouded with gentle hazy textures that transcend while honoring individual experiences with the natural world. Listen to “Clouds” on Spotify and follow MOLTENO at the links below.
9T Antiope sounds like if Björk used classical instruments to craft a a menacing bit of dark, abstract jazz on its single “Shapeshifter.” That is if she collaborated on the songwriting with Suicide. The track from the forthcoming album Horror Vacui (due out April 12, 2024 via American Dreams) uses the plucked thrum of octave violin sounding like an upright bass to help establish a hypnotic and textural rhythm that runs throughout the song like a constant presence. While bowed strings weave a mood and perhaps plucked violin adds to the minimalistic yet intricate rhythm creates a space for the vocals to brood, mandolin bubbling up in the background alongside a haunting electronic drone with all elements seeming to release all tension at the end of a song that seems to be built on taut intersections of music. It sounds like clandestine plans kept from the prying eyes of an oppressive authority are hinted at in the song with lines about keeping it down and how it’s been a long night, perhaps the only time one can feel cautiously free for lengthy passages given the circumstances. The band consisting of Nima Aghiani and Sara Bigdeli Shamloo are Iranian expatriates and likely have some experience with having to keep full creative expression under wraps as well as learning to navigate cultures not their own. How that translates directly into this music is hard to gauge but the title speaks a lot to how when you’re required to adapt to changing circumstances beyond your control something about your psyche is always shapeshifting as a way to survive. The song is haunting yet beautiful and its inventive use of rhythm, looped figures and textures gets stuck in your head. Listen to “Shapeshifter” on Spotify and follow French experimental band 9T Antiope at the links below.
Laura Brehm’s video for “Wonder” as directed and choreographed by Alexandra Light is like something out of a futuristic fantasy graphic novel written by Tillie Walden. It has that vast sense of space, fine emotional nuance and mystique as Brehm wanders in spaces of colossal architecture, in meadows with companion dancers in white, floating in water moving in slow motion, in a ballet studio, the motion like a ritualistic analog to the ethereal flow of melody and the outwardly expansive flow of sound. The song seems to be about one of rediscovering the wonder of life after a period of healing from a trauma requiring her to suppress who she is and her spirit in order to weather that time. But the mood of the song is reconnecting with one’s true self and ready to move forward free to be and become who one was always meant to be. Think Björk making a transcendental dream pop song and you have an idea of the layers of electronic beats and sweeps of tone that help to put the focus on Brehm’s introspective and resonant vocals. Watch the video for “Wonder” on YouTube and follow Laura Brehm at the links below.
Heradel taps into multiple sonic and emotional resonances with her single “Mother.” The treatment on her vocals brings together a feeling of intimacy and the otherworldly. The rhythmic line, the bass, is like something out of a Fad Gadget song but the organic, percussive background sounds give the song a gently tactile feel that grounds its more ethereal drift and bursts of sounds that rise up to accompany the singing as it floats into luminous fades. In moments it’s reminiscent of Sinead O’Connor circa “I Am Stretched on Your Grave” but with the earthy alien vibe of late 90s Björk. It’s an enveloping piece of work like the experimental pop equivalent of a space rock song and not the kind of music one would expect from an artist with cultural roots in Cuba. Listen to “Mother” on Spotify and follow the Los Angeles and Havana-based Heradel at the links below.
Chuck Wright performing with Quiet Riot, photo courtesy Chuck Wright
Chuck Wright is perhaps most well known as the long time bass player in heavy metal band Quiet Riot and he performed background vocals on all of and bass on “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” and “Don’t Wanna Let You Go” on the band’s breakthrough 1983 album Metal Health. Throughout the 80s Wright played in prominent hard rock bands like Giuffria and House of Lords and rejoined Quiet Riot in 1986, playing with the band on and off on studio recordings and in the live band until 2021. During that entire time Wright’s skill as a bass player and producer brought him to a wide variety of musical projects including seven film scores like that for the 1997 action fantasy film Kull the Conqueror. Since 2015 he has headed Ultimate Jam Night at the Whisky a Go Go which has featured up to several dozen professional musicians a week (barring of course pandemic limitations). So decades into his career Wright has finally released his debut solo album Sheltering Sky. For the record Wright has brought to bear his eclectic sensibilities and styles in cinematic fashion for a set of songs that incorporate hard rock, progressive/art rock, jazz fusion and more experimental musical ideas including those for his fascinating cover of Björk’s “Army of Me.” Over 30 guest performers grace the record including members of Tesla, Dream Theater, Great White, Asia, Jefferson Starship, Allen Hinds and Toshi Yanagi but there is a coherence of creative vision that Wright was able to assemble in a way that challenged his multifaceted skills and creativity rather than simply putting out a record that seems to have rested on the laurels of his musical past.
Listen to our interview with Chuck Wright on Bandcamp below. Sheltering Sky came out on Cleopatra Records and for more information on Wright, his releases and his career please visit his website, both linked below.
Maroulita de Kol sets in motion an intricate piano line that runs through “The Water” while her own vocals float and soar with an elegance of expression of movement, bolstered by a second vocal slightly distorted. Background drones give the proceedings a moody cast and when the second piano introduces chords that ring out darkly in counterpoint to the running atmospherics with the vocals becoming even more active and interacting with the instrumentation like they are all finely choreographed set pieces in a dance performance. The song truly conjures images in your mind of a performance done for mystical purposes and as a manifestation of spiritual principles. Tempting to compare the composition to something by Björk from the early 2000s but may have more in common with avant-garde makers of music like Anna von Hausswolff and Julia Holter. Listen to “The Water” on Soundcloud and follow Maroulita de Kol on Spotify.
Roca. tapped video artist NAOWAO to direct the music video for “VIBRA” and the result is an otherworldly interpretation of the psychedelic and diverse soundscape of the song. An animated landscape with flowing rivers, figures illuminating in time with the minimal percussion, a sunrise comes through the legs of a stylized Shinto torii, a cloaked mystic in reflective, coppery red robes floats appearing to contemplate a dream, puffy luminescent clouds float in the sky. Silvery, fluid shapes course through the air and take on the shapes of dancers and runners and blue vegetation edges the shore with tree leaves similarly blue. The whole video feels like a journey as warm vocals keep us from drifting out into the alien landscape for more than just a visit. The effect is reminiscent of a Björk song with sweeps of tone, strands of abstract melody that intertwine and stretch out with the dynamic of a breeze rushing in and fading out. All whirling around and emphasizing the emotional impact of Kay’s voice. Though the visual flair of the video is somewhat surreal it also seems to feature a landscape of shifting shapes and shape shifters as an analog to the way the composition has an organic, informal quality that keeps your attention even as your mind wanders with the song’s evolving rhythms. Watch the video for “VIBRA” on YouTube and connect with Roca. and NAOWAO at the links provided.
Composer Monikaze aka Monika Zenkeviciute and the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra (both from Lithuania) look like they’ve filmed their live performance of “Laws of Distraction” from a post-human civilization era factory. The oddly elegant and beautiful industrial location isn’t grimy like you’d expect of an old factory, but it does look like it wasn’t designed for a musical performance or any other kind of creative performance yet it gives this nearly hour long performance an undeniable grit and unconventional visual style that contrasts well with the music that might be described as experimental chamber pop with the aforementioned Orchestra on board to fill out Monikaze’s spacious and ethereal compositions with an expansive sonic palette and a textured physicality that might not be otherwise possible. Equal parts re-interpretation and synthesis of musical ideas and impulses the video concert is over before you really notice it’s been going on for as long as it does. Monikaze brings a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to her vocal performance while St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra match that energy with a collective share of their own. Fans of Björk and Laurie Anderson will appreciate the fusion of musical styles and elements into a greater artistic statement than the component parts as well as the ambitious artistic vision behind this collaborative showcasing of the talents of everyone involved. It’s like seeing signs of life in the most unlikely of locales and that’s something we could all use of a bit of right now. Watch the video on YouTube and connect with Monikaze at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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