Jonathan Waldo
This whole release really shines on the cassette format. This piece pulls you into a trance and then pushes you through to another dimension.
Favorite track: Arbor / --==> x.
IE (pronounced “eeeee”), from Minneapolis, MN, is a band devoted to experiences of hypnotic minimalism—sonic rituals from the future. Their shows feature sustained tones, electronic whirrs, slow beats, video and film projections, metaphysical recitations, and carefully crafted atmospheres. Since 2018, IE has performed live in over 50 performances at Big Ears Festival, Drone Not Drones, Milwaukee Psych Fest, and the Heliotrope Festival, as well as many other clubs, galleries, and DIY spaces from Zebulon (Los Angeles), h0l0 (NYC), Mississippi Studios (Portland, OR), Constellation (Chicago), to Nett Nett Gallery (Tijuana, MX) and Brasserie Beaubien (Montreal, QC).
IE is thrilled to announce AUNE, IE’s third cassette-only drone album, courtesy of Shinkoyo Records (Chicago, IL).
IE created AUNE with on two field recordings of bees entering and exiting a hive at a farm-apiary in western Minnesota. The first drone, “Arbor / --==> x” was produced using the original recording of the bees. The second, “Out / -----ooooo------======” was produced using a version of the first recording that was slowed down 3x to the point where individual bee-wing flaps can be heard as distinct.
The music IE created to accompany the sound of the bee hives is not intended to be an illustration of any physical infrastructures of hives. If pressed for an answer, IE readily concedes that the substance of its music is largely metaphysical, in that its melodic directionality, temporal structure, and harmonic content is aimed at acts of communication that are likely forbidden or inaccessible to normative capacities of human cognition, traditionally conceived. In practical terms, the atmospheric rhythms audible on this tape were achieved through group improvisation, and were produced largely in response to either real time noise of house machinery (drills, vacuums, saws, or noises of ambient sociality) or our memory of said noises sometimes an hour or more after they took place. These sounds were the product of individuals charged with the renovation of rooms that stand ancillary to our studio space.
AUNE was mixed and mastered as a site-specific sound installation to suit the dimensions and materials of the Worker B Wellness’s meditation room in St. Paul, MN. The bee farm recorded in the source materials supplied the approximately 570.5 pounds of beeswax used to coat its walls.
IE is singer, bassist, and saxophonist Mariel Oliveira (XOXO tech, The Controversial New Skinny Pill); keyboardist Michael Gallope (Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, Skeletons, Starring, Oneida, Man Forever); and guitarist/keyboardist Travis Workman. Last year, IE released their full-length debut, POME (Moon Glyph / ISH Records) to international critical acclaim. In live performances, they have shared the stage with Jad Fair, Low, Oneida, Sun Araw, Bitchin Bajas, Ka Baird, Tyondai Braxton, The Comet is Coming, Uranium Club, Charalambides, Secret Drum Band, American Cream, Miami Dolphins, Dire Wolves, Lawrence English, Matthew Sage, Sima Cunningham, and Curt Oren.
credits
released July 17, 2020
Michael Gallope, organ
Meredith Gill, percussion and water vessels
Mariel Oliveira, synthesizers
Travis Workman, guitar
Mixed and Mastered by Matthew Mehlan at the Stuuudio
Artwork and Design by Juliana Carlevaris
SHINKOYO is the ectoplasm connecting a group of composers, visual artists, improvisers, instrument builders, thinkers, scholars and conceptual artists exploring a new synthesis of sound and vision.
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