2021: Wrapping it up

This year marked another one in pandemic life. More highs and lows to live through where at times so many aspects of life seemed to overlap. Last year, I used music as means to process and respond to the world around me. It was a tool to survive and so now music feels a part of me in a way it never has before. It feels embodied and truly who I am. Paradoxically, I found myself feeling stuck and wrote a song about that which was released on a compilation by UK Label Beached Records.

Like many, looking back on this year is like watching a slow car crash - it feels like January 6 was ages ago. That was the moment I realized how trivial and damaging the last four years had been - hoards of white people storming the castle (I hope you know this reference lol) and we’re still waiting for some accountability. I responded with a piece and it was documented on a Livestream performance for the Colorado Modular Synth Society. That was a lovely way to connect with people during a significant spike in the pandemic.

Livestreams have been an interesting way to connect with an entirely different audience being able to connect with folks from all over the country into parts of Europe. Another livestream I performed at was closer to home. I was asked by my colleague and friend Marc Kate to play at Gray Area’s Patch Pulse series. Gray Area decided to create as many ways for people to connect and create immersive experiences in their space, film it and then stream for the world to see. I had the privilege of connecting with visual artist Anum Awan who created this amazing visual world for me to be immersed in. It was an amazing experience and one of the first times I was able to collaborate safely with others in person again.

My long-time collaborators RAWdance asked me if I wanted to be included in a proposal they were making to pitch a dance film to be projected on Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. Artists have been projecting visuals on that building for the past few years, but none have included an audio element to it. While the visuals moved in a ten-minute loop from 12 am-1 am every night for the month of May, viewers could click a link on their smartphones and listen to a ten-minute loop of music synced to the visuals. It was surreal to witness and continue a great collaboration of doing site-specific pieces with this dance company. I will be releasing an edited version of the audio for the piece in 2022!

I was able to collaborate with dancers two more times this year - one was a piece for Noah Wang. They are a SF-born NYC-based dancer and choreographer. Noah directed a dance film that premiered at the ODC Theater Festival. The other collaboration was a tour de force live performance in the parking lot of the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts. The piece was called Radius and premiered as part of the annual Counterpulse Festival. 32 dancers and 5 electronic musicians improvised together through a series of movements that were frantic, evolving, and often times cathartic. We were outdoors, masked and creating something together after being away from each other for so long. What was truly magical was being able to connect and create sound with the 5 musicians I performed with: Marc Kate, Nihar, Chris Duncan, and Amma Ateria. Most improvisation has to do with listening and presence - it felt as if we had been playing with each other for a long time.

Last but definitely not least was the release of my latest album Empathy. I had a random thought early this year wanting to release a tape: I had begun looking into duplication and the production differences for prepping a tape to be released. Chris Duncan who runs the Oakland imprint Land and Sea asked me if I wanted to put out a tape with them. It felt so right - this led me to begin crafting the album and thinking about it as two sides. The first being the Empathy suite (I-IV) resolving with Full Moon. Side B is meant to rest. I realized this even more when I performed at my record release - I created live loops that slowly changed over time. Visuals I made were projected and the two together provided a space for deep listening. I’m hoping to do another long-form event like that in 2022.
The way the album has been embraced really means a lot.

So what’s to come? I scored a short documentary that I hope will be released sometime in 2022. I also have an album to be released in early summer that I’ll be making an announcement about very soon. Keep it moving!