#taralie peterson

[bluetapes]

Was honoured to be invited to make this mix for I Heart Noise, summarising not only Blue Tapes' output over the cursed 2020 but also some of my favourite music that got me through that year.

Features:

Heystring

Okkyung Lee Music Page

Anna Homler

Taralie Peterson

Laura Cannell

The Blue Tapes House Band (feat. Abysmal Growls Of Despair, Benjamin Fingeer, Leedian, Todd Barton, Constantina, Wild Anima and more)

My Panda Shall Fly

Aksak Maboul

Cadu Tenorio

Biga Yut

Oranssi Pazuzu and more

Give it a listen! It goes weird places.

[dustedmagazine]

Spires That In the Sunset Rise — Psychic Oscillations (FPE)

Psychic Oscillations by Spires That In The Sunset Rise

“Hypnagogic,” named for a liminal experience between sleep and waking, takes shape out of a vibrating buzz of electronics, the sound, perhaps, of cybernetic insect wings rubbing together on planets we can’t even imagine. In a bit, a voice enters in, but don’t expect the comfort of familiarity. The vocals, too, are altered so that they flicker with digital off-on evanescence. There’s a flute, a cascade of saxophone notes, falling over and over in round-like repetition, a glottal ululation, all recognizable sounds made alien and dreamlike and beautiful.

Spires That In the Sunset Rise are an experimental duo — Ka Baird and Taralie Peterson — who bend voices, electronics, cello, sax, flute and other instruments’ sounds into strange, evocative shapes. Their music finds a space somewhere on the outer perimeter of acid folk, contemporary classical and free improvisation. Psychic Oscillations is their 12th album in a career that has now stretched to two decades, and it is a very clear, very intentional iteration of their aesthetic. Their earliest albums were put together loosely, letting inchoate psychedelic inspiration take them where it would, never mind the occasional sour note. This one is artful and disciplined, a well-defined structure underlying the songs, and the instruments aligned to a purpose. But still very strange and mysterious.

The title cut, the disc’s longest at just over 10 minutes, rattles with staccato bursts of plucked strings, the vocals zooming in and out of dopplered focus. Sung notes bend and loop and sag, as if they are darting towards you and away.  Some vocal tones are pure and lovely, others more rhythmic grunts and aspirations. There’s a violence in the way that the strings are attacked and the interjections of “yeh!” and “hah!” jump out, but a quiet contemplation in the piece overall.

The sax-centric pieces are especially good, like “Geomantra” with its intricate, Reichian rounds of pixelated melody. The cut is playful, antic, it seems to dance in a way that is both primitively satisfying and intellectually stimulating. “Sax Solfa,” at the end, also relies on reeds to add dream-like layers to its shimmering madrigal fancies. Saxophones riffs are doubled and tripled as they rise up the scale, weaving in and through each other and cutting in from different directions. The sung melody has a medieval sound to it, like monk chant but female, but it is set in a shimmering corona of modernity, electronic drone, hypnotic blasts of sax, echo and hum.

Spires have always been adventurous, always willing to split the seam between old modes and new technology. With this album, they seem to have gotten a good deal more precise and skilled about it. Freewheeling, but in control, artful but untethered – it’s a tricky balance but one that is masterfully maintained in Psychic Oscillations.

Jennifer Kelly

[geographic-north]

Tekla Peterson, ‘Heart Press’

Forever an associate of the American avant-garde, Taralie Peterson has been baring her soul on outward-leaning recordings as a solo artist (as Louise Bock and Tar Pet) and with a dazzling array of collaborators (most notably and fruitfully with Ka Baird as Spires That in The Sunset Rise). The Madison, WI based musician now steps out as Tekla Peterson with Heart Press, a garishly gripping set of songs that simmer in a stew of heartbreak and survival. Put simply in Peterson’s own words: “This music came from the fiery flames of pain from the ending of my 20 year relationship.”     Matching these previously uncharted emotional areas are Peterson’s experiments with pop structures paired with fruitfully barren arrangements and vivid, pseudo-string textures. No polished ennui or overly gory details, just transcendent beauty and universal emotion. Recommend if you vibe with Kate Bush, Yoko Ono, Nite Jewel, Julee Cruise, Quando Quango, Molly Nilsson, and Hal Hartley. Available now on limited-200 transparent cassette, and on all your favorite DIGI and streaming platforms.

TAPE/DIGI Spotify Apple Music Boomkat

[gabstractblack]

Besides, In Circles With Self, https://abstractblack.bandcamp.com/album/in-circles-with-self-2, the following are published recordings I was blessed to be on in 2019. Many if not most of these were made, tracked or overdubbed in Nashville by me or parties inviting me to collaborate, have a listen and holler... 1. Freddie Douggie - Live on Juneteenth (w/ Ben Lamar Gay) on @intlanthem https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/freddie-douggie-live-on-juneteenth 2. Moor Mother - Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes (rhythm master track for Passing of Time feat. Juçara Marçal) on @dongiovannirecords https://moormother.bandcamp.com/track/passing-of-time-feat-ju-ara-mar-al 3. Ben Lamar Gay - East of the Ryan (w/ Ed Bornstein & Tommaso Moretti) on @intlanthem https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/east-of-the-ryan 4. Flower Power Synth & Woodwind Ensemble - Titanic II (w/ Eve Maret & Will Hicks) on @obsoletestaircases https://obsoletestaircases.bandcamp.com/album/titanic-ii 5. Abstract Black - an endless harrowing notes vol. synth (solo synth drones) on @bananatapes / GalleryAbstractBlack Music https://galleryabstractblack.bandcamp.com/releases 6. The Altered Statesman - Sidney (flute w/ Steve Poulton, Robert Carwford, Ross Collier, Matt Endahl, Ron Eoff) https://thealteredstatesman.bandcamp.com/album/sidney 7. The Altered Statesman - Tried As Adults (bansuri/bells/improvised monologue on The Sudden Glamour of Your Glow, video; oboe on Tried as Adults) https://vimeo.com/355382749 https://thealteredstatesman.bandcamp.com/track/tried-as-adults 8. Eleven Eleven - Eleven Eleven (bassoon and electronics w/ Kendra Amalie, Taralie Peterson, Peter McLaughlin, William Akers) on @fperecords https://fperecs.bandcamp.com/album/eleven-eleven 9. Kendra Amalie - Intuition (oboe on Patternmaker) on @bbib https://kendraamaliebbib.bandcamp.com/track/patternmaker 10. Crave On - Ace on the Outspeaker (sax on tracks Wave Party, Easier, and 30 Days) on @craveontheband https://craveon.bandcamp.com/ (at Nashville TN) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8ZQGknBTbQ/?igshid=1ky03janotklt

[toneelectro]

There were so many great albums released by independent record labels in 2019. Here are my favorite contemporary releases:

Elkhorn (guitarists Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner, with help from guitarist Willie Lane and percussionist Ryan Jewell) • Sun Cycle is loosely interwoven, psychedelic guitar music; its twin album, Elk Jam - is (slightly) more freeform and equally great.

Floating Points – Crush • the best elements of Sam Shepherd’s first two full-length albums coalesce into his most consistent record yet.

Markus Stockhausen/Alireza Mortazavi – Hamdelaneh: Intimate Dialogues • melancholy trumpet and santoor – a hammered dulcimer that originated in Iran. Definitely the most unique album listed here.

Leo Svirsky – River Without Banks • swirling, hypnotic piano with subtle electronic effects.

Loscil (Scott Morgan) • Equivalents is electronic classical music, structured and precise, but still dreamlike. Lifelike, the soundtrack he composed for the game created by Kunabi Brother is propulsive and moody.

Norm Chambers – Air Example • his most sonically diverse album yet – brilliant in every way.

Steve Hauschildt – Nonlin • modern day prog/space music. RIYL Klaus Schulze, Michael Hoenig, or Phaedra-era Tangerine Dream.

Steve Roach – Bloom Ascension • one of at least three albums released this year by this prolific artist. This is one of his best ever.

Others:
Steve Gunn – The Unseen in Between 
Bill MacKay – Fountain Fire
Matt Lajoie – The Center and the Fringe
Saariselka (Marielle Jakobsons and Chuck Johnson) – The Ground Our Sky
Shasta Cults – Configurations
Plaid – Polymer

Best shows we went to this year: Elkhorn, Dire Wolves with Taralie Peterson, Mdou Moctar, Daniel Bachman, Steve Gunn, Bill MacKay / Rob Noyes, Chris Forsyth, Stereolab / Bitchin Bajas, and Neil Young, Lukas Nelson, Yola, and Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds at Farm Aid.

[the-out-door]

200 Words: MICHAEL ZERANG & SPIRES THAT IN THE SUNSET RISE

(In 200 Words, we highlight a new record we like a lot, via a 200-word review by Marc Masters and 200 words (or so) from the artist about whatever they choose.)

MICHAEL ZERANG & SPIRES THAT IN THE SUNSET RISE - Illinois Glossolalia LP (Feeding Tube)

Illinois Glossolalia starts with such an air-shredding detonation - via the raucous clang and impassioned howling of quick-hit opener “Child” – that it’s hard to imagine how this collaboration between sky-seeking duo Spires That In The Sunset Rise and percussionist and multi-sound-machine Michael Zerang could possibly maintain such an intense pitch throughout the rest of the album. In fact the first time I heard the track I hit repeat immediately, both because it’s addictive and because I didn’t want to be let down afterwards.

I wasn’t let down at all, but that’s not because any of the five tracks that follow sound like “Child.” Zerang and STITSR wisely don’t try to reproduce that initial fervor, instead maintaining their intensity through subtlety, pace, and variety. The trio conjure all kinds of trembling ghosts through small rhythmic accents, gathering clouds of whistling and sawing and vibrating, and most importantly the vocal invention of Ka Baird and Taralie Peterson. Zerang’s presence is constant in Illinois Glossolalia, but it’s throats of STITSR that make this album so stirring, connecting the literal and the abstract so tightly yet so expansively, it’s like they’ve discovered an infinitely stretchable rubber band with which to bind those two poles.

– Marc Masters

KA BAIRD on Illinois Glossolalia

In February of 2011, Taralie and I joined forces with Michael Zerang for the first time in an event curated by Dan Mohr of Chicago called “Collision Theory” where musicians were paired with dancers for the first time in a live setting. We had been talking with Michael about some kind of collaboration and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try something new and improvisation-based together. We had so much FUN at this event (we were paired with Kristina Fluty and Dancers) that we decided immediately afterwards to keep experimenting with each other.  That year we went on to perform several times and completed a residency at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago where the material for Illinois Glossolalia was recorded. 

2011-2013 were big years of improv for Spires as we sought to break through certain expectations of what we thought our music should be or who we thought we were as musicians.  Ultimately, we sought to annihilate ourselves. Through “welcoming” failure and thereby liberating ourselves from form/structure or any notion of good/bad, we were able to reach a point where performances became a catharsis and absolute enjoyment. Since then Spires (and I) have gone through periods of heavier refinement but that sense of joy and liberation through performance has remained.  Illinois Glossolalia remains a testament to that pure creative spirit. Thank you Michael for the adventure! Here’s to more in the future.

Illinois Glossolalia is out now on Feeding Tube. Buy it here.

[mirrorlab]

https://www.facebook.com/events/2022620991333421/?active_tab=discussion

Taralie Peterson & Ka Baird of the legendary psych folk outfit "Spires that in the Sunset Rise" will be performing in various combos with local musicians. Three sets of sonic exploration will include: • Taralie Peterson & Elaine Evans • Ka Baird & Paul Metzger • Taralie Peterson, Ka Baird, Tim Glenn, Paul Metzger, John Saint Pelvyn ------ • Ka Baird: "Ka Baird is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist living and working in NYC. She is one of the founding and continuing members of the long running avant psych project Spires That In The Sunset Rise. Described by Jack Rose as a “female Sun City Girls” STITSR have contributed a different slant to the New Folk movement by incorporating various avant-garde and world music influences into their music. Their sound has been compared to the Raincoats, Meredith Monk, Comus and Harry Partch. Their most recent album Beasts In The Garden was described by Marc Masters  as “some kind of long-lost Terry Riley/Angus MacLise collaboration, equally devoted to divine repetition and centre-seeking ritual.”  Since 2001, they have released eight full length records and several side releases. Since relocating to NYC in November 2014, Baird has set off in numerous directions apart from Spires with new collaborations as well as honing in on her own solo work. Her current work explores piano improvisation, electroacoustic interventions, extended vocal techniques, physical movement, and her unusual electronic manipulation of the flute. She released an album of piano improvisations through Brooklyn label Perfect Wave See Sun Think Shadow in November of 2015 and a tribute record A Love Supreme dedicated to John Coltrane through Chicago label No Index in January of 2016. Her latest album Sapropelic Pycnic was released on Drag City Records in September 2017. Reaching toward the ancient roots of music, Ka utilizes electronic manipulation (primarily using the flute as the sound source) to take the ear past preconception, combining the linearity of the physical with the abstraction of the cerebral, crafting textural rhythmic noise with lush operatic passages." ------ • Taralie Peterson (Tar Pet): "Tar Pet is the solo project of Taralie Peterson from the legendary psych veterans Spires That In The Sunset Rise. Both projects recapture creative music by bringing it into a timeless, acoustically sourced domain. You may hear a dream-state soliloquy sung that was once told to her by her five year old son, while a cello veers unexpectedly, interweaving with unknown sounds. You are liquified by unusual folk instruments from around the world, strange tunings, and existential lyrics. There is a constant disintegration of oppositions in her ritualistic music – meandering yet simultaneously focused, beautiful and melodic but unnerving and discordant. Great for opening the mind to the cracks between worlds. Tar Pet is completely riveting, mysterious, and a very rare occasion to listen again, as if for the first time."      “existential meanderings, hollow acoustic mawps, and       flagrant haunting all settle in before its songs even       have legs. “Poem By Fineus”, a subtle acoustic track       that features waverings and experimental       ups-and-downs, is fruitful in its ability to feel       cleansing and pure…. a little psychedelic unrooting       is all the heart needs to shake through to clarity.”                  – Dayna Evans, IMPOSE http://qujunktions.com/artists/ka-baird https://www.kabaird.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uayJNLmKsIQ

[geographic-north]

Louise Bock ‘Sketch for Winter - Abyss: For Cello’ (GN57) Shipping Now

The 7th installment of Geographic North’s Sketch for Winter, which highlights compositions intentionally crafted for the colder season, returns with Louise Bock's endlessly entrancing 'Abyss: For Cello.' As Bock, Taralie Peterson (Spires that in the Sunset Rise) has created a dynamic drift of deep minimalism composed during and intended for the dead of winter.

Out today on cassette (two-layer die-cut sleeve and limited to 100) and digital editions!

TAPE/DIGI bit.ly/2Rknyl2 Spotify spoti.fi/38Blivt Apple Music apple.co/30Wp53Z Boomkat bit.ly/2RJ4BaO

[dustedmagazine]

Dire Wolves— Grow Towards the Light (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

Dire Wolves, under the leadership of West Coast psychedelicist, Jeff Alexander has been spinning out trippy grooves since the late aughts, accumulating a dizzying catalog of more than two dozen recordings including four proper albums, one-offs, cassettes, splits, live recordings and singles. Grow Towards the Light is the band’s second on Beyond Beyond Is Beyond, as well as the second to feature Georgia Carbone as singer. Previously, Lau Nau was the main vocalist, and her singing slanted more dark, freak folk than Carbone’s; Carbon adds a rich, buzzing, hypnotic drone to the music, an enveloping hum that tips the songs away from the work of affiliated bands like Jackie-O Motherfucker, Faun Fables and Spires That in the Sunset Rise and into something like Stereolab territory.

As before, Dire Wolves is a relatively large ensemble, comprised this time of Alexander, Carbone, Brian Lucas on bass, Sheila Bosco on drums and piano, Arjun Mendiratta on violin, and Taralie Peterson on saxophone. This expansive line-up permits a gentle, drowsing sort of complexity, where warm lines of guitar and bass intersect with edgy slashes of violin and drums percolate polyrhythmically in a warm bath of ambient tone. “I Control the Weather,” for instance, opens in a skittery drum solo, picking up an insouciant, jazzy guitar lick that is italicized by fidgety violins on the upbeats. Carbone’s voice hums and croons in wordless flights, doubled so that it seems to come from all directions. Instrumental parts intersect and converse at a muted volume; there is a weightless, airy open-ness to these grooves, so that you can nearly feel a sun-tipped breeze blowing through.

Cuts fall at various places along the psych-folk continuum, with “Discordant Angels” hive-mind vocals lifting folk-traditional picking into a higher realm; it sounds a bit like Pentangle’s jazz-folk hybrid, a lot more like Feathers’ dreamiest cuts. “Water Bearing One” tends more towards trap-door-through-reality psych a la Bardo Pond. It is slow and hazed out, the clarity of piano runs dropping into the mix like bright coins submerged in cough syrup. “Every Step Is Birth,” the longest cut, emphasizes a rhythm that moves light footed and syncopated through a dappled drone.

The single, “Spacetime Rider,” is the least folk-linked of the bunch, edging into Krautish dream-propulsion with a more prominent bass line than usual pushing up through the sound. Here, Carbone’s singing seems almost like words, like a chant or incantation that you could make out if you thought hard enough. It’s a noddy, hummy reverie, paced by drums and embellished with sawing violins, and if you could shake off the daydream, you might be able to dance to it.  

Jennifer Kelly

[burlveneer-music]

Repetitives in Illocality by Louise Bock

aka Taralie Peterson other known solo work as Tar Pet and in the legendary psych band Spires that in the Sunset Rise. Taralie works with mainly sax, clarinet, cello, voice, and denatured lap harp. Her work combines the rarely explored territories of conceptual atonal/repetitive ideas with personal invection. Mystical, ecstatic, spiritual, dark, otherworldly explorations.