Kara-Lis Coverdale — “one of the most exciting composers in North America” (The Guardian) — announces her first new album in eight years, From Where You Came, out May 9th via Smalltown Supersound, and shares its lead single “Daze.”
A dynamic and sublime work steeped in emotion and sensitivity, From Where You Came unspools as a series of nocturnal transmissions, altered-state refinements, and vivid stories, rich in vibrant, illuminating qualities. Drawing together 19th century programmatic music, mid-’70s jazz, and her distinctively colorful and multi-dimensional approach to composition, she conducts emotional resonance like currents of charge, hard-wiring the purely felt into electronic signals.
Though written and recorded across several continents, including at the GRM Studio in Parisand the Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm, From Where You Came was completed in rural Ontario, Canada. Featuring contributions from multidisciplinary sound artist and cellist Anne Bourne and GRAMMY award winning trombone prodigy Kalia Vandever, the album’s eleven expansive yet condensed compositions incorporate strings, woodwind, brass, keys, software and modular synthesis, inscribing a musical language that resonates animations with unfiltered, striking clarity. “Anything can have a voice,” says Coverdale. “For me, voice is beyond human”.
Reckoning with the experience of grief, dislocation, and the pressure of total freedom and independence, Coverdale yields supernatural capacity to transfer tribulation into highly imaginative and inspiring fantasy epics of sound. Lead single “Daze” feels like the joy of flight — wind choruses dance and twirl in ornate cycles as dissonant portamentos ascend to soaring heights, gliding across turbulent gales to new pockets of harmonic plateaus.
Born in Burlington, Canada and of Estonian heritage, From Where You Came is Coverdale’s first major new work since Grafts (2017), Aftertouches (2015, Sacred Phrases), and A 480 (2014, Constellation Tatsu). Coverdale has performed concert halls, clubs, and festivals throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia headlining and touring with Big Thief, Caribou, Gagaku Ensemble and Floating Points (including as a part of his Promises ensemble at The Hollywood Bowl in LA). She has previously collaborated with with Actress, Yasuaki Shimizu, Caterina Barbieri and Lyra Pramuk and has created compositions for film, theatre, dance, symphonic instrumentation, and installation, including Cello Octet Amsterdam, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Vanemuine Theatre, NYC Contemporaneous Ensemble and Ludens Choir with pipe organ a connective tissue throughout much of her work.
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Ahmad at Pitch Perfect PR.]