RELEASED ON FIGUREIGHT
figureight.bandcamp.com/album/setting-fire-to-these-dark-times
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“An experimental record with an intimately humane sense of humour.”
Son of Marketing
“[Has] a thorough grounding in classical tradition but a ravenous appetite for and tireless discipline in new work.”
Bandcamp
“A devastating album. The way Roberts manipulates the cello is beyond captivating.”
The Quietus
Two of experimental music’s brightest talents - Arkansas-based organist Chaz Knapp and NYC cellist Mariel Roberts - combine for Setting Fire to These Dark Times, a new album of devastating, crushing beauty that marries dread-filled intensity with breathtaking bliss.
Having both released music on Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records (named after and based in Ismaily’s iconic recording studio in Brooklyn), Chaz Knapp and Mariel Roberts collaborate for the first time on Setting Fire to These Dark Times. The record unites Knapp’s now-trademark processed Yamaha YC45D organ loops, drones, and sonic voyages with the profound, powerful cello performances of Mariel Roberts and her years of experience in the classical, avant garde and experimental music worlds.
“I became aware of Mariel through her album Armament [figureight records, 2021],” Chaz writes. “I was completely blown away and mesmerized. It was so heavy and beautiful. Her playing and interpretations are next level.” Both musicians of phenomenal ability, Roberts and Knapp’s respective skills neatly dovetail into an innately moving experience, brooding with ferocious intensity one minute and soaring with angelic majesty the next.
This collaboration fits harmoniously with figureight’s creative vision. The organisation unifies musicians, artists and likeminded performers into a mutually empowering community, centred around Ismaily’s studio in New York. In keeping with this outlook, figureight records artist and recording studio engineer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Six Organs of Admittance, Marissa Nadler, Wolves in the Throne Room, Boris etc. etc.) mixed the album.
credits
releases April 21, 2023