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Stephanie Richards: Fullmoon

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Stephanie Richards: Fullmoon
Reared in Canada and now calling Brooklyn, NY home, trumpeter Stephanie Richards (David Byrne, Henry Threadgill, John Zorn) has been all over the map, whether performing with well-known or globally famous, pop and rap artists or pushing the envelope with forward-looking musicians. Here, let's say she's fashioning musical events with a penchant for communicating with alien beings, trillions of light years away. With sampler/live sampler ace Dino J.A. Dean, this 33-minute program conveys an organic-electronica type modus operandi, if there really is such a beast.

The duo often mimics and reshapes bizarre soundscapes amid Richards' gruff, slurring notes and microtones tinted with humanistic attributes such as crying or pronouncing some form of social disorder contrasted by nimble and fractured exploration initiatives, as Dean's live sampling processes play tricks with your mind, sometimes shaded with crazy mixed-up computer signals and live EFX that bounce off the trumpeter's notes.

Deane seemingly uses a guitar volume control sample on "Piano, "while supporting Richards' rugged and animated phrasings, dappled with ethereal background treatments and moody patterns, where she soars above a horizontal plane, casting vivid imagery of an unconventional form of spiritual reckoning. But "Timpani," is concocted with the leader's diminutive and sinuous choruses via a stunted series of progressions and the sounds of a foghorn, where darkness and mystery are morphed with angst and semi-controlled developments.

"Full Moon Pt. I" features Deane's reverberating synth effects and Richards' growling discourses, countered with high-pitched electronics and a largely mutated sequence of occurrences, spawning lucid imagery of ghostly events. Indeed, there is a method to this madness as the duo's odd sonic incursion transcends the norm, since it's the antithesis to a typical free-form synth and horns fest. Hence, the artists' uncanny line of attack yields a magnetic audio experience that radiates previously undisclosed subtleties during additional listens.

Track Listing

New Moon; Snare; Piano; Half Moon; Gong (Part I); Gong (Part II); Timpani; Full Moon (Part I); Full moon (Part II).

Personnel

Stephanie Richards: trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion; Dino J.A. Deane: sampler, live sampler.

Album information

Title: Fullmoon | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: Relative Pitch Records

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