Organic Materials is out today - the new album by Bear Glass.
The collection is available for streaming and digital download on Bandcamp. All proceeds go directly to the artist, so please consider supporting Bear's beautiful work.
"Bear Glass has been living at the edge of sound for two decades. A multi-instrumentalist with stylistics from western to eastern to alien, he’s played in numerous projects over the years, spanning beyond genres and classification. Current projects include his solo project, Shape of the Moon, NOWNOW, Mtn Grl, Hyper Object, Papa Bear and the Easy Love, and a sometimes member of Bay Area psych rock legends Whiskerman. He is a recognized force amongst trailblazing musicians, and has been supporting and mapping the west coast musical mandala while curating deep listening events and secret campouts that have become pivotal for california's experimentalists.
Through all the eras Bear has been drawn towards improvisation as the means of composition. His music springs to life organically, situationally, and relationally, and as such does not boast an inherent identity or signal an equation that should be learned to change oneself; instead it offers experience without filters, putting the creative act first and leaving us with the beautiful mess, not so much to think about as something seperate from self but as a friendly extension of experience to merge.
Bear and his family have been exploring off-grid living for almost a decade in the high desert near Joshua Tree which informs his musical output with organic fractals, wide open skies, big climates and extreme nature all feeding back into the layers of his compositions and projects.
As a founding team member of Mobius Acoustics, he's continually bringing new speaker technology out for friends and artists, with the intent of improving the listening experience for everyone."
All music written and recorded by Bear Glass live & improvised on modular synthesizer, guitar, and bass.
Engineered by: Bear Glass
Mixed by: Bear Glass
Mastered by: Gus Tomizuka
Special Guest Carlos Niño featured on Bass Paint
Album Art by: Jaime Schmidt
Photo by: Carter Grimes
The preorder for Organic Materials is open on Bandcamp! The full album will be out September 12th. One track is available to stream and download now - Bass Paint (ft. Carlos Niño)
~ Organic Materials is inspired by the desert blooming in Spring, living systems, and the joy of improvisation. Recorded live & powered by the sun (at Bear’s off grid studio in the Mojave desert), these tracks were born through a process of emergent creation, using analog modular synthesis and acoustic instruments to weave a sonic tapestry representative of organic materials and their interactions. Patiently evolving textures and melodic ideas unfurl over time like a desert willow blowing in the breeze, with a steady stream of voltage controlled feedback providing the inherent chaos that permeates life.
Photo of desert blooms by @theeasylove
Very happy to announce I will be releasing my 2nd electronic album “Organic Materials” with the wonderful folx at @transitorytapes on September 12th!
This record is a collection of tracks recorded live on modular and strings, with a special guest appearance by epic community builder and vibe setter Carlos Niño.
Inspired by the desert blooming in the spring, living systems, and the joy of improvisation, this small body of work is a snapshot of the past year’s explorations in sound.
Keep an an eye here for the release on bandcamp in a couple of weeks.
Album art by @strangebrainz
Gabriel Seaver about his creative process of Reeling:
Often, I experience an intuitive sense about what this medicine is about – or over time, I come to have an intuitive understanding about how and why this song is unfolding in my life – with this set of songs though – the songs that make up this album – their purpose has remained mysterious – and as I meditate on that – I am beginning to sense - that it is encounter with mystery that they are expressing –
Artwork by Hailee Va @slimesistren
Zenith No. 4 was a performance that took place at Wishwood in Seattle, Washington.
In this composition by Grant Beyschau, the musicians followed a breath pattern that determined the frequency of repetition of each note played. The scale used for this fourth variation was the first six notes from the harmonic series of C# and the instrumentation used was saxophone (outside/exhalation) and synthesizer (inside/inhalation).
Photos by @ursula.brookbank
We are very excited to announce the release of ‘Coincidence’ - a collaborative album with @agnesmartian , Music for Connection, @laraaji_official and @hairandspacemuseum . The album was recorded at @beautysupply.arts in Oakland and is a collection of improvisations that took place one evening in September last year.
The record is available now for pre-order on bandcamp and you can listen to one of the tracks. The full album will be out May 31st.
‘Coincidence’ is available on cassette or as a companion zine which includes additional artwork, poetry and an essay and it’s released in collaboration between @centripetalforcerecords , @workingnamestudios and ourselves.
Artwork by @opticalsoundexperience
All proceeds from the album ‘For Palestine’ will go to Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance @az2palestine
Please purchase and donate if you can.
Compilation audio finalizing by Dominic Valencia @___mmra___
Album artwork by myimaginaryalloy
🇵🇸 Free Palestine 🇵🇸
Parallel H(ear) includes three bronze sculptures, a series of aluminum circles and open, rectilinear frames; wind chimes created with found objects combined with ceramic, wire, mirror, glass, gold mica, string, aluminum, wire, copper, twine, and wood.
The bronze shapes originate from wet clay slabs, which were impressed onto various surfaces inside the wash, such as tree bark, ripples in the sand, and a large knot in one of the majestic cottonwood trees. Those forms were then cast at a foundry into bronze. Ceramic elements in the wind chimes also came directly from imprints of bark, rocks, sand, and other features at the site.
Photos by @luke_swenson
@atascosaborderlands took over the @cssw_txst gallery in San Marcos, Texas. Filling it with photographs, living plants, botanical specimens, and found objects from the Atascosa Highlands along with a sound installation by us featuring oral history interviews and original instrumentation.
This collaboration was made possible by @jasonreedphoto , @cssw_txst and
@wittliff.collections
On Sunday, April 28th we will present Parallel H(ear), a site-related sound and sculptural installation located in the Agua Caliente wash in Northeast Tucson. The show is free to all thanks to generous support from Night Bloom: Grants for Artists, MOCA and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Parallel H(ear) is a collaborative project which engages the Sonoran Desert as inspiration, context and site. To create the work we made “site imprints” through real time audio objects and physical impressions of hollows, rocks, leaves, ocotillo stems, a cottonwood tree knot, and more, which have been translated into soundmakers of bronze, aluminum and ceramic. Come experience translations from the wash.
Bring Your Own Blanket for sitting if you wish.
