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LP
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DC 923A-LP
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"The work of Whitney Johnson a.k.a. Matchess, is, in their own words, 'a material history of reproduction.' From our grateful vantage point, it sounds like sequences of hypnotic and engaging forms, a combination of musical concepts and available materials for the purpose of transcendence. Hav and Stena challenge linear description, and even language, reflecting the perceived values and details of multiple times/intentions/places into essential aspects, repurposed as music. Hav and Stena (DC 923Z-CS) began to exist in 2021 while Whitney was researching the Cult of Hermaphroditus and visiting all the available sites of the cult's activity in Cyprus and Greece. She collected materials from the sites via VHS footage, 35mm photos, and field recordings. The cover image for Hav is from that trip, as are some of the field recordings included on Stena. During her travels, Whitney read Shelley's Frankenstein for the first time. As a sequel to that harrowing moment, and with respect to Shelley, the two new releases feel within and without themselves like creatures of post-mortem assembly, collaged more than birthed. In the fall of 2023, thanks to a grant from DCASE in Chicago, Whitney returned to Sweden to finish both records as an artist-in-residence at Inkonst in Malmö and at Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm. During this time, she assembled the pieces she was working on as a multi-channel A/V installation at Inkonst, and Hav emerged more fully, as a composition for sine waves, marimba, viola, Arp Odyssey and Halldorophone. Finished mixes for both were later achieved at Electrical Audio in Chicago with Cooper Crain, capturing the spirits and intents in all the times and places enumerated above. Fleetingly and forever, they become the sounds we hear on Hav and Stena. As with 2022's Sonescent, one way to examine these records is how they resonate in the body. Throughout their gestation, attention was given to the use of certain frequencies as a focused means of transport; the Solfeggio Frequencies, a conception in sound healing, are referenced often in these new works."
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