Silica Gel - Swan Pond
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Silica Gel's third album Swan Pond features music written with custom electronic instruments such as a hand-cranked synthesizer and a hacked megaphone. Taishogoto, autoharp, spoken word and woven harmonies add further to the sonic palette, incorporating medieval, folk revival and electronic influences which make this record a compelling, unpredictable listen.
By whatever rhythms of work and psychic seasonal alignment, the midsummer has become a pivotal date in the Sweet Wreath mythos. The first album to ever be released on Sweet Wreath, flusnoix's self titled debut, was birthed at this time in 2016. Other projects that came to fruition on this date include Joel Nelson's Only People Talking, and the Summer Solstice volume of Seasonal Séance, which includes Silica Gel's mashup of the medieval round song Sumer Is Icumen In (heard in the Wicker Man) and The Cuckoo (heard in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music).
Swan Pond is being released on the 2024 summer solstice, linking it to one of the most memorable Silica Gel shows to date which occured on the 2022 solstice in Kingston, NY. Silica sang Sumer Is Icumen In and ripped right into a fuzzed out version of May Day. The show was a wonderfully festive time during a summer rainshower and also featured sets from Post Moves and Zoots Houston. We ended up staying the night with Eli, the mastering engineer on all our records...a very serendipitous occasion which found us tip-toeing up to the attic, laughing and drinking warm Modelo as quietly as possible and sleeping in the tiny room where May Day and Wooden Shoe had been finalized for release. Today is charged with mystery and beauty for us.
Swan Pond features music we played on tour last year using the hand-cranked generator organ built by Will Mullany, and a hacked megaphone designed in collaboration with Bryan Day that we call the polyvoxaphone due to it’s ability to sample the singers voice and repeat along with delay, pitch and distortion controls.
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CD
Order
Silica Gel's third album Swan Pond features music written with custom electronic instruments such as a hand-cranked synthesizer and a hacked megaphone. Taishogoto, autoharp, spoken word and woven harmonies add further to the sonic palette, incorporating medieval, folk revival and electronic influences which make this record a compelling, unpredictable listen.
By whatever rhythms of work and psychic seasonal alignment, the midsummer has become a pivotal date in the Sweet Wreath mythos. The first album to ever be released on Sweet Wreath, flusnoix's self titled debut, was birthed at this time in 2016. Other projects that came to fruition on this date include Joel Nelson's Only People Talking, and the Summer Solstice volume of Seasonal Séance, which includes Silica Gel's mashup of the medieval round song Sumer Is Icumen In (heard in the Wicker Man) and The Cuckoo (heard in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music).
Swan Pond is being released on the 2024 summer solstice, linking it to one of the most memorable Silica Gel shows to date which occured on the 2022 solstice in Kingston, NY. Silica sang Sumer Is Icumen In and ripped right into a fuzzed out version of May Day. The show was a wonderfully festive time during a summer rainshower and also featured sets from Post Moves and Zoots Houston. We ended up staying the night with Eli, the mastering engineer on all our records...a very serendipitous occasion which found us tip-toeing up to the attic, laughing and drinking warm Modelo as quietly as possible and sleeping in the tiny room where May Day and Wooden Shoe had been finalized for release. Today is charged with mystery and beauty for us.
Swan Pond features music we played on tour last year using the hand-cranked generator organ built by Will Mullany, and a hacked megaphone designed in collaboration with Bryan Day that we call the polyvoxaphone due to it’s ability to sample the singers voice and repeat along with delay, pitch and distortion controls.
