Zoë McPherson

String Figures

• wydawca: SVS Records
• nr katalogowy: SF01
• format: LP 
• PŁYTA NOWA, ZAFOLIOWANA

T R A C K L I S T A

A1 Sabotage Story (Unknot Opening) 7:37

A2 Deep (Prayer) 5:03

A3 Shaman (How I Became) 6:01

B1 Komusar (Moving) 3:46

B2 Hardingfele (Release) 1:51

B3 Inouï (And Free) 5:53

B4 Transmission (So It Shall Never Be Lost) 2:36

A multi-platform production that explores the overlap between the digital and the organic

through field recordings of Inuit throat singing may sound, on surface level, to be

something that is a rather niche. However, Zoe Mc Pherson’s exploration of this world

on String Figures is a deeply rhythmic, immersive and forward-thinking piece of electronic-

leaning music that remains just as danceable as it does experimental.

The album is fundamentally one of duality, exploring the traditional and the contemporary,

organic and electronic, audio and visual, history and the future. Rooted in this

duality is also a core theme around string being one of the most ancient and playful art

forms and the seemingly infinite possibilities it offers in terms of shapes, structures and

figures lines up with this as a trans-global art project. One that over time will involve

video art, choreography, 3D motion design, macro film, instrumental and electronic

sound. Although for now is being presented through an AV performance, films and a

record with Mc Pherson collaborating with director Alessandra Leone.!

Over the seven tracks (which are laid out as chapters) the record explores glitchy electronics,

dub-tinged grooves, polyrhythms, and a huge array of instruments that takes in

quiet blasts of atonal sax alongside wonky synths. This of course cross-pollinates with

the throat singing and experimental field recordings to create an utterly inimitable sonic

sphere. For Mc Pherson it’s about mixing worlds, histories and timeframes and she uses

a 1991 quote from Laurie Spiegel to hit home how she has elaborated upon this original

thought of history and future overlapping. “Folk music is considered anonymous

common property in a culture and that’s what a lot of computer music and other kinds

of music data may end up becoming.” However, there’s also a purer reason for the exploration

of these worlds and colliding them together. “Basically I thought that electronic

music that is only digital is a bit boring and as I’m connected to jazz music for

many reasons, I wanted it to sound organic: real instrumentation, field recordings.”