Sontag Shogun :: “The Tightrope Session” — Video premiere

Sontag Shogun shares “The Tightrope Session” — a live performance recorded in an industrial lighting design warehouse in Brooklyn.

Like life, like nature, like love

Radio static, tape machines, old oscillators, a whisk and a butter knife, piezos, pianos, and lots of loops. Sontag Shogun always gets asked how they make their music linearly alongside the organic sound treatments they’ve become known for. This is the group’s attempt to show just that.

“The Tightrope Session” is performed in a single, continuous take. The sounds are either created in the moment or piped in from old tapes, and then looped and layered to craft compositions. This music is slow, patient, pensive, and then at times cacophonous and fierce — like life, like nature, like love. Here, Sontag Shogun treats us to three pieces: “Leikkikalu” (from 2022’s Valo Siroutuu on Beacon Sound), “Smoke & Tears” (unreleased), and an “Improvisation” based around Jesse’s vocal looping.

• Ian Temple :: Nord piano
• Jesse Perlstein :: voice, tapes, electronics
• Jeremy Young :: oscillators, radio, objects, electronics

Video recorded by Maksim Axelrod, with help from Ted Maniatakos and Hannah Marcus. Edited by Ian Temple. Special thanks to Victoria Young for the use of her beautiful space, Tightrope Studios.

Please listen with headphones. Enjoy.

Follow Sontag Shogun on Bandcamp, Instagram, or Facebook.

 

Valo Siroutuu is available on Beacon Sound. [Bandcamp]

Sontag Shogun x Lau Nau :: Valo Siroutuu (Beacon Sound / Ricco)