In the ever-expanding universe of contemporary avant-garde, flutist and sound artist Rachel Beetz has long been a master of making the invisible felt. A member of the renowned ensemble Wild Up and a tireless collaborator—having recently released Somatic Steamed Eggs with chef Heidi Ross—Beetz is set to release her latest solo venture, Tone Keepers, on February 6 via Outside Time. The album is a collection of four compositions that follow a straight line into unexpected territory, each revolving around a simple technique coupled with a discrete mode of electronic processing.
One of these explorations, “Reverb,” defines its soundworld through an obsession with cycles. In the album’s expansive liner notes, Beetz writes:
“I am obsessed with circles. They are everywhere. If you haven’t noticed yet, now you will. You’re welcome. This piece developed from the question of, ‘What would it sound like to build a sonic world out of a single set of spacious multiphonics?’ As if the whole natural world of overtones was overturned into something else and we could live in an alien harmonic orbit for a while. So I set out to explore building cycles and layers of flute multiphonics and reverb to create a planet that orbits a distant world. There are short sound circles and long ones. Playing with the cycles of my breath, inhaling and exhaling, I cycle through this other-world of multiphonics and slow synths. The reverb expands all of this into another spatial dimension creating a virtual room within the ear. As I continued developing the piece, I kept finding hidden circles. I don’t think I’ve even found all of them yet. I consider sound as touch… On my circle planet, we know sound as touch.”
Tone Keepers is a collection of four compositions that follow a straight line into unexpected territory.
To celebrate the release, Outside Time will be presenting Beetz’s album release show at Rhizome DC on February 4th. She will be playing Tone Keepers in its entirety, as well as leading a large ensemble in a performance of James Tenney’s “In A Large Open Space,” featuring present and future Outside Time artists Alma Laprida, Animal Collective’s Geologist, Heather Stebbins, and more. The players will be spread throughout the venue while the audience is invited to move around to find new sonic vantage points.
Pre-Order Tone Keepers: https://rachelbeetz.bandcamp.com/album/tone-keepers