Tin Iso and the Dawn, the first installment of a mythic trilogy from Brooklyn-based composer and puppeteer Tristan Allen, emerged as both a full-length album and the original score to a live shadow puppet production.
Inspired by Wagner’s three act opera Tristan und Isolde, Tin Iso conjures an otherworldly cast of characters, chronicling a creation myth through mesmerizing production and ethereal instrumentation. A revelatory odyssey exploring the interplay of light / dark, Tin Iso stands as a singular piece of experimental storytelling, and an evocative moment in RVNG’s catalog.
Later his month, the next chapter of Tristan’s trilogy unfolds with the premiere of Osni the Flare, running November 20 – 23 at La MaMa in New York City. Created in conjunction with The Jim Henson Foundation, Osni tells the story of a dancing puppet who embarks on a quest to safeguard an apple tree from the imminent winter chill. An awe-inspiring journey through a multi-dimensional world, Osni the Flare is an experience not to be missed.
Deyhim and Horowitz’s decades-long partnership blossomed from a chance meeting at Noise New York, an intimate West 34th street studio housing the creative energies of Arthur Russell, Christian Marclay, and other downtown visionaries. though each hailed from drastically different worlds—Deyhim, a tehran-born vocalist who regularly graced Iranian television before studying ballet in Belgium, and Horowitz, a Buffalo-born composer immersed in Paris’ free jazz underground—the pair found common ground in a revolutionary vision of avant-pop.
Striving to create a body of music “free of any specific cultural reference, with a personal musical signature”, the pair crafted works that interlace Deyhim’s inimitable vocalizations with Horowitz’s daring compositions, each piece infused with the pair’s extensive engagement with both experimental music and globe-spanning musical traditions. The result is an extraordinary expression, music with a wholly singular sound.
In 2024, Deyhim, Horowitz, and Freedom To Spend unveiled The Invisible Road, a compilation of previously unheard recordings carefully selected from a valley storage space / treasure trove overflowing with decades of material. The collection stands as a tribute to an enduring creative and romantic partnership, and to the remarkable legacy of Horowitz’s life.
The next flame of Sister Irene O’Connor’s Fire of God’s Love ignites today with “Messe du Saint Esprit”.
A deeply devotional hymn channeled through a prism of modern psychedelic pop, “Messe du Saint Esprit” shimmers with gentle acoustic guitar strums and layers of sister Irene’s ethereal voice. Translating to “Mass of the Holy Spirit”, the song finds her singing in Latin and inviting all spiritual seekers to find the divine truth, regardless of race, religion, or creed.
A holy grail seeing renewed life with its first authorized reissue in 50 years, Fire of God’s Love is now available for pre-order in limited fire marbled LP, black LP, CD, and digital editions. Arriving November 14 on Freedom to Spend.
“Each Story” is the final transmission from Emily A. Sprague’s Cloud Time, arriving just before the album unfolds this Friday, October 10.
As the concluding track of Cloud Time, “Each Story” gently winds down the album’s deeply felt voyage in harmony with memory. Gathering the record’s full abundance into one final echo, it is flush with musing tones of reflection and acceptance, suspended in disbelief, and tinged a drop bittersweet.
Named after the Each Story festival in Nagano, Japan where Emily performed the final show of her Fall 2024 tour, the title “Each Story” also gracefully gestures back to the six long-form ambient expressions sequenced before it, each a specific tale in tender dialogue with time, city, space, and place of mind.
The final single emerges alongside another hypnotic visual by V. Haddad, and news of a Bandcamp listening party tomorrow, Wednesday, October 8 at 2 p.m. EDT. Visit the Cloud Time page on Bandcamp for more details, and to RSVP.
Today, we welcome David Moore back to the RVNG family with “Pointe Nimbus,” his first widely shared piece of solo piano music in a score.
Known and revered for his atmospheric works with Bing & Ruth, and his collaborations with Steve Gunn and Cowboy Sadness, Moore’s live ensemble compositions helped reshape America’s musical landscape from the early aughts with their sublime spaciousness. Now, his new solo piano offering marks a full circle moment, a coming home to the radiant core of his artistry.
Moore describes “Pointe Nimbus” as a “simple song that gets stretched and pulled apart and put back together a few times – like a plastic Satie someone left melting and spinning in the microwave.” Its mythic title, alluding to both the graceful tip-toe practices of classical ballet and the divine halos of light seen in religious icons, captures the work’s serenely buoyant atmosphere, a space in which one can always take refuge.
Keep your head in the clouds of “Pointe Nimbus” now, and keep an eye out for more from Moore on the horizon. We’re so happy to have you home, David.
