Unblend by Joel St. Julien

Sharing an offering: take a walk, look at the sky, zone out, lay down. Unblend from what no longer serves you. Enjoy.

This was an improvised piece I shared at KADIST Gallery in San Francisco as part of an evening of sound performances organized in collaboration with Cone Shape Top, on the occasion of the launch of de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas: Reader Volume Two, co-published by KADIST and sming sming books.

Press:

“Unblend” opens still spaces. Joel St. Julien always taps into these vulnerable moments with a slowly unfolding sound, leaning into the resulting tension as it builds. Soft, flowing drones feel like melodic whisps in the periphery that push our thoughts inward, held aloft by crossing chord progressions. Emotive flourishes flicker in the troughs between each wave, all of it imbued with a translucent quality that feels light but close. Once the sharpened corners come out, St. Julien shades every passage with opaque tones and melancholic harmonies. By flying so high in the beginning, this breakdown hits even harder, but it’s here where St. Julien really shines. Complex electronic sequences intersect, lifting us into the unstable ether. As different patterns break apart, the fog dissipates and offers glimpses of the intransigent light. - Foxy Digitalis, The Capsule Garden Vol 3.8

Joel St. Julien is a Haitian-American composer, musician, songwriter, and sound artist based in San Francisco. Joel has written music for documentaries, short / feature films, podcasts, and dance. He is a firm believer in experimentation/fusion with acoustic and electronic elements in sound oscillating through escapism and the mysticism of the present tense.

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