Swan Pond by Silica Gel

More info: https://sweetwreath.com/Silica-Gel-Swan-Pond

Silica Gel's third album Swan Pond features music written with custom electronic instruments such as a hand-cranked synthesizer and a hacked megaphone. Taishogoto, autoharp, spoken word and woven harmonies add further to the sonic palette, incorporating medieval, folk revival and electronic influences which make this record a compelling, unpredictable listen.

By whatever rhythms of work and psychic seasonal alignment, the midsummer has become a pivotal date in the Sweet Wreath mythos. The first album to ever be released on Sweet Wreath, flusnoix's self titled debut, was birthed at this time in 2016. Other projects that came to fruition on this date include Joel Nelson's Only People Talking, and the Summer Solstice volume of Seasonal Séance, which includes Silica Gel's mashup of the medieval round song Sumer Is Icumen In (heard in the Wicker Man) and The Cuckoo (heard in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music).

Swan Pond features a hand-cranked generator organ built by Will Mullany, and a hacked megaphone designed in collaboration with Bryan Day. Dubbed the "polyvoxaphone," it allows the singer to sample and repeat their voice along with delay, pitch and distortion controls.

Fringe, USA

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