INSECT ARK RELEASE "RAW BLOOD SINGING"

 

PRESS RELEASE:

Raw Blood Singing

by Insect Ark

Tracklist:

1.Birth of a Black Diamond

2.The Frozen Lake 07:29

3.Youth Body Swayed 07:06

4.Cleaven Hearted

5.The Hands

6.Psychological Jackal

7.Inverted Whirlpool

8.Ascension

Formed in 2011, INSECT ARK is the Berlin-based duo of American artists Dana Schechter (SWANS) on bass/lap steel/synth/vocals, and drummer/percussionist Tim Wyskida (KHANATE, BLIND IDIOT GOD).

"Raw Blood Singing" - INSECT ARK's fourth full-length - is the captivating result of a year spent writing. Sharing an obsession with innovation and distillation, the duo merged to create a sonic landscape which vacillates between sensory overload and isolation in a seething void. Many of the songs on "Raw Blood Singing" were penned alone in 2021 by Schechter; they were gutted, reworked and rebirthed when Wyskida joined in 2022.

The outer realms of avant-Metal, psych-Doom, and experimental Goth intersect here, but INSECT ARK fiercely refuses the trappings of simple genre categorization. The band weave a lush, bleak, vast and expansive landscape as they move from whispers of synth to a monstrous wall-of-sound via Schechter's blistering lap steel playing, diabolical bass-work and the mammoth, searing power of Wyskida's drums.

The album title is deeply rooted in the concept of evolution - on both a human and a universal scale – stories of physical beings bound by equal parts unchangeable matter and malleable, shape-shifting energy. The music, too, has evolved beyond INSECT ARK's origin as an instrumental band, adding for the first-time the deep honeyed poison of Schechter's vocals. Showing a penchant for crafting haunted and memorable melodies, the contrast of her smoky voice with the spare, brutal music feels both uncomfortably intimate and icy cold. 

releases June 7, 2024

Dana Schechter - Bass, Vocals, Lap Steel Guitar, Synthesizers, Piano.

Tim Wyskida - Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals.

Ville Leppilahti - Guest Piano on "Cleaven Hearted", Synthesizers on "The Hands" and "Psychological Jackal".

Colin Marston - Guest Synthesizers on "Inverted Whirlpool".

Music written by Dana Schechter and Tim Wyskida.

Lyrics written by Dana Schechter.

Album Photography by Chris Friel.

Layout Design/Composites by Dana Schechter.

Band Photo by Lupus Lindemann.

Recorded by Nikos Giagkoudakis and Socrates Bebis at Unreal Studio, Athens.

Assistant Engineering by Alex Ketenjian and Nikos Dimitrakakos.

Produced by Insect Ark and Nikos Giagkoudakis.

Additional Production and Recording, Torben Utecht, Dana Schechter, Berlin.

Mixed by Colin Marston at Menegroth Studios, New York.

Mastered by James Plotkin at Plotkinworks, Pennsylvania.

https://insectark.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/insectark/

http://facebook.com/InsectArk