*announcing* Jeremiah Chiu - In Electric Time /// Cassette/Digi Album out September 29th /// US tour w/ Mary Lattimore in October
*announcing*
IARC0074
Jeremiah Chiu
In Electric Time
Cassette & Digital album out September 29th, 2023
Today we are happy to announce a new album by Los Angeles-based composer, synthesist, graphic designer and multi-medium artist Jeremiah Chiu – In Electric Time – to be released on September 29th, 2023. The title track “In Electric Time” is available now on all digital music platforms, along with a video directed and edited by Burkie.
Chiu’s new music comes in the wake of a long run of solo shows opening for M83 on their Fantasy tour, and in anticipation of an October tour where he will support Mary Lattimore across the US (dates and ticket links below).
On June 29th, 2023, Chiu walked into the Vintage Synthesizer Museum (VSM) in Highland Park, Los Angeles, with no plan more specific than “let’s fire this stuff up and see what happens.” Exploring the VSM’s vast collection of classic, rare and staple synthesizers, he would sequence, trigger, and layer the machines together with help from VSM founder/curator Lance Hill.
Hill recalls: "Jeremiah arrived before the engineer showed up. We talked for maybe 5 minutes before he started programming a sound and sequence into the Gleeman Pentaphonic. By the time the engineer showed up, Jeremiah had built several other parts around the Gleeman that weren't synced by any control method but sounded like they were just calling and responding to each other. They plugged the Tascam 388 into the patch bay, and hit record. Jeremiah played with it, and that was it. First piece written and recorded in under an hour. It felt natural, fun and free. And that's pretty much how the rest of the session went. Constant ecstatic motion. It was the funnest non-HipHop session I've ever worked on."
The resulting album – In Electric Time - was recorded in two days, and edited to completion in the two days following. It was captured fully analog by engineer Ben Lumsdaine, who contributes performances on a few tracks himself. Cooper Crain (of Bitchin Bajas) makes an appearance as well; but ultimately the collection is an intuitive expression of organic electronic music conceptualized and created in-context by Chiu alone, as he calls on a lifetime of work in sound synthesis to paint a fulgent, refreshingly undercut sequence of cinematic sketches and in-process themes. In some ways, In Electric Time reflects the directness of Raymond Scott’s electronic studio recordings — with sharp cuts and room chatter — and, in others, it conjures the in-the-moment magic of Harmonia.
About the work, Chiu says: “The approach to the improvisations was to embrace the mixer setups at VSM — where a section of synthesizers are all routed to a single mixer/patchbay — and to start at one end of the studio and work our way around the six different sections. I began with the synths I was most familiar with — or had spent years researching — and was fairly certain I could reign in quickly. When working with vintage gear, there's always a sweet spot where the instrument sings in a unique way. This may be the idiosyncrasies of its filter and how it resonates, the action of the keys, the ability to trigger and use control voltage to sequence, or the unique onboard features. I love finding the moments where a melody or rhythm appears in an unexpected way — at times feeling more like archaeology than sculpture. I was quite improvisatory with the editing as well, often pulling bits from distinctly different sections in dialogue with each other, in order to maintain the raw, spontaneous feeling. I loved hearing moments in the recordings when Ben started or stopped tape, so a take that was running long and beyond its moment would hit directly against a fresh idea.”
"In Electric Time"
The album’s title track / lead single is the final piece of music that Chiu created during his two-day session at the VSM. “In Electric Time” sounds like the end-credits score for a dystopian late-80s sci-fi thriller, with lush Sakamoto-esque CS80 chords hovering above a frenetic, off-meter vocoder loop (made by Chiu using the EMS Vocoder 2000 with a TR-606 as the carrier signal that simultaneously triggers a JX-3P sequence). The tension builds steadily and powerfully through the final movement of the track… leaving us hanging in suspense, until the engineer Lumsdaine is heard saying: “That’s the end of the tape.”
The single comes via a video directed and edited by Burkie, who overlays classic early computerized graphics and analog video synth by Chiu on top of footage shot at the VSM sessions.
Jeremiah Chiu
LIVE
September 3, Chicago, IL
Plantasia @ Garfield Park Conservatory - tickets
September 30, Los Angeles, CA
Zebulon (supporting Colleen) - tickets
<<< October Tour supporting Mary Lattimore >>>
October 12, Los Angeles, CA
Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever - tickets
October 13, Felton, CA
Felton Music Hall - tickets
October 14, San Francisco, CA
Cafe Du Nord - tickets
October 16, Portland, OR
Polaris Hall - tickets
October 17, Seattle, WA
The Triple Door - tickets
October 19, Boise, ID
Neurolux - tickets
October 21, Denver, CO
Skylark Lounge - tickets
October 23, Lawrence, KS
White Schoolhouse - tickets
October 24, Iowa City, IA
The James Theatre - tickets
October 25, Minneapolis, MN
Cedar Cultural Center - tickets
October 26, Milwaukee, WI
Acme Records - tickets
October 27, Chicago, IL
Constellation - tickets
October 28, Chicago, IL
Constellation - tickets
About Jeremiah Chiu
Jeremiah Chiu is a Los Angeles-via-Chicago artist and musician who released his International Anthem debut duo record with Marta Sofia Honer, Recordings from the Åland Islands, in March of 2022. In Chicago, Chiu was an active member of the notoriously inter-connected improvisational and experimental music scenes. Chiu’s musical CV to that point included work with Icy Demons and Chandeliers, as well as visual art as Some All None. In Los Angeles, he is an electronic music composer and sound-artist, where he performs and composes solo as well as with a variety of collaborators including Josh Johnson, Anna Butterss, Greg Uhlmann, Booker Stardrum, Celia Hollander, Dustin Wong, and aSam Prekop. Most recently, he has toured with Sam Prekop & John McEntire, was the opener for M83 on their U.S. Fantasy Tour, and performed at MOCA Los Angeles.
** limited edition cassette **
In Electric Time is available on limited edition, pro-dubbed C38 cassette tape in a transparent shell with black hubs, and housed in mint green Norelco box. The six-panel CMYK J-Card has reversible artwork.
