Pete Swanson introduces Ashley Paul
Purveyor of noisy techno Pete Swanson took some time away from promoting his upcoming ‘Punk Authority’ EP this week to tell us why we should be listening to the Brooklyn-based composer and performer Ashley Paul. Armed with a brutal take on classical instruments such as the clarinet and a disarmingly powerful vocal, Paul’s debut album ‘Line The Clouds’ is a quietly forceful experimental record that’s set to turn heads next month. Read Swanson’s introduction to her below, and stream two of her tracks (as well Swanson’s own remix of Soak The Ocean, her current single) below.
Pete Swanson: “Ashley’s my neighbor. I just met up with her and her husband, Eli Keszler, a few nights ago actually…”
“I first found out about Ashley’s music through their label, REL, which, if you’re not familiar with it, please take a look at their website. You’ll find nothing but stunningly packaged releases that contain fascinating acoustic sounds. Root Strata’s On Land festival was the first time I actually got to see their duo, Aster. Ashley played a clarinet that night and focused on emitting long high-pitched tones that seemed to make the most hardened noise guys’ hair stand up on the back of their necks over Eli’s baffling and muscular percussion racket. Her work around that time managed to stand out from any established improv scene – too aggressive and confrontational for the EAI crowd. Far from jazz. She was out on her own and she owned that position. I talked to Keith Whitman about Ashley’s work a few years ago while we were on tour and Keith said something to the extent of ‘I’ve seen her play these harsh noise shows where she’s the only woman playing. She walks up on stage with only a clarinet and manages to lay waste to all the guys riding the feedback wave.’”
“When Ashley told me that she had started moving towards making pop music, I had no idea what to expect. What has ended up developing over a few records is this sort of ramshackle song form music that is still as confident and delicate as her most outre improv work. ‘Line The Clouds’ finds her even further out on her own. Her songs are constructed from bits of clarinet and saxophone, shards of Eli’s drum kit, her loose and skeletal guitar playing and her voice that seems to be a more lingual take on Ami Yoshida’s approach to singing. Everything manages to coalesce into something resembling a song in the end. I’ve always found her work compelling and ‘Line The Clouds’ is some of her best work.”
REL Records will release ‘Line the Clouds’ on the 18th March 2013. Software will release the ‘Punk Authority’ EP on the 12th March 2013.
