The below article was taken from kolabproject.com which highlights their 232 Series mixtape collaboration effort with Séance Centre. The ask was to create a mixtape influenced by the Kolab Project 232 series. Séance Centre crafted a tremendous mix of ambient music with a textural and cerebral feeling that is perfect for your next burn. Enjoy the words below and more importantly the music that follows.
Séance Centrehas created an exclusive mix for the launch of the Kolab Project 232 Series Live Terpene Vape cartridge. All That is Solid Melts Into Air highlights the diverse terrain of the label – traversing sonic landscapes from verdant rainforests, windswept lowlands, ambient gwoka from Guadeloupe and planetarium music from Mexico. Immerse yourself in the sounds of Séance Centre. And read on to learn more, from co-founders Brandon Hocura and Naomi Okabe.
How did Séance Centre come about?
We started Séance Centre as a vessel for our broader interests in music, art, literature, and film. Originally, we gravitated towards the mellow end of the music spectrum because we had recently moved to the countryside outside of Toronto. Also, around that time our first daughter was born, and having children around really makes you cherish the quiet moments.
That said, from the start we didn’t want to be pigeonholed as an ambient label and tried to keep things surprising by publishing books, releasing dance 12”s, and experimental electronic cassettes quite early on. We envisioned it as multifaceted from the beginning — we also publish books, run a record shop/distribution, and are expanding our cultural production into film and archival research projects.
“We thought about tracks as elements, earth and air, and then conceived of the journey being about the sublimation process and transition in textural forms.”
What is your process for choosing artists for your label?
We follow the path of our interests and obsessions, but we’re always trying to keep things surprising, moving between formats and genres, in a way that keeps people guessing. This kind of ethos carries over into the curation of our shop and distribution, hoping that someone that buys a disco 12” might also become curious about a book of visual poetry that we carry.
For us, there are really fascinating through-lines between, say, the asemic singing of MJ Lallo,[“Aquarius Blue”] and concrete poetry. Or Michael Klausman’s sparse verse and Philip Sanderson’s [“Mixing Drinks on Aeroplanes”] economy of means with home-recording. Following these resonances are really important across everything we do.
All That is Solid Melts Into Air
Side A:
- 1. Museum of No Art—Form and Focus
- 2. Vito Ricci—Yours
- 3. Oren Cantrell—Damp Saksaul
- 4. Scott Gailey—Grasstune
- 5. Phil Struck—Grube
- 6. Shabason / Gunning—Lowland
- 7. C.R. Gillespie—In Soft Water
Side B:
- 1. Gwakasonné—Nirvacina
- 2. Eblen Macari—La Constelacion Del Pejelagarto (Bambuco)
- 3. The First Minute of a New Day—June 23rd
- 4. Short Term Memory—City in Mind
- 5. Michel Banabila—Des Traces Retrouvées 2–IV
- 6. MJ Lallo—Aquarius Blue
- 7. Museum of No Art—A Name-less Person Tries to Describe Herself
- 8. Philip Sanderson—Mixing Drinks on Aeroplanes
What was your process for creating All That Is Solid Melts Into Air?
We took the artwork direction as inspiration – an otherworldly landscape emitting mysterious smoke tendrils. And then thinking about our catalogue as a whole, we thought about tracks as elements, earth and air, and then conceived of the journey being about the sublimation process and transition in textural forms. We realized that a lot of our releases are either inspired by particular landscapes, or the cosmos, so it all fell into place.
What do you hope listeners get from the All That Is Solid Melts Into Air?
A journey of the mind. Especially important in the lockdown era, where we’re all feeling the need to feel motion, travel, freedom, and music is the only way to do that.
C L I C K B E L O W
