Synth Project Some Ember is previewing its bewitching new album Submerging The Sun, ahead of the release tomorrow through Third Coming Records.
The record is a self-produced wonder, featuring the sonic anachronism that is the vocals of singer/songwriter Dylan Travis evoking the spirit of experimental music created in the delirium that closed the decade 30 years ago.
Submerging The Sun is more so a solo record explains Travis, a return to Some Ember’s beginnings, that started with a cassette called “Hotel of Lost Light” in 2012.
The band, since then has had an ever shifting lineup evolving to a three piece, then a four piece, and then just Dylan Travis and Nina Chase.
“I’ve been doing it as a solo project again more or less since moving to Berlin,” explains Travis, “Nina sometimes plays live with me but I tour solo for the most part now. She did lend her voice to the record in a few places like “Precious Balance” and “Cascading Endings”.
Empathy seems to be the underlying theme of the deeply affecting album, whose music can be considered a balm to assuage our collective wounds in an era marred by tragedy and hatred. Travis explains in more detail:
“This record is an attempt to come to terms with my feelings on a few catastrophes that have been playing out in my life, in my community, and in our world. The common thread is the feelings of powerlessness and dread that come with bearing witness these events – and an attempt to overcome those emotions.
As I write this, my home state of California is experiencing its most deadly and widespread wildfires on record, and my adopted home of Germany is living through its warmest year on record and a prolonged drought. Two years ago, I lost several of my close friends and collaborators to the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, a city I had lived in and loved for nearly a decade.
The US is currently presided over by a narcissistic sociopath. These seemingly unrelated tragedies are connected in my mind, and I feel they were precipitated by similar forces – an inattention to the conditions of our fellow human beings, greed, and nihilism. This record poses the question: is it possible for us to reverse these forces that seem intractable? To me it seems that an abundance of empathy is needed. Music is one path towards that empathy, towards healing the damage that has been wrought on our species and our world. Let these songs be a step in that direction.”
Submerging the Sun is out tomorrow via Third Coming Records. Listen to the record below:
On November 30th, Some Ember are set to perform at La Station in Paris for a special event being billed as Third Coming vs Aufnahme Wiedergabe, featuring Poison Point, Lunacy, Offermose, Spit Mask, with a + w label head Philipp Strobel djing. Two more dates also remain on schedule this year, with a show in Copenhagen on December 6th, and Berlin on December 7th, both with Offermose and Lunacy.
Following this, Icelandic post-punk trio Kaelan Mikla are absconding with Dylan on their first ever headlining tour in February:
“I’m very excited and honored to tour with Kaelan Mikla, they are one of the best bands in the world right now in my opinion. I was fortunate to meet them while on tour doing merch for my friends Drab Majesty and we all formed a connection pretty quickly. I’m also in awe of the solo works of KM member Sólveig Matthildur – expect a collaboration between us sometime soon.”
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