nêhiyawak's Matthew Cardinal has readied his debut solo album. The multi-instrumentalist will share Asterisms on October 27 through Arts & Crafts.
Described by Cardinal as "music recorded mostly for myself," the 11-track Asterisms finds the artist creating ambient electronic with analogue and modular synthesizers, samplers, electric piano and processed voice. Recorded in his bedroom as an "audio journal," deems the 11 compositions "asterisms drawing attention to where I was musically, mentally and emotionally at very brief passages of my life."
"May 24th" is the first song to arrive from the record, and you can hear it alongside visuals from multimedia visual artist SCKUSE (Stephanie Kuse) below. Of the song, Cardinal explains that it is "the result of experimenting with generative synthesis and syncing external equipment, playing around and having multiple sound sources playing the same melody. I slowed everything down significantly and built on top of that."
Visually, Kuse was inspired by Cardinal's night-time flash photography, which led her to create "something soft, hypnotic, and pretty to suit the music that also reflected the dreamy and nostalgic nature of his photos." As she recalls further, "I spent a few evenings out collecting footage near the South Saskatchewan River until I stumbled on the right material – wildflowers and grass going in and out of focus as the camera trailed behind. The footage was then processed through an old TV to enhance the vibrancy and to add subtle distortion."
nêhiyawak's debut album, nipiy, was recently short listed for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize, and was also nominated for Indigenous Album of the Year at the 2020 Juno Awards.
Asterisms:
1. Dec 31st
2. May 25th
3. May 24th
4. Dec 4th
5. May 7th
6. Mar 12th
7. Sep 7th
8. Aug 23rd
9. Sep 11th
10. Jan 8th
11. July 23rd
Pre-order Asterisms
Described by Cardinal as "music recorded mostly for myself," the 11-track Asterisms finds the artist creating ambient electronic with analogue and modular synthesizers, samplers, electric piano and processed voice. Recorded in his bedroom as an "audio journal," deems the 11 compositions "asterisms drawing attention to where I was musically, mentally and emotionally at very brief passages of my life."
"May 24th" is the first song to arrive from the record, and you can hear it alongside visuals from multimedia visual artist SCKUSE (Stephanie Kuse) below. Of the song, Cardinal explains that it is "the result of experimenting with generative synthesis and syncing external equipment, playing around and having multiple sound sources playing the same melody. I slowed everything down significantly and built on top of that."
Visually, Kuse was inspired by Cardinal's night-time flash photography, which led her to create "something soft, hypnotic, and pretty to suit the music that also reflected the dreamy and nostalgic nature of his photos." As she recalls further, "I spent a few evenings out collecting footage near the South Saskatchewan River until I stumbled on the right material – wildflowers and grass going in and out of focus as the camera trailed behind. The footage was then processed through an old TV to enhance the vibrancy and to add subtle distortion."
nêhiyawak's debut album, nipiy, was recently short listed for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize, and was also nominated for Indigenous Album of the Year at the 2020 Juno Awards.
Asterisms:
1. Dec 31st
2. May 25th
3. May 24th
4. Dec 4th
5. May 7th
6. Mar 12th
7. Sep 7th
8. Aug 23rd
9. Sep 11th
10. Jan 8th
11. July 23rd
Pre-order Asterisms