SUMAC and Moor Mother have shared the new piece “Scene 4”, taken from their upcoming work The Film, to be released on April 25th. The piece features singer Sovie layering harmonies between SUMAC’s taut thuds and Moor Mother’s dynamic incantations, electronics bristling beneath the procession. Restraint and outburst build tension as the ensemble’s deft performance inspires close listening, giving each wallop and swell that much more impact.
The Film’s moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: “The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art. Thinking about the work as a Film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won’t understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process.” The Film does have clear themes running throughout – again Moor Mother expounds: “the themes are universal in nature – land – displacement – the climate – human rights and freedoms – war and peace – the idea of running away from the many violent forces and horrific systems of man and empire.”
The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists’ work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. Heavy, holy, hypnotizing – beyond existence, beyond the fettered constraints of normality, past the false notions of the indoctrinated disguised as the organic, planets form; the detritus of cosmic stuff merges into galaxies, into something that can sound like it’s populated by suns. The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother. The Film was recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle with Scott Evans. The album includes appearances by guest vocalists Kyle Kidd, Sovie, and Candice Hoyes.
Around The Film’s release, SUMAC and Moor Mother will be premiering their collaborative performances in Berlin and at Roadburn Festival. Additionally, SUMAC will be heading out on a European tour this Spring with special guests, Japan’s ENDON, while Moor Mother will be playing select European dates with Lonnie Holley in May.
