{"title":"MIZU","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"issei-herr","title":"MIZU - Distant Intervals","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2943329005\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/iammizu.bandcamp.com\/album\/distant-intervals\"\u003eDistant Intervals by MIZU\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp class=\"tralbumData tralbum-about\"\u003eDistant Intervals, the full-length debut from Brooklyn cellist and composer MIZU (fka Issei Herr), is an exploration of memory, dreams, and the infinite possibilities within imagined worlds. Centered around themes of becoming and transformation, the music encompasses the liminal spaces between our past, present, and future selves - our ever-changing relation to personal memories, the ideals and dreams we have for our futures, and the distance and idealism of these infinite versions of self.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComposed and performed primarily through the vast sound-world of the cello, the album is built through layers of overdubbed improvisations, self-recorded entirely in MIZU’s bedroom closet. There is an element of newfound wonder throughout the album’s nine parts; the sounds of a single cello, an instrument she has known intimately since childhood, are augmented and transformed through the infinite possibilities of digital production and manipulation - layered and processed audio samples, tape loops, and synth ornamentation. Combining up to a hundred layers of overdubbed cello and processed samples, the resulting sound world is lush, vast, and orchestral in scope. A closing feature by rising vocal star Maria BC transforms and elevates Issei’s string-centered sound world into a\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateEllipsis\"\u003e...\u003c\/span\u003e  \u003ca\u003emore\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"license\" class=\"info license\"\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NNA Tapes","offers":[{"title":"Cassette (With Digital Download)","offer_id":45567680774367,"sku":"CS-NNA-150","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Digital Download (WAV) + PDF Poster","offer_id":45567680807135,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital Download (mp3) + PDF Poster","offer_id":45567680839903,"sku":"","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/MIZU_Distant_Intervals.jpg?v=1720877021"},{"product_id":"mizu-forest-scenes","title":"MIZU - Forest Scenes","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3061572486\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/iammizu.bandcamp.com\/album\/forest-scenes\"\u003eForest Scenes by MIZU\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThere is a philosophical quality to MIZU’s second full-length, ‘Forest Scenes’. Through layers of gorgeous, yearning cello, pulsating electronics, and hyperreal field recordings, MIZU evokes a sense of depth by interrogating systems and exploring unknown territories both physical and cerebral. By way of its daring experimentalism, ‘Forest Scenes’ is patently modern and brilliantly ontological.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProceeding from Robert Schumann’s ‘Waldszenen’ in name and, to some extent, concept, MIZU began work on ‘Forest Scenes’ immediately after completing ‘Distant Intervals’, conceiving and writing the record over the course of two inspired weeks in São Paulo, Brazil in Summer 2022 and completing it over the following year in New York. While ‘Distant Intervals’ engaged and inverted the classical idioms in which MIZU was reared, ‘Forest Scenes’ lunges even further away from that world. It is in no small way an acknowledgment of transcendent experiences and the thrills of self-discovery, whether in the vast urbanity of São Paulo, in the community among New York City’s queer spaces and dancefloors, or in the more abstract place of a self in transition. Pulling from these energies, MIZU loops in techno producer Concrete Husband, who features on “prphtbrd”, to further ornament the dancefloor flirtations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile MIZU was socially transitioning during the creation of ‘Distant Intervals’, she began a physical gender transition in step with the inception of ‘Forest Scenes’. The record parallels this transformation, interrogating the boundaries between the forest and what is before \/ beyond it, building scenes of self-discovery through a kind of ecstasy in the unexplored. The forest is, at least in part, a metaphor for queer spaces, for spaces of self-discovery through community, through encounter. But the spaces of self-discovery, for MIZU, are also very much found within the songs themselves. This marvelous symbolic complexity holds Forest Scenes aloft, above mundane considerations of what is more or less beautiful. What is pastoral, what is modern, what is natural: all these considerations are teased out by MIZU’s compelling production, as she weaves electronic and environmental sounds, and cello both heavily processed and laid bare in a glorious, sweeping dream. But with the headlong dives into deconstructionist experimentation and the pathos, vulnerability, and staggering range of densities through a single instrumental body, MIZU asserts that ‘Forest Scenes’ could not be more her own, as she discovers herself within it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotes by Mark Trecka \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReleases March 22, 2024\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eColor-in-color Light Pink \u0026amp; Red Vinyl. Artwork by Daedalus Li.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIncludes digital pre-order of Forest Scenes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NNA Tapes","offers":[{"title":"Special Edition LP (With Digital Download)","offer_id":45567681265887,"sku":"LP-NNA-153C","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Cassette (With Digital Download)","offer_id":45567681233119,"sku":"CS-NNA-153","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital Download (FLAC)","offer_id":45567681298655,"sku":"NNA-153","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital Download (WAV)","offer_id":45567681331423,"sku":"NNA-153C","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0677\/9256\/8543\/files\/MIZU_Forest_Scenes.jpg?v=1720876935"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.northern-spy.com\/collections\/mizu.oembed","provider":"Northern Spy Label Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}