Light Play by (is)

April 15, 2022: Isobel Bess aka (is) has been releasing experimental music under her own name and various others for the last two decades. With a varied palette of bass, synthesizers, field recordings, spoken word, and electroacoustic sound manipulation, her output maintains a hazy focus on texture, spatiality, and the possibilities of deep listening. She is the author of several books of poetry, the most recent of which is called anyway i saw a light there.

(is) resonates beyond and between the temporal boundaries of truncated futures, a discorporate signal encoding the unrealized. They are received in our present moment as a psychoacoustic phenomenon most closely approximated by digital Frequency Modulation synthesis.

Light Play is the first full-length collaboration between sound artist Isobel Bess and the discorporate extratemporal signal known only as (is). The album draws atmosphere from the speculative futures of writers like Samuel R. Delany, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and Octavia Butler to shape a sonic space of expansive synth textures, sparse beats, and interstitial static. The result is an ambient album for the apocalypse. Hovering somewhere between signal and noise, Light Play echoes back from (im)possible futures to ask a singular question of the uncertain present: what now? Its languid synths offer respite only as an ellipsis, Frequency Modulation as prelude to riot. What now?

credits

released April 15, 2022

All tracks written, produced, mixed, and mastered by Isobel Bess/(is) in the Chillout Room.

isobelbess.bandcamp.com

Light Play cover art by Vin Tanner.

linktr.ee/hologramvin

Thanks to everybody who hung out with me in the Chillout Room while I worked on these sounds. Thanks to Jamie for the conversation where some of these ideas took root. Thanks to Grim and everyone at Gr for helping me put them out there. Thanks to Amy for everything.

itch: achenesense.itch.io

Bandcamp: isobelbess.bandcamp.com

Twitch: www.twitch.tv/snaprecipient

Huge thanks to New Noise Magazine and Tabitha Timms for featuring this album in their Bandcamp of the Day section: newnoisemagazine.com/bandcamp-of-the-day-isobel-bess/

Huge thanks to Jon and Liam for premiering Light Play: varioussmallflames.co.uk/2022/04/15/is-light-play/

Huge thanks to George at Astral Noize for premiering the single Psychoprobe Console and pre-order for Light Play: astralnoizeuk.com/2022/03/04/premiere-is-pychoprobe-console/

Huge thanks to Jon and Brainwashed for playing Light Play on their podcast: open.spotify.com/show/7yoYvIwWmRx8UQfx1xania

Huge thanks to A Closer Listen for mentioning Light Play in their Spring Music Preview 2022 ~ Electronic Synthezoids section: acloserlisten.com/2022/03/15/spring-music-preview-2022-electronic/

Thanks to Bathory Zine for sharing our press release for this album on their blog: www.bathoryzine.com/2022/04/grimalkin-records-june-releases.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR23yoc5SFQOr99Lf3W8r8TcPHknZMjjj7ycgJZvaNWanolNmi055kyN1Qo

Thanks to River City Limits at WRIR for playing the track Full Empty on their show: www.wrir.org/2022/12/10/time-doesnt-exist/