Lesley Flanigan presents Hedera, a vivid new extended recording on Physical Editions from the New York-based electronic musician and instrument builder, and an elegant new platform for the powerful vehicle of Flanigan’s voice. In a driving performance that steadily unfolds over time, Lesley Flanigan shapes blooming clusters of her voice around a continuous beat of shifting frequencies and intensity, tapping influences from Steve Reich to Mark Fell and Cocteau Twins.

Like her previous work, Hedera’s intimate physical electronic music is simultaneously performative, rigorous, and visceral. It is likewise an assured new direction for Flanigan, whose duets with her unique hand-crafted wooden speaker feedback systems have been documented on 2014’s Glacier and 2009’s Amplifications. Invested with the same powerful physicality as her speaker explorations, the two tracks of Hedera move her sculptural approach to sound towards a new synthesis, a gorgeous new setting for her voice that finds itself halfway between the equally hallowed spaces of the experimental music hall and the dance floor.

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Brian Chase is a drummer and composer living in Brooklyn. His diverse range of work/play includes that with rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the community of the New York improvised/experimental music scene, and Drums & Drones, an electro­acoustic project focusing on the application of just intonation to drums and percussion. Performances have taken him across the world, and he appears on many recordings spanning a broad spectrum of styles. In addition to the drums, Brian is a regular practitioner of Ashtanga yoga.

Inspired by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House installation in NYC, Drums & Drones takes as its task the investigation of the subtle acoustic properties of drums and percussion. From here, expansive soundscapes are constructed, like aural snapshots of tone, uncovering the richness of sonic depth hidden within the resonance of these instruments. In developing each composition, Brian uses the pitch structure of the overtone series, a method known as Just Intonation, a.k.a. “nature’s tuning system.” The mood of D & D is often meditative, even in moments of high activity.