{"title":"Marta Sofia Honer","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"jeremiah-chiu-marta-sofia-honer-recordings-from-the-aland-islands","title":"Jeremiah Chiu \u0026 Marta Sofia Honer - Recordings from the Åland Islands","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-about\"\u003eIn 2017 Jeremiah Chiu \u0026amp; Marta Sofia Honer traveled together to the Åland Islands (an archipelago that is host to around 6,500 islands) in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. They headed to the islands with the intention of helping two friends (mother\/daughter duo Jannika\/Sage Reed) barn raise a small inn named Hotel Svala in Kumlinge (a municipality consisting of a small group of islands and a population of about 320). The idea was that, once completed, Svala would host artist residencies and workshop programs, creating a direct link between the islands and the USA.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe concept of recording music there came about as Honer \u0026amp; Chiu learned more and more about the islands. They were taken by the serene and strange quality of the place. The sun doesn’t set in the summer (and barely rises in the winter). The network of miniature islands is traversed by ferry which, according to Chiu, “casts a surreal horizontal movement through space and time, with islands shifting into and out of periphery, totally still and calm, yet always in motion.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 2019 they were awarded a grant from the Department of Culture to return and perform a concert at the Kumlinge Kyrka, a 14th century medieval church adorned with incredible frescos. The concert was recorded and became source material – along with\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eimprovisations on viola and electronics, pipe organ, pump organ, piano, synthesizers, field recordings and voice memos, all captured across both their trips at various locations on the archipelago – from which they meticulously crafted a post-script in the form of 'Recordings from the Åland Islands'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEasing listeners into the feeling of the place, the album’s opening track “In Åland Air” is a dream-like haze that slows time, invoking the feeling of descending by plane onto the archipelago, a place Chiu recalls as “lush with a gentle, brackish breeze...” On “Snåcko,” a track named for the island next to Kumlinge, the music becomes a transportive portrait, painting in sound “the romantic and gentle atmosphere of the forests in Åland — a place where your eyes slowly adjust to the rainbow-colored moss covering granite boulders. Walking around, you find the forest floor blossoming with blueberries, currants, and flowers...”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe longest and darkest movement in the collection, “Archipelago,” encapsulates “the experience of being surrounded in the vast network of islands” with a dense cloud of slowly modulating string layers, improvised by Honer in an empty swimming pool at Svala. “The heaviness of the track,” says Honer, “is a reference to the deep darkness experienced during the Nordic winter days.” But the plaintive atmosphere of that penultimate piece is succeeded with the triumphant final movement of the album, “Under the Midnight Sun,” which bellows forth like a vibrant chorus of melodious sighs, echoing classic sounds from Jon Hassell’s 'Vernal Equinox', or Franco Battiato’s 'Clic', or Brian Eno’s 'Another Green World'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust as two eyes, two ears, and two halves of a brain work together to create a memory, on their duo debut, Honer and Chiu’s collective pallet produces a vivid three-dimensional hyperreality of painterly tones and textures – bright and kaleidoscopic, but with a deeply warm, earthen resonance. The music evokes a powerful sense of place, transporting and immersing listeners in the other-world of the Åland Islands. And though they achieve this in beautifully natural, organic manner, Chiu \u0026amp; Honer agree this album is quite unlike anything they’ve made before, and likely unlike anything they’ll make in the future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e...about Chiu \u0026amp; Honer...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe combination of modular synthesizer and viola is an uncommon one, but Jeremiah Chiu \u0026amp; Marta Sofia Honer manage to create a distinctive dyad that comes together with grace and truth. They’ve accomplished this by bringing much more than their respective axes to the table. Years of collaboration, cohabitation, shared experience, and separate but equally inspired commitments to utilitarian cultural work bind their disparate timbres together into a singular aesthetic reality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe two artists met, appropriately, as members of a large ensemble performing Terry Riley’s “In C,” for an annual concert organized by Bitchin Bajas at Chicago modern music hub Constellation. Honer \u0026amp; Chiu had been living and working in Chicago for a long time, both active members of the notoriously interconnected improvisational and experimental music scenes, but they were somehow previously unintroduced. Chiu’s musical CV to that point included work with bands like Icy Demons and Chandeliers, but he was mostly known for his visual and graphic design work as Some All None. Honer had primarily worked as an instructor in Chicago, as well as a member of the ensemble Quartet Datura. In 2014, a year after their first collaboration, together, they decided to migrate to Los Angeles to continue developing their respective careers and crafts in sunnier climes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRelocation to Los Angeles has proven to be fruitful for both artists. Honer has since become a first-call session player for the likes of Adrian Younge and Beyoncé. She’s also played on recordings by Chloe x Halle, Angel Olsen, Fleet Foxes, and Stanley Clarke, among others, including five recordings with Grammy nominations. Along with her session work, Honer is on the music faculty at California State University. Chiu has expanded his visual work in numerous capacities, in addition to becoming an active intersectional community organizer, and refocusing his musical practice to electronic music composition and sound art. He’s also become an Assistant Professor at Otis College of Art \u0026amp; Design; has exhibited\/performed at The Getty Center, LACMA, and other distinguished locales; has become a resident programmer for Dublab; and has generated a strong unit of regular musical collaborators that includes Celia Hollander, Booker Stardrum, Ben Babbitt, Dustin Wong, Takako Minekawa, and Sam Prekop. Chiu has also designed album artwork for several International Anthem releases, including Angel Bat Dawid's Transition East, Dos Santos's City of Mirrors, Jeff Parker's Forfolks, and JP's Myspace Beats.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003ca\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"credits-label\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-credits\"\u003ereleased March 11, 2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWritten, performed, and produced by Jeremiah Chiu \u0026amp; Marta Sofia Honer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRecorded in various locations on the Åland Islands.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJeremiah Chiu – piano, organs, modular synthesizer, Crumar Performer, Juno-60, CS01, OP-1, bass guitar, and field recordings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMarta Sofia Honer – viola, Crumar Performer, and hand chimes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProcessing on \"In Åland Air\" by John McEntire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdditional field recordings on \"Stureby House Piano,\" \"Voices,\" and \"By Foot By Sea\" by Sean Pecknold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFlute on \"Archipelago\" by Stephen Honer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdited and arranged in Kumlinge, Chama, and Los Angeles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMixed by Jeremiah Chiu, Dave Vettraino, and Regina Martinez at International Anthem Studios, Chicago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMastered by David Allen in Portland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCover image by Joyce Kim.\u003cbr\u003eVerso images by Marta Sofia Honer.\u003cbr\u003eLayout by Jeremiah Chiu.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThank you: Sage and Jannika Reed, Scottie McNiece, Dave Vettraino, David Allen, Airi Pettersson, Nina Carlsson, Johann from Seglinge, the Department for Åland Education and Cult Kumlinge Ungdomsforening, S:ta Anna Kyrka, Sean Pecknold, Adi Goodrich, Joyce Kim, Andrew Bruntel, Jeff Desom, Sage Price, Anabella Casanova, Ben Babbitt, Celia Hollander, Booker Stardrum, Takako Minekawa, Dustin Wong, Sam Prekop, Ken Zawacki, Charlie Vinz, Monica Rezman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpecial thanks to The Hotel Svala.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"license-label\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"license\" class=\"info license\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"cc-icons commercial\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eall rights reserved\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"International Anthem","offers":[{"title":"Classic Black Vinyl LP","offer_id":53918515102037,"sku":"IARC0053LP","price":22.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1049\/0419\/6437\/files\/a3858673279_10.jpg?v=1780480388"},{"product_id":"ariel-kalma-jeremiah-chiu-marta-sofia-honer-the-closest-thing-to-silence","title":"Ariel Kalma, Jeremiah Chiu \u0026 Marta Sofia Honer - The Closest Thing to Silence","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-about\"\u003eIn August 2022, Australia-based, French born fourth-world music legend Ariel Kalma was invited to participate in BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction series of special collaborations. The program pairs artists who have not previously worked together to create new music cooperatively.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKalma was quick to suggest working with two musicians whom he had never met – International Anthem recording artists Jeremiah Chiu \u0026amp; Marta Sofia Honer, whose critically-acclaimed duo debut 'Recordings from the Åland Islands' had been released just a few months earlier. An invitation was sent to Chiu and Honer, which was received with great enthusiasm, as Chiu had long been a fan of Kalma’s work, even citing him as a major influence on his approach to electronic music composition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe essential structure of the Late Junction collaboration was that the artists would work together to create around twenty minutes of music. They began passing music back and forth, some that Kalma had started, and some that Honer \u0026amp; Chiu had started, with each adding to or editing the track before returning it to the other. The music would only go back and forth a few times before being finalized.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter meeting their twenty minute goal for the program\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(four pieces total), the three musicians were satisfied in what they would present and sent along their work to the producers of Late Junction. However, there was a nagging suspicion that this wasn’t the end of the story. There were several pieces that they had nearly completed but that weren’t sent for inclusion in the radio program, and there were many ideas for refining those pieces that had. With this in mind Kalma, Chiu and Honer agreed that they would continue to work together to try to push the music further. The freshly minted trio felt like there was much more to be said and more work to be done. The Late Junction program was broadcast in September of 2022. Simultaneously, Kalma, Chiu and Honer began expanding upon the music they had started for the purpose of the broadcast, working diligently on the music for several months.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir collective approach to this work was born in improvisation and realized via collage-based editing. The end result brings several distinct musical moments — recorded sometimes decades apart — into conversation with one another, forming new narratives from building blocks of old ones. There are snippets of improvised playing from each musician, edited together with recordings that Kalma had made in the 70s at GRM, and even moments of audio notes — like Kalma explaining his ideas — that would make it into the final mixes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUltimately, the collection of music highlights the work of all three musicians, intertwining the contextual immersion heard on Chiu \u0026amp; Honer’s 'Recordings from the Åland Islands' with an intergenerational reverence for (and the undeniable presence of) Kalma’s decades-spanning body of work. It is work that has definitively enshrined him as one of the true, transcendent pioneers and sages of new age and fourth-world music. That reverence is affirmed by the album title chosen by the group — \"The Closest Thing to Silence\" — which is taken from a quote by Kalma included in a documentary by RVNG Intl (as part of their release of the 2014 compendium\/retrospective An Evolutionary Music). Perhaps coincidental, Kalma’s quote was a slight modulation of a legendary ECM Records motto, as he said: “Music is the closest thing to silence.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-about\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-about\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReleased February 2, 2024\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"International Anthem","offers":[{"title":"CD - Compact Disc","offer_id":53918596890965,"sku":"IARC0077CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1049\/0419\/6437\/files\/a3064571280_10.jpg?v=1779807499"},{"product_id":"jeremiah-chiu-marta-sofia-honer-different-rooms","title":"Jeremiah Chiu \u0026 Marta Sofia Honer - Different Rooms","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-about\"\u003ealbum notes by Jeremiah Chiu \u0026amp; Marta Sofia Honer:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDifferent Rooms is a collection of songs and musical motifs we composed, edited, and collaged in the weeks between late 2024 and early 2025. Most of the recorded material was performed during that editing process, except for live performances taken from improvisations we recorded with Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson some time in 2023.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn our typical process, much of our material is collaged and combines moments of live improvisation, field recordings, and in-studio experimentation. This record, however, marks an evolution in our approach to studio production.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur studios are side-by-side. When we were writing this album, you might have found us tracking viola stacks in one studio while, in the other, we were writing through-composed themes and rearranging the material. Granular synthesis and tape manipulation are key tools we use to create variation and movement in a composition. This process often yields surprising results, capturing the emotion but expressing it in unexpected ways. It feels essential that we embrace a bit of chance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn contrast to our first album, Recordings from the Åland\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eIslands, we wanted this music to feel very present. Where Recordings was intended to transport you to another place, Different Rooms is meant to meet you where you are. It’s a decidedly urban album. The field recordings were captured on train platforms, in city streets, in rooms at home, and intentionally paint a quotidian sonic image, blurring the line between what you hear in your own environment and what is on the record.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe song cycle is set in palindromic sequence, figuratively, with certain pieces (reflected) by a reprised or recurring motif that is often reimagined with new instrumentation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe sonic and temporal abstraction between what is performed in real-time versus what is recorded, manipulated, and collaged reinforces our intent to collect the works under the title Different Rooms, which literally expresses the way the material was recorded in different rooms while reminding us that our shared experience of present time is also one that is asynchronous, historied, and complex.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003ca\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"credits-label\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-credits\"\u003ereleased June 20, 2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll Compositions by Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer;\u003cbr\u003eexcept “Side by Side” composed by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Jeff Parker, and “Different Rooms” composed by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Josh Johnson.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerformed, recorded, and arranged from November 2024 – January 2025 by Jeremiah Chiu \u0026amp; Marta Sofia Honer in Los Angeles, with additional performance recordings from Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJeremiah Chiu – modular synthesizer + live-sampling\u003cbr\u003eMarta Sofia Honer – viola + electronics\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJeff Parker – guitar (on “Side by Side”)\u003cbr\u003eJosh Johnson – saxophone + effects (on “Different Rooms”)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVoice on “Long and Short Delays,” “Different Rooms,” and “Mind by a Way” by Giovanna Jacques.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eZhinan Temple field recording on “One of Eight” by Michael Hilger.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdditional string treatment on “Before and After Signs” by Ben Babbitt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMixed by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Dave Vettraino.\u003cbr\u003eSequenced by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Scott McNiece.\u003cbr\u003eMastered by David Allen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlbum Cover Art by Sam Prekop (Untitled, September 2023).\u003cbr\u003ePhotography by Christophe Guary and Daniel Everett.\u003cbr\u003eDesign and Layout by Jeremiah Chiu.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThank you to our Los Angeles community.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"license-label\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"license\" class=\"info license\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"cc-icons commercial\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eall rights reserved\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"International Anthem","offers":[{"title":"CD - Compact Disc","offer_id":53919390400853,"sku":"IARC0098CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1049\/0419\/6437\/files\/a1429006852_10.jpg?v=1779884796"}],"url":"https:\/\/international-anthem.k7store.com\/collections\/marta-sofia-honer.oembed","provider":"International Anthem","version":"1.0","type":"link"}