Fugue State - We Are Lasting (Switch Hit) [Electroacoustic]

Dan Langa is a Northampton, MA-based composer of music for music's sake as well as film and dance, a producer, an engineer, multi-disciplinary advocate, a mixed-media transcriber of words, an educator, keen collaborator, and not to mention a co-founder of an artist-run record label focussing on "distinct, multifaceted outputs".

Just because there was thirty minutes of the day still to fill before bedtime, he's kicked off a new project under the Fugue State moniker, which "treats collaboration as a compositional method", and combines years of improvised studio recordings to sit at the "intersection of textural sound design and collective authorship".

There's a Fugue State album on the way, but let's start at the start with "We Are Lasting", the first glimpse of the full length project to sneak out of the studio door. The single has its roots in a full day's recording session with the TSMM approved pianist Erika Dohi when they took a time out from their main objective to improvise a little; a seed that has just blossomed. Over time the track found room for some saxophone from Morgan Guerin and Timo Voolbrecht, yet more synths from William Brittel, Lauren Cauley's violin, Melissa Achten's harp and vocals from Maia Friedman with support from Ethan Woods. It's quite the chronological and space separated ensemble, but Langa is a deft hand behind the mixing desk with a keen ear for complimentary sounds, and has lovingly layered the contributions into a perfectly formed whole.

The result is a warm, sonically nurturing, back to the future electroacoustic soundscape that nods to classy and classic twentieth century composition and fuses that orchestral vibe with DAW enabled ambient daydreams of brighter days, that variously floats, soars and cascades through the speakers, the sounds of the skilled musicians swirling around Friedman's blissful vocals and the consummately crafted machine atmospherics to beatific and serene effect.

With Langas restless spirit I somehow doubt the whole album will be as radiant, but I'm already pretty convinced it's going to pretty special.

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Playlist Companion

Find Fugue State in the Slow Oddities Playlist.