Photo: Lisel by Gregory Wikstrom / Booker Stardrum by Brian Guido

Drumming wizard, improviser and composer Booker Stardrum and singer, producer, and experimental artist Eliza Bagg aka Lisel⁠ have joined forces for a debut album entitled Mycelial Echo. Crafted remotely over a six week period, the album is closely tied to other artistic projects. Half of the music was written for an opera about trees⁠ set to be presented in a virtual reality installation this year and the other half was composed for The Vanishing Point, a 25-minute music and dance piece commissioned by National Sawdust. The piece was made with dancer/choreographer Gwendolyn Gussman and conceived as video art.

The press release elaborates on Bagg and Stardrum’s collaboration:

“Lisel’s manipulated vocal samples, processed vocal improvisations, and patterns built from extended techniques are combined with Stardrum’s complex sequences, organic percussion, and synths to create a portrayal of our relationship to the natural world that is both tactile, sensorial, and seen from a distance.”

Preceding Mycelial Echo‘s release on April 9th through Luminelle Recordings, the pair shared two riveting and celestial tracks,  ‘In The Dome’ and ‘I Am Not Ready To Go’.  ‘In The Dome’ comes paired a video directed by Bagg herself and featured Gwendolyn Gussman.