Reflections: Suzanne Ciani and Arushi Jain @ Seattle First Baptist Church

Prepare for quadraphonic sound 🫨

📸: Courtesy Floating

Saturday, May 20th • 7 pm

California composer/synth/piano wizard Suzanne Ciani is a rarity in electronic music: She’s one of the few artists to succeed in the realms of highbrow experimentation and high-pressure advertising (Coke, Almay, Atari, etc.). Beyond that impressive feat, Ciani has proven herself one of the most inventive musicians using the temperamental Buchla synthesizer, the instrument she will play at the acoustically and architecturally spectacular First Baptist Church, in quadraphonic sound.

Ciani’s discography is as varied as it is fascinating: serene, melodious New Age (The Velocity Of LoveSeven Waves—the ambient-music equivalent of silk sheets), a soundtrack for a doc about downhill skiing (Music For Denali), wild frequencies and musique concrète for a Brussels art gallery exhibition in 1970 (Voices Of Packaged Souls), exploratory pieces set to French poet Charles Baudelaire’s Élévation (Flowers Of Evil), discombobulating synth tomfoolery (Help, Help, The Globolinks!), and more. A 2020 improv performance at Festival Antigel featuring unpredictable beats and unusual textures proves that Ciani’s skill for generating transcendent astral and aquatic drones has not diminished.

Opening is Indian-born vocalist/composer/synthesist Arushi Jain, whose blissful, ethereal debut album, Under The Lilac Sky, recontextualizes Hindustani classical music in a modern yet respectful manner.

💌 Be Our Pen Pal! Find out what’s happening in Seattle by subscribing to our newsletter.

Author

Dave Segal

Dave Segal

Dave Segal is a freelance music writer for The Wire, Pitchfork, Aquarium Drunkard, and other publications. He formerly served as staff writer at The Stranger and as managing editor at Alternative Press. Find him on Twitter @editaurus