Dissections Invisible Anatomy

INVISIBLE ANATOMY

DISSECTIONS

Dissections is the debut album from Invisible Anatomy -- a New York-based composer-performer ensemble that explores the human body as the most fundamental aspect of music creation and performance.

Incorporating elements from classical, jazz, experimental rock, performance art and theater, Invisible Anatomy creates performances that combine an omnivorous stylistic palate, virtuosic physicality, and dramatic visual presentation. Dissections is an album of works that premiered at National Sawdust in 2016, featuring five works created by the group's members from a collaboratively generated text and numerous workshops.

The record has received praise from multiple outlets, including "a hauntingly beautiful, thought-provoking examination of the ways we interact" (Second Inversion) and "intricate constructions where the different instrumental elements pursue separate pathways whilst also cohering intelligibly into collective designs" (Textura).

Dissections explores intimacy and the potentially damaging experience of being vulnerable with others, but also the beautiful and unexpected results that can happen when that risk is taken. The close-knit group has experienced this first-hand, collectively and individually working through health issues, conflict, distance and more, and baring themselves to each other during the process. The pieces on Dissections reflect the deconstruction and reconstruction inherent in peeling away human surfaces.

Each piece on Dissections fixates on one element of a musical phrase or text, repeating — or dissecting — it until it becomes unrecognizable. Vocalist Fay Wang's piece "Facial Polygraph XVIA" is a poetic study of facial expressions, dissecting tics, "tells," and subtle changes of emotions. Guitarist Brendon Randall-Myers's songs "Permission" and "Othering" focus explicitly on the discomfort and dangers of opening up to someone — navigating difference and similarity, and the disconnect between who we imagine people to be and who they actually are. Musically, the pieces attempt to capture a feeling of beautiful discomfort in being pulled apart, splitting rock-derived phrases across multiple instruments playing at different tempos.

Cellist Ian Gottlieb’s two-movement piece, "Threading Light", symbolizes the piano as flesh and the cello, guitar and vibraphone as the knife, teasing strands of notes out of decadent chords. Pianist Paul Kerekes's piece "Pressing Issues" explores the constant shuffling of small musical gestures into a kaleidoscopic listening experience.

Pianist Dan Schlosberg’s piece "A Demonstration" is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s relentless examinations of human cadavers in search of the human soul, exploring every facet of man he could think of along the way. Fittingly, the pieces features players coaxing sounds from the strings of a grand piano through inflictions from screwdrivers and knives, in a sense exploring a familiar body in new ways.

Tracklisting:

Facial Polygraph XVIA
Permission
Threading Light (i)
Pressing Issues
Threading Light (ii)
Othering
A Demonstration i - the cause
A Demonstration ii - where the soul is

Invisible Anatomy will perform works from Dissections in New York City in late April, details coming soon.

Invisible Anatomy is: Ian Gottlieb, cello; Paul Kerekes, piano/keyboards; Brendon Randall-Myers, guitars; Daniel Schlosberg, piano/keyboards; Benjamin Wallace, percussion; Fay Wang, vocals.

Dissections was recorded at Oktaven Audio in Mt. Vernon, NY by Ryan Streber, with additional recording by William Gardiner at Turtle Sound in Brooklyn, NY. The album was mixed and mastered by William Gardiner with additional mixing by Ryan Streber. Album artwork for Dissections was created by John Moore, with layout and design by Jordan Kasten-Krause.

William Gardiner provided additional arrangements and electronics on tracks 1, 6, and 7.