Methods Body

METHODS BODY

“Dark twin, meet your light twin.” That’s how musicians and best friends John Niekrasz and Luke Wyland were first introduced to each other in 2007. It’s an apt description of the duality and synergy of their musical project Methods Body. Using keys/electronics and percussion, the two maximize the duo configuration to create music at once primal and futuristic. Overflowing with polyrhythms and layers of microtonal melodies, the two suites on Methods Body’s self-titled debut conjure a sense of traveling through space and time to a prismatic, post-human landscape.

As they describe it: “There’s a telepathic highway between us that allows for these spontaneous compositions to emerge. That’s definitely the foundation for our work.”

No strangers to instrumental innovation, Niekrasz and Wyland are known for their previous acclaimed projects: Wyland’s Art-Pop ensemble AU, and Niekrasz’s virtuosic experimental duo Why I Must Be Careful.

Having played together in improvisational contexts for more than a decade, they committed to Methods Body in 2016 by spending five days a week in their Portland, Oregon, studio composing and interrogating themselves about their usefulness as artists in “combating the distressing geopolitical climate.” Working with the same therapist, Wyland and Niekrasz began to focus on their personal relationship “as a model of creative love through nurturant masculinity.”

Their vision for Methods Body crystallized as they journeyed to remote landscapes to record together. First, to a historic saloon in the Mojave desert — Pioneertown’s Red Dog Saloon — then, to a 12’ by 16’ cabin in the primeval Oregon forest where they slept on the floor beneath their instruments.

“Those gorgeous, contrasting landscapes got inside us and the music. Nature cleared out the dissonances of urban life and inspired new and intuitive approaches to playing. We took the time to find our voice together in ways that totally surprised us. Every time we play we’re writing new music. We love this relationship. It’s a great model for how creative flow can feel totally communal.”

Methods Body creates instrumental music with language at its core. Niekrasz and Wyland’s contrasting relationships with language allow a real alchemy to emerge from the tension between them.

Language is foundational for Niekrasz, a poet from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop who studies the cross-cultural traditions of verbally-inspired drumming. He uses syllabic notation to form intricate rhythmical patterns that bloom into wild tangentry.

As a stutterer, Wyland’s approach to music is informed by his idiosyncratic relationship with language. The cadences of broken speech and use of technology as an aid in communication are fundamental to his musical vocabulary. Working with bespoke tuning systems and time manipulation technologies, he exposes his relationship to communication through novel sounds and rhythms.

Featured on track Claimed Events Pt. 2 - Overheard, vocalist Holland Andrews (Like A Villain) reveals the linguistic heart of this music with a virtuosic call to action.

Methods Body’s self-titled debut is meant to evoke the processes of thought, the sounds of neurons firing, synaptic receptivity, and a fractalization of motifs that transport the listener to an inward landscape. Wyland employs his own unquantized sound-capturing technology to sculpt compositions from Niekrasz’s improvisations in real time. Refracted rhythms and cascading non-standard tunings carve out new emotional spaces. This is an album awash in the ecstasy of best friends playing the hell out of their instruments.

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Tracklisting:

Body

1. Quiet Pt. 1 - They Didn’t Come Here
2. Quiet Pt. 2 - Tell Us to Be
3. Quiet Pt. 3 - They Came Here
4. Quiet Pt. 4 - Now That We’re Quiet
5. Quiet Pt. 5 - Anthem

Methods

6. Claimed Events Pt. 1 - Rubble in One Corner
7. Claimed Events Pt. 2 - Overheard (ft. Holland Andrews)
8. Claimed Events Pt. 3 - Identify Them
9. Claimed Events Pt. 4 - One Month