Visionary scratch DJ and producer Kid Koala (aka Eric San) announces the much-anticipated second volume in his Music To Draw To collaboration series. Music To Draw To: Io is 70 minutes of transportive music, featuring singer Trixie Whitley on six of its eighteen tracks. The album is slated for release on January 25, 2019 and available for pre-order here. In advance of the new double LP, Kid Koala shared the first single “All For You” featuring Trixie Whitley.
San comments about his experience working with Whitley. “Trixie Whitley is a phenomenon, truly a force of nature. She’s able to dive down and channel something truly profound and personal. I’ve witnessed her in that zone on stage but didn’t know what would happen in the studio, especially over this type of musical backdrop. We spoke briefly about the narrative of the album before recording. She was able to make each of the song’s characters her own, giving them a voice to a level that surpassed anything I could have ever imagined. Her singing can be sweet and nurturing, bold and powerful, or chilling and sinister, but it’s always Trixie Whitley. The emotional range she achieves on these tracks is just awe inspiring to me.”
Composed entirely by Koala on an array of synthesizers, including the trove of rare instruments at the National Music Centre in Calgary, Io reflects the boundless reaches of Kid Koala’s imagination, but more importantly his unique capacity to inspire and provide space for others to be a part of the creation.
Whitley comments on the collaboration with San, “In the making of Io, I discovered the depth of Kid Koala as a thinker, creator, and artist – a term I shy away from – with the incredible ability to invent artistic dimensions filled with uncanny characters. He has a director’s mind with the vision of an architect, who has created a beautiful sonic space for these wonderful and vulnerable emotions to thrive.”
San began his music career distributing copies of his demo tape Scratchcratchratchatch to students living in residence at McGill University. He popularized a method of playing the turntable like a melodic instrument, where a long, single note is dragged under the needle at different speeds, creating different pitches. Since this method of adjusting pitch is imprecise, the resulting notes waver and bend. Thus, in the song “Drunk Trumpet,” San uses this method with a trumpet note to simulate a drunken trumpet player, interspersing drunken vocals to complete the effect.
He has used samples of music from Charlie Brown television specials, old comedy sketch routines (including those that mock turntablism), people sneezing and people reading a menu in Cantonese. His concerts feature his cheerful demeanor and include humorous elements. When playing live, San often uses records cut with custom sounds from which he creates his own songs.
Music To Draw To: Io Tracklist
1. Circle of Clouds
2. All For You (Featuring Trixie Whitley)
3. Torus
4. Transmission 4
5. Lost at Sea (Featuring Trixie Whitley)
6. Shielded
7. Liminality
8. Transmission 5
9. Hera’s Song (Featuring Trixie Whitley)
10. Transmission 6
11. Allotropic
12. Diamond Heart (Featuring Trixie Whitley)
13. Resonance
14. Escape of Io (Featuring Trixie Whitley)
15. Emuii
16. Aphelion
17. Look-Back Time (Featuring Trixie Whitley)
18. The Moons of Galileo
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