Gleb Kanasevich is an experimental clarinetist, working in a variety of aesthetics, and his new doom/ambient album we’re premiering today marks a real treat for fans of experimental, blackened noise and drone. Equally as haunting as it is enchanting, “Asleep” was created with an unconventional approach, playing without a mouthpiece, amplifying through guitar amps and megaphones, and doing other unorthodox tone production on the instrument. Check out the meaningful video for the track “Fortress” that introduces this amazing technique and scroll down to dive into the depths of this sophisticated experiment. Gleb joined us for an interesting track by track commentary, so be sure to check it out below, as well.
Gleb Kanasevich is a clarinetist, composer, and experimental/electronic musician, based in the Bronx, NY. He works primarily with feedback, noise, modified instruments, and live digital electronics. He took his immersive ambient work Subtraction for clarinet and electronics to a number of contemporary music series and festivals in 2017/18 season. Subtraction will be released in January 14, 2019 via Flag Day Recordings.
His blackened noise album Asleep will coming out in a small batch cassette tape and digital release on January 15, 2019. While Gleb has created a media storm with his clarinet death metal covers in 2013/14, Heavy Blog is Heavy hailed him as an “incredible musician” with a “criminally overlooked” original output. Asleep has been hailed as “amazing,” “brutal,” “not for the faint of heart,” “cicada scream of textural horror,” and many more creative descriptors. In late January/early February he will tour “Asleep” with Guillermo Pizarro and Victoria Cheah on the East Coast of the United States. He will also have additional dates in Spain and Portugal in early March, 2019.
“Asleep” is being releaed in two versions, a 60-minute cassette tape version through Unknown Tapes, and a download version (45 minutes, with the opening ambient/feedback track being shorter).
Credits / Additional information:
Gleb Kanasevich – bass clarinet, vocals, megaphones, electroacoustic feedback / The bass clarinet is played without the mouthpiece, and processed through various guitar effects / Artwork: photograph of stripped paint textures by Gleb Kanasevich. / Recording: recorded and mastered at Brandeis University, Massachusetts and Blue Mountain Center, New York by Gleb Kanasevich. The recording was done as live improvisation sessions, mixed later, with minimal structural edits. / Cassette tape pressing: Milwaukee Cassette Works run by Keith Utech of Utech Records.
Full Record Stream & Track by Track commentary:
Clearing
The track slowly fills the sonic space, swells, and pulses as sound waves slowly make their way around the extremely reverberant chapel. It was recorded with four cardioid condenser microphones placed in four corners of the room, pointing inward, and creating feedback from each reverberation. The feedback is then filtered through a series of pitch shifters, creating a haunting symphony of ghostly tones. The pitch of feedback slowly descends into the lowest depths of the frequency spectrum and lurks for a long time, withholding its menacing energy until the next track…
Fortress
It is a trial, a battle, a resistance. The narrative of this track traces the process of slowly conditioning my lips to create a monstrous sound which is the last 5 minutes of this track. As I pick up the instrument, my mouth and face are completely unprepared to make a full sound, and I have to squeeze air through the clarinet chamber in an almost violent manner. I practically do not take a break and my head feels like it’s about to explode until 7:48 mark, when I am finally able to rest and re-balance my vision. After somewhat of a rest, there comes an absolutely throat-ripping scream at 10:40, after which we discover the real power at the heart of this track, the instrument, and the performer. A monster is born, and it is here to stay. Despite the violence and the activity transmitted by the sound of the track, it ultimately signifies our subconscious. Violence is an impulse – it does not have to be expressed through malicious harm inflicted on other beings. It is always asleep somewhere in the back of our minds.
Mantle
Everything around us is crumbling. Any stability established by Clearing and Fortress is collapsing in slow motion, almost like a glacier crumbling. I push the volume even higher, create a never-ending wave of crushing feedback (pitch-shifted down two and three octaves), and make circles around the studio space “vomiting” my soul through two megaphones, trying to surface above the drowning wall of sound. This is the end.
Supporting tour dates with Guillermo Pizarro and Victoria Cheah:
January 24, 2019 – Rhizome, Washington D.C. – 6950 Maple St NW, Washington, DC 20012
January 25, 2019 – The Undercroft, Baltimore MD – 2629 Huntingdon Ave, Baltimore, MD 21211
January 26, 2019 – 1106 Reedsdale St., Pittsburgh PA
February 2, 2019 – The Cloud Club, Boston MA – RSVP for address at this location.
February 3, 2019 – H0l0, Queens NY – 1090 Wyckoff Ave, Ridgewood, NY 11385
