Booker Stardrum Premieres New Single/Video “Walking Through Still Air” via Foxy Digitalis From Upcoming LP CRATER Out July 2 via NNA Tapes

Today, percussionist and electronic producer Booker Stardrum shared "Walking Through Still Air" from his forthcoming album CRATER, releasing July 2 via NNA Tapes. “This was one of the last songs I wrote for the album” says Stardrum. “For me, it's a somber love letter to the early days of the pandemic. I spent a lot of time walking around Los Angeles, exploring the neighborhoods around my apartment, finding new dirt paths and canyon hikes. I repeatedly ran into a coyote with mange. I was in a conflicted head space-- occupied by thoughts of death, unemployment, climate change, and capitalism, but also an inescapable, out of body sensation of stillness. LA is already steeped in a deranged kind of beauty and there was an unfamiliar quiet and calm in the city.”

Debuted earlier today via Foxy Digitalis, “Walking Through Still Air” arrives alongside a music video animated by Miranda Javid and featuring additional video footage by Booker Stardrum, Ize Green Diebboll and Jaimie Branch. The repeated melody of the song was composed using a short sample, captured from an improvisation by Jaimie Branch, played by Stardrum on a midi controller and layered with additional trumpet and percussion samples, performed by Stardrum using Sensory Percussion. The animation process unfolded similarly to the music with Miranda Javid utilizing a single moving image as the source and the movements were formed by iterating distortions of the source material.

WATCH: Booker Stardrum “Walking Through Still Air”

Over the past decade, the Los Angeles and New York-based musician has built a language of sounds as a solo artist, frequent collaborator, and improviser. CRATER is the artist’s third full-length album, beginning with 2015’s Dance And, and followed up by the 2018 release Temporary etc. The worlds of electronic music and free jazz firmly root Stardrum's unique musical syntax; as CRATER unfolds, a torrent of microscopic, staccato musical gestures collide and coalesce into a singular whole, while jagged and angular sounds coexist harmoniously with their smooth, polished counterparts, creating an auditory balance and swaying symmetry. Stardrum has performed, toured, and recorded with artists such as Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Lisel (aka Eliza Bagg) Cloud Becomes Your Hand, Landlady, Cornelia Murr, Olden Yolk, Sam Evian, and Weyes Blood.

Read the full bio and pre-order CRATER from NNA Tapes here.

Tracklist

1. Diorama

2. Fury Passage

3. Bend

4. Steel Impression

5. Squeezing Through A Tube

6. Parking Lot

7. Yellow Smoke

8. Downturn

9. Walking Through Still Air