Derek Piotr, the prolific Poland-born, New England-based artist, has a new album on the way. Titled Avia, the record promises to build on Piotr’s impressively diverse catalogue of experimental electronica. Following on from the wildly adventurous album Grunt and the collaborative EPs of remixes and re-imaginings (such as the Repeating Bloom EP), Avia looks to utilise piano and organ within a glitched electronic soundscape, producing something mournful and strange.
The album’s first single, ‘The Sign’, was released last week and offers a glimpse of what’s to come on Avia. Described by Piotr himself as “the most rhythmic track on the record, ‘The Sign’ sighs with electronically modulated organ and violin, recorded at St Peter’s Church in Connecticut. Mixed by Scott Solter (John Vanderslice, The Mountain Goats), the song combines the minimal repetition of Steve Reich with the slightly ominous high-brow themes of Florian Meyer’s Don’t DJ project.
It’s fitting then that Meyer himself provides a remix to round off the single. Described in the press release as a “gentle, penduluming rework,” Don’t DJ pushes back the gauzy swells to focus on smaller details, creating a tension that isn’t present on the track proper. There’s something of David Lynch’s glitchy tape-loop motion in the repeated phrases, some staccato haunting force passing in and out of an empty room.
The Sign single is out now and available from the Derek Piotr Bandcamp page.
Artwork by Duncan Figurski