{"id":17612,"date":"2013-04-12T11:54:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T11:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=17612"},"modified":"2017-03-01T13:34:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T13:34:05","slug":"new-noise-ensemble-pearl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2013\/04\/12\/new-noise-ensemble-pearl\/","title":{"rendered":"New Noise: Ensemble Pearl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen O\u2019Malley from the legendary Sun O))) talks to Wonderland about his new project, Ensemble Pearl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Ensemble<\/a><\/p>\n

Think of the biggest, baddest noise supergroup and you might come up with something along the lines of Ensemble Pearl<\/a>. Consisting of Sun O)))’s Stephen O’Malley, Boris drummer\/vocalist Atsuo, Michio Kurihara and William Herzog, the ensemble’s debut record was hailed as the world’s slowest-building anxiety attack (in a good way). Sludgy, ominous music made for creepsters and other denizens of the night, it’s not so much an LP as it is an experience – the kind of praiseworthy experiment you don’t see enough of in music. O’Malley tells us more.<\/p>\n

How did this collaboration come about? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The recording came about from a commission to work on music for a theatre play by Gisele Vienne. One of the possibilities was to work in Japan because one of the co producers of the theatre piece was a contemporary dance centre in Yokahama. I invited Atsuo and Michio Kurihara; Atsuo’s an old friend and we\u2019ve done several things together in past tours. Michio is working with Boris, so we were friendly and Bill Herzog is also an old colleague from Seattle who has played in Sunn O))) and with Jesse Sykes. We were all able to meet up in Tokyo and spend a week recording music for this theatre play. Later on we went back to the sessions and really loved the demos that we\u2019d created, so we decided to finish that under the guise of an album. That\u2019s what the Ensemble Pearl album is.<\/p>\n

Did you find it easy to all work towards one ideal or concept for the album? How does your creative process work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s abstract; it\u2019s not always a similar process. That session was very fluid and it was really focused and enjoyable. We created something. That\u2019s the thing about music, you\u2019re creating something based off of your history and your state of mind and where you are in the world and the universe at that moment psychologically, mentally, emotionally and physically and any other way you can imagine. You bring all of these people together to do something that essentially, whether conceptual or abstract or structured music, is all pending on those elements. It\u2019s a process.<\/p>\n