RUBY SINGH TO RELEASE NEW DOUBLE LP, kraKIN - A MORE-THAN-HUMAN HIP-HOP COLLABORATION - AND POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II - AN AMBIENT COLLECTION.
BOTH ALBUMS INCORPORATE ‘BIOSONIFICATION’ OF FLORA, FAUNA, AND FUNGI, FIELD RECORDINGS AND KEYBOARDS TEMPERED WITH THE SONGS OF VARIOUS ANIMALS INCLUDING WOLVES, ORCA AND OWLS
DOUBLE LP SET FOR RELEASE THIS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2023
WATCH / SHARE “TOOTH N’ CLAW” (VIDEO) FROM kraKIN TODAY HERE
BUY / STREAM kraKIN ON FRIDAY HERE
WATCH / SHARE “AFTER THE FIRES” VISUALIZER FROM POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II TODAY HERE
BUY / STREAM “AFTER THE FIRES” FROM POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II ON FRIDAY HERE
Photo Credit : Dessmin Sidhu // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
This Friday, JUNO Award nominated artist, 2023 WCMA Winner (Global Artist of the Year) and the recent recipient of the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Excellence in Music and Art, Ruby Singh is releasing two new albums; one a hip-hop collaboration entitled kraKIN, the other, Polyphonic Garden Suite II, explores the pulses and soundscapes of life. Both albums were created incorporating ‘bionsonification’, raising songs from indigenous flora and fungi, transforming bioelectricity into midi data to inform pitch and rhythm.
Today, he shares “Tooth N’ Claw”, the third single from the multispecies hip-hop assemblage—kraKIN. This narrative track imagines a dark and stormy night in the near-future. Marching on unsustainable cities, an animal liberation force aims to raise the consciousness of the human world to make us understand our role in creating the climate crisis. The music is created through what Singh refers to as “NI” or “Natural Intelligence.” Synthesizers ring out with the songs of the Northern Spotted Owl while Salal biosonifcation triggers mallets and strings, and warning drums are composed from coastal thunderstorms, various frog species, and the crunching of dried crab shells. The accompanying video was created through the use of AI technologies: future intelligence juxtaposed against the traditional and timeless intelligence of the land itself. A strange tentacular entity gathers above the urban landscape, packs of wolves and armies of frogs, racoons, and owls infiltrate the city limits, and only the children seem to understand their presence. The other-than-human world has had enough of these “vendors of trash” and their short-sighted, short-lived dominion. As war drums echo down the valley, the Wild Ones march to the music of the revolution. KraKIN delivers an eco-surrealist warning, letting us know it’s time to wake the f#%k up or squander our collective future.
WATCH / SHARE “TOOTH N’ CLAW” (VIDEO) FROM kraKIN TODAY HERE
BUY / STREAM kraKIN ON FRIDAY HERE
The celebrated artist is also sharing another track from Polyphonic Garden Suite II, “After the Fires”. Amidst the hottest months and largest fires in documented history, the recordings and biosonifications for “After the Fires” were collected from the smoldering earth in Nłeʔkepmxcín lands in the summer of 2021. The first growth after fires in these territories trigger synth pads, including sage, alfalfa flower, and the tender shoots of fireweed. Field recordings of ‘dune boom’, a phenomenon wherein wind over sand dunes plays the landscape like a flute, create the low humming sound throughout the track. Fire is a dangerous element that brings grave destruction but it also provides the right alchemy for change, transmutation and nourishment for forests. Animations by Sab Meynert portray this beauty and power in fine balance. May these lands continue to recover, may we steward these lands so that they may hold the generations to come.
WATCH / SHARE “AFTER THE FIRES” VISUALIZER FROM POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II TODAY HERE
BUY / STREAM “AFTER THE FIRES” FROM POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II ON FRIDAY HERE
MORE ABOUT kraKIN and POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II
In physical form, these 2 albums will incarnate as a 100% post consumer fibre book collaged with lyrics, poetry and artwork by Sab Maynert, the Flavourcel Collective and Singh himself. Set for release in November, the book will be accompanied by a seed bomb bookmark with QR codes for the albums. 30% of the profits will be donated to the incredible work of Raven Trust, who support the inherent and constitutionally-protected rights of Indigenous Peoples as a powerful pathway towards reconciliation and environmental justice.
WATCH / SHARE “INTO THE CLOUDS” FROM kraKIN HERE
BUY / STREAM “INTO THE CLOUDS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “FAIRY CREEK LAMENT” FROM POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II
WATCH / SHARE “FAIRY CREEK LAMENT” VISUALIZER HERE
kraKIN is a more-than-human hip-hop collaboration bringing together the sonic stylings of Singh, the amphibious intellect of Dr. Michael Datura (aka professah exile), and a boom-bap menagerie of West Coast plants, amphibians, and mushrooms. In an age of ecological crisis, this multi-species assemblage aims to decompose human dominion and reintegrate our minds with the resonant ecology of a living world. kraKIN creates their unique place based sound by cutting and crossfading samples of field recordings of biomes throughout western canada and incorporating “biosonification”—a technology that translates the bioelectric signature of flora, fauna and fungi into musical information.
Singh named his latest project, kraKIN, based on the birth of the project in the Octopus Islands, the habitat of the giant pacific red octopus, in Desolation Sound. The tracks include everything from cedar tree basslines, wolf-howl and orca song synths, fungi-triggered 808s, to woodpecker hi-hats —resulting in an ecological portrait aiming to shapeshift perceptions and help us stay awake to the ways of the world.
WATCH / SHARE “ECHOLOCATE” FROM kraKIN HERE
BUY / STREAM “ECHOLOCATE” HERE
Singh’s ambient offering, Polyphonic Garden Suite II, intimately explores our relationship with this living, breathing and animate world. He created the album over the course of two years of travels to six biomes throughout so-called ‘british columbia’. The emerging melodies are then mixed with field recordings and unique instrumentation (tambura, mohan veena and fujara). Singh tempers keyboards with the songs of coastal wolves, orca, and birds (western screech owl, thrush, robin, song sparrow). To further deepen these sonic landscapes, the midi data of plants and fungi trigger the songs of their animal cohabitants: a Cottonwood tree triggers the call of the Song Sparrow that lives within its branches; bull kelp triggers the song of orcas. What emerges are complexly layered sonic ecologies of connection and wonder for the natural world, where Singh imagines how we might move towards right relations with these generous lands, waters and skies.
BUY / STREAM “SHORELINES” FROM POLYPHONIC GARDEN SUITE II
WATCH / SHARE “SHORELINES” VISUALIZER HERE
During this age of climate crisis, Singh continues to examine his role as an artist. This double release, kraKIN and Polyphonic Garden Suite II, ask us to question our relationship with this living planet and all the creatures and kin we share it with. In these twinned projects, Singh creates sonic ecologies, shining light towards our interdependence within every ecosystem. Polyphonic Garden opens a fragrant ambient invitation to explore this relationship, while kraKIN serves as an urgent warning of the crisis we face through a pointed critique of capitalism, colonialism and the terrible choices we have made and continue to make. At the time of writing, canada is experiencing the worst forest fires in recorded history. Singh believes that art has a crucial role in reimagining futures and repurposing aesthetic freedoms toward civil and environmental justice.
kraKIN TRACKLIST
01 Better Days
02 Midnight Wings
03 EchoLocate
04 Cross Pollinated
05 Tooth N Claw
06 Into The Clouds
07 Magnetic North
