Music
Check out our Spotify playlist to hear some of the songs featured in this and past Defunkt volumes!
Gregory Allison
Gregory Allison is a violinist and composer based in Los Angeles. He has recorded violin, viola, mandolin and string arrangements on dozens of records. In 2021, he started his own record label, Holy Volcano. The first release on the label was his debut solo album Portal, a collection of six instrumental compositions for string ensemble, performed by him on violin and viola. His album collaboration with composer/producer Tristan de Liege, A Light For Dark Moments, was released on October 1, 2021, and the sophomore album from his acoustic trio RAQIA, titled Sanctuary, will be released in 2022. Both albums will be released by Holy Volcano.
From the artist, on "Desire"
“Desire'' is the second piece from Allison’s debut album, Portal. Each track on the album represents an energy center in the body, a Chakra in Yogic philosophy, in which is held certain energies that we're either aware of or in the dark about. The work of the album was to create music that represented the transmutation of those energies from the lower forms of the material plane, through the portal of the heart, and into the astral realm. “Desire” represents the second chakra, located at the sacrum. It is a cosmic dance in the heat of the sun and works with the energetic transmutation of desire into devotion.
burmaunderground
Robert Detman produces acoustic and electronic experimental music under the band name, burmaunderground. He is also a writer and building designer.
From the artist, on "Manchester Under Water"
As burmaunderground, Robert Detman has been writing and recording songs for several years. A departure, “Manchester Under Water” came out of a recent foray for him into experimental digital music. The piece has a number of reverse guitar tracks which he sampled and used to punctuate a drum beat which was modeled on Joy Division (hence, "Manchester..."), an important touchstone for his work. The composition came out of a search for aural patterns that were purely appealing to him. He sees this piece, and the selection it came from, as an exciting point of departure for his music.
Eric Chamberlain
Eric Chamberlain was badly burned as an infant and has spent his life experiencing otherworldly visions and unusual combinations of emotion. Harnessing this trauma, Chamberlain has turned what would otherwise be a dark experience in life into constructive, creative energy in music, art and film.
Motivated by exploring the forbidden, the unknown and the divine, Eric's work is as much a self-portrait as an observation of the world around him. Using his visual and sonic aesthetic he calls Cinetecture, Chamberlain reaches beyond genre conventions, often combining beauty and terror with elements of electronic, ambient, modern classical, industrial, metal, fusion and avant-garde.
From the artist, on "Breath of God"
“Breath of God” is the opening track on Chamberlain's gargantuan quadruple album Quadratura Cinetectura. The video features recreations of the surreal visions the composer, artist and filmmaker has experienced his entire life and has been interpreted as a deeply personal piece; a cinematic representation of another world, spiritually symbolic of the light and darkness within us and a warning against humankind's impact on the environment, all accurate given the title.
This video contains fast flashing images. It may cause discomfort or trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.
Dylan Connell
aka Psychonaut
Dylan Connell is an author and philosopher whose work explores human psychology in relation to the troubled spiritual times of the modern era. Dylan has worked as a chess teacher, touring hip-hop artist, and private investigator.
From the artist, on "Trust"
This song is about losing track of love and putting on the mask of lust in order to act in the age of dating apps and hookups. The production was done by Bones at Planta Baja studios in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Divine Joab
Divine Joab is a 25-year-old singer and songwriter from Adamawa State, Nigeria. He currently studies computer science at Abia State Polytechnic Aba. He enjoys writing new songs and singing them to his classmates but when he isn't busy writing songs or studying at school, he writes his own fictional stories hoping to be an accomplished novel and comic book writer one day too. Divine's other hobbies are playing games and reading novels, but he hopes to add chess and dancing also.
From the artist, on "Only in My Sleep"
“Only in My Sleep'' was a song written to reflect the troubled state people find themselves in today, and some in secret. Sometimes the only moment of relief one has is when one lays in bed to sleep, thus the title.
I wrote this song out of a deep depressed state, which had been going on for quite some time but that day seemed to be the climax of it, thinking about my life and the sorry condition I found myself in, when out of nowhere this song's chorus came out of my lips.
Chi Temu
Chi Temu is a singer/songwriter hailing from Tanzania. Spurned on by her colorful upbringing, she began writing music at the age of 13 on the piano before moving onto the guitar, expanding her musical horizons and perfecting her soulful sound. Chi seamlessly blends her lyrical styling with R&B, blues and rock, fearlessly expressing her equally multi-faceted soul.
From the artist, on "Devil Called Love"
“Devil Called Love” is an ode to Billie Holiday's "That Ole Devil Called Love." Being chased and pulled towards a person who only attracts grief. There's a realism that we can't help who we fall in love with, but at least there's understanding the truth of them and acknowledging your helpless downfall into their spiral.
