Vines

Natalie Chami and Whitney Johnson perform as a duo under the name Damiana. Both artists have built their own catalogs as multi-instrumentalist improvisers and composers in the Chicago experimental scene, exploring the intersections between ambient, electro-acoustic improv, and more legible songcraft based around their voices and their work with synths and electronics -- all filtered through their backgrounds in classical performance and education. Chami's solo recordings under the TALsounds moniker have appeared on labels such as NNA Tapes, and Ba Da Bing!, and her collaborative projects include the trio Good Willsmith. Johnson has released a series of solo LPs as Matchess on the label Trouble in Mind, and has contributed to recordings and live performances by Ryley Walker, Circuit Des Yeux, and Tortoise's 20th anniversary performances of TNT, among other artists. After meeting in the early 2010s, Chami and Johnson embarked on multiple US tours together, and their informal duo collaborations naturally crystallized over time into the Damiana project. The duo's debut album Vines presents their first recordings after years of live sets and home recording sessions. The album strikes a balance between the realms of deliberate compositional sculpting and free-form improvisation, as Damiana's evolving sessions of looping synth phrases and harmonized vocal lines emphasize austere beauty and meditation as much as spectral disorientation and instrumental complexity. While the tracks on

Tracks

Details

Format: Vinyl LP
Artist: Damiana
Release Date: 21 July 2021
Genre: Ambient / Meditation / Inspirational
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Distributor: MGM Music