The SEI is a fascinating project blending Irish and Swedish folk influences with modular electronic production. An EP earlier this year caught our attention, with the trio – Stace Gill, Ross Dowling, and Maria Nilsson Waller – showing immense creativity.
New EP ‘We Must Be Still Alive?’ continues their journey, and it’s out on streaming now. Spotlight song ‘Plasma’ has received a new video, which CLASH is able to bring to you.
Speaking about the song, Stace Gill says:
“PLASMA was, and is, one of those songs that seemed to just arrive or reveal itself. Some songs take years, for whatever that’s worth these days? For us, process is priceless. PLASMA felt like an interception, its process short in time but rich in signals.”
Watch the video below then find out some of the band’s influences after the jump.
We feel that the EP is inspired by all the music or artists that ever moved us. No particular song or artist influences us, they all do. The artists we listen to consistently, the timeless ones, are too many to name. A lot of what we find inspiring points us back to our own creation and selection processes. Here’s an attempt to highlight some of these.
Laurie Anderson – ‘To The Moon’ (Multidisciplinary/VR)
Stace: This artist made me cry and light up, particularly her work “To the Moon” with Hsin-Chien Huang; A VR fantasy trip to the Moon. Her way of playing and sharing the game keeps me more curious about my own interdisciplinary path and process, and expands my understanding of what is possible, particularly her story telling style and exceptional theatre weaving.
Austin Clarke – Penal Law (Poetry)
“Burn Ovid with the rest. Lovers will find
A hedge-school for themselves and learn by heart
All that the clergy banish from the mind,
When hands are joined and head bows in the dark.”
Stace: The defiance is everything in ‘Penal Law’ by Austin Clarke; fuel for my own embers. Some of the lyrics were a direct salute to him as a for sending word. And what a message for ongoing times? There’s an important warning sign about censorship in these lines, hard to believe that that threat still exists today. And I particularly like that Clarke suggests that it’s only when we come together that we will retrieve what ‘they’ tried to banish from us. (Whoever your ‘they is’), in this case, I believe he is referring to the Catholic church in Ireland. Togetherness is weaved into the inevitable solution. These are just my thoughts on these lines, there’s more to be mined for any reader.
James Holden – ‘The Inheritors’ (Music)
Ross: This is one of those records that blew my mind when I first heard it. It sounds alive which is so rare in electronic music, there’s real humanity in it. It’s mostly made on a modular synth and probably the main reason I got into modular synths. I think, for me, it’s the best electronic record ever made. There are certain things James does on this record like doubling the drums on ‘Blackpool Late Eighties’ and letting them fall apart that I love. I could talk about this record for hours but it’s better just to go and have a listen to it, it’s a magical record. It probably wasn’t a direct influence when producing the songs for this EP but the ideas, sounds and sentiments of that record are always in my head.
Aldous Harding – ‘Party’ (Music)
Ross: Aldous is an artist that sounds like no one else, she doesn’t even sound like herself half the time 🙂 I think the first time I saw her was on Jools Holland, when she did ‘Horizon’. Her performance blew me away, go check it out, it’s mental. I immediately did a deep dive on her tunes and was hooked. I wasn’t sure about ‘Blend’ when I first heard it but when I saw the video it all made sense. That’s the most inspiring thing to me about her, she somehow transforms herself with every song but also manages to make it all make sense. I’m definitely a super fan.
Nina Simone – ‘Nina Simone and Piano’ (Music)
Ross: Nina Simone is one of those artists that when you first discover you realise how influential she has been in music history, you hear her influence everywhere, right up to today. I was about 16 when I first heard her and she’s been a constant in my life ever since. It’s pretty difficult to single out one Nina Simone record because there’s so many greats but if I had to pick one, this one is just her stripped back and raw, and showcases her pure talent. She’s an incredibly special artist and I don’t think anyone has come close to her.