Forest Scenes
with MIZU and Maria BC
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Doors: 7:00PM
Tickets:
Early Bird $18
Advance $25
Free for Members
All ages
Seated performance
No strobe warning
View our FAQ page for more info, or contact us at [email protected] with any accommodation requests.
Gray Area presents Forest Scenes, a night of expansive soundscapes built by MIZU and Maria BC.
MIZU will perform from their newest, and second full-length, album Forest Scenes. Through layers of gorgeous, yearning cello, pulsating electronics, and hyperreal field recordings, MIZU evokes a sense of depth by interrogating systems and exploring unknown territories both physical and cerebral. By way of its daring experimentalism, Forest Scenes is patently modern and brilliantly ontological.
Joining MIZU is Maria BC (they/them), Ohio born, Oakland, CA-based artist. A classically trained vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter, they have a unique gift for vast, stately melodies that are combined with a strong sense of mood: a melancholy that shadows everything like heavy storm clouds.
From gossamer harmonic textures to lush orchestral washes, MIZU builds expansive soundscapes through her singular cello playing. Her signature stratiform style of composition, melding self-recorded layers of her instrument with electronic manipulation and experimental production, explores themes of transformation and the infinite possibilities within queerness.
Forest Scenes, MIZU’s latest full-length, is an acknowledgment of the mystery of transcendent experiences and the thrills of self-discovery. The record deftly interweaves the organic and the synthetic, its wide range of sonic densities a reflection of its diverse origins. MIZU’S debut album Distant Intervals, released in Spring 2023 on NNA Tapes, received critical praise and attention from platforms such as Bandcamp Daily, New Sounds, Stereogum, I Care If You Listen, Foxy Digitalis, and Them, and landed in the Top 10 of the Billboard Classical Crossover charts.
MIZU’s performance highlights include opening for Tim Hecker at Pioneer Works in New York, a performance at The Noguchi Museum, and appearances in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Washington DC. Upcoming engagements include a performance at Rewire 2024 in The Hague, Netherlands.
Ohio-born, Oakland, CA-based artist Maria BC (they/them) has slowly opened up their process over the years, moving from the one-room recording process of 2021 EP Devil’s Rain—careful not to disturb their roommates or neighbors—to the untreated apartment wanderings of Hyaline (2022, Father/Daughter) to the home of a family friend featuring an out-of-tune baby Steinway piano where they recorded their Sacred Bones debut, Spike Field.
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