light from another light is a collection of improvised pieces representative of Voicehandler's live sets from the past couple years. The instrumentation differs from their previous album with Rivero making extensive use of modular electronics, and Heule expanding to a full drum kit.
The performance is loose and exploratory, at various times energetic and meditative. Rivero’s voice embraces noise, with the lines blurred between electronic processing and extended vocal techniques. Heule’s drumming maintains its typical ear for timbre within the context of driving percussive intensity.
“…bizarre glossolalia, witch-like chattering, deliriously stuttering as an obsessed medium, as a distorted mouthpiece of Latina experiences. Heule… patters on predator paws or becomes very meek when the ghosts whisper as if with paranormal tape voices or increasingly only sizzling pure noise or switching off the human factor in waves of hum.” - Rigo Dittmann / Bad Alchemy (via Google Translate)
“…kosmische freak jazz vibes. Shards of digital synthesis ping hard back and forth across your speakers, with feral chirps and barks creeping in and, of course, Heule keeping the foundation ever shifting as he volleys between manic and minimal modes. Particularly excellent is the breakdown midway through which sounds like Heule practicing his chops to an alien transmission instead of a Milford Graves record.” - Drew Dahle / Auxiliary Out
“From time to time, it is a true liberation to plunge into the depths of 70,000 fathoms, be challenged and experience music you never knew existed and did not know you had ‘needed’. Voicehandler belongs in that category.” - Tor Hammerø (via Google Translate)
“…an immediate, psychedelic atmosphere where Rivero employs a stream of wild, hallucinogenic vocalizations, some are extended and processed by electronics. Heule envelops her associative vocalizations with intense percussive chaos of his own, but as a precise and highly nuanced acoustic mirror for her electronic-enhanced noises.” - Eyal Hareuveni / Free Jazz Blog
"...tears open the space-time continuum with frenetic drumming, gurgling modular synth vapors, and a glossolalia that is at time raw and guttural and at others processed into oblivion." - Bryon Hayes / Nine Chains to the Moon
"...the duo’s conversation is converted into pulses of energy traveling over long-distance lines. But interference creeps in, obliterating everything save for the whispers of a dark spell." - Lexi Glass / KFJC
"Heule and Rivero seize every chance to make the void sing." Sam Lefebvre / KQED ("The 10 Best Bay Area Albums of 2018")
credits
released November 16, 2018
Jacob Felix Heule: drum set
Danishta Rivero: voice & electronics
recorded May 25, June 1, & June 8 2017 in Berkeley, California
recorded/mixed/mastered by Jacob Felix Heule
artwork: "Mordancage", "Mordancage 2", "Mordancage 3" by Brittany Nelson
layout by Danishta Rivero
Jacob Felix Heule / Humbler RecordsOakland, California
Jacob Felix Heule is an improvising percussionist with a special interest in friction techniques. His music is shaped by
intuition, listening, and following where the sounds lead. He embraces limited instrumentation - usually playing just a single drum - as a commitment to exploring the depth of his instruments....more