Biography: From siren song of doom to shredding anthem of the righteous, Schooltree is art rock built for an amphitheater. Their second studio release and multimedia epic Heterotopia is a "fantastically, defiantly ambitious" (NPR) rock opera double album, fusing the research of classical music and literature with high-voltage pop songwriting in the absorbing, allegorical story of Suzi in Otherspace. Morphing vocals crystallize characters, bombastic drums thump odd-time grooves under melodic moog hooks, lush string sections and stacked guitar choirs move in a thick wall of sound. A dark call from the bottom of a river beckons you to leap, while a glitching angel's voice stutters in and out of spacetime to guide you to salvation. This is the music of dream and nightmare a prism of sound shining through a crack in the sidewalk from another world.
Led by "determined frontwoman" (WBUR) and artist/producer with a "singular view on all things musical" (Fireworks Magazine) Lainey Schooltree, the grant-awarded 5-piece band charts a stubbornly individualistic path in the era of the algorithm-driven pop single with this effort, including an immersive multi-sensory show and illustrated book being released this fall.
"The record is a kaleidoscopic, hero's-journey-to-the-underworld-type tale a la Dante's Inferno," writes Emily Cassel for Scout Magazine. "Lainey Schooltree spent years putting together a 100-minute double album telling the tale of Suzi, a dreamer and underachiever who loses her body and has to take a trip through the collective unconscious to retrieve it. Yup, it's wild think less 'Hair,' more Genesis' 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,' " Herald writer Jed Gottlieb says.
Heterotopia's world premiere played to a sold out house on March 31 at OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's stage in Cambridge, MA. Awarded a Live Arts Boston grant from The Boston Foundation, the multimedia performance took audiences inside a 3D interactive light sculpture video installation by Sam Okerstrom-Lang (Samo), a Boston-based new-media interdisciplinary digital artist and designer. On September 29, 2017, Heterotopia will be performed in full again at OBERON for the release of the companion book to the album: a fully illustrated libretto with scenes from the story, character portraits, plot synopsis and lyrics.
After their internationally acclaimed studio debut Rise, Lainey set out to create a modern rock opera rooted in the classics of the genre while also reaching for a depth of thematic development characteristic of classical music and literature. Four years in the making, the result is a story and a world the listener can step inside and become part of; an original urban folktale written in the format of a three-act screenplay, with carefully woven mythos rich in symbolism and imagery, researched and developed as a story that could stand on its own.
Out of the iridescent fog of delicately layered atmospheres surges the roar of heavy guitar; Schooltree's orchestral use of a rock band harkens back to the height of 20th century progressive ambition, tempered by deliberate and restrained composition. Despite its complexity, Heterotopia's layers of sound and concept cohere into potently visceral music.
"Heterotopia is, indeed, an opera, and it operates on an oceanic scale. The music is fluid and prismatic, churning through knotty riffs and shimmery hooks before coming to rest, briefly, in sublime moments of repose," writes Amelia Mason for WBUR's the ARTery. "With its harmonic inventiveness and timbral expressiveness, Heterotopia nods as much to Schooltree's classical loves Debussy, Bartók, Satie as her prog rock influences. But more than anything it reflects her exacting musical vision."
Lainey, known to be a "painstaking crafter of sound," (Cambridge Day) adds an artistic approach to the technical elements of recording, using her skills as an audio engineer and producer in addition to composition and arrangement. "I like to use the studio as my instrument. I'm a big admirer of the artist producer musicians who not only write and perform their own material, but also direct its production with a cohesive vision. Kate Bush, Todd Rundgren, and Mike Patton are good examples. Mastering the technical aspects of the craft is part of achieving that unification of idea and execution."
Meticulously crafted with co-producer Peter Moore (Think Tree, Count Zero, Blue Man Group), the production of this album stands out amid other releases. Avoiding claustrophobic use of compression and the in-your-face vocals of modern music, the sound of this record melds the airy, live dynamics of the golden era of recording with contemporary techniques that give it a sound that's both 20th and 21st century; favoring warmth and dynamics but also clarity and punch. The result is a sound that's both classic and contemporary.
Sonically-shaped dramatic choices, such as finely honed, distinct singing styles for each character's voice and accompanying instrumentation, sit atop the varied arrangements and textures that make up Heterotopia's ever-changing topography.
"Sometimes Lainey can sound like Kate Bush (as on 'The Abyss', track 5, which summons for me the mood of Aerial's 'Nocturn'), but honestly she is a vocal chameleon who changes from song to song so many times that you can never pin her down as anybody's imitator. She is a true original, but you'll have fun hearing musical allusions in the multiplicity of all her transformations. Sometimes she even sounds like Karen Carpenter from an alternative universe (in which she lived to go on to convert to prog and to make brilliant concept albums)." (Progarchy)
2017 LINE UP:
Lainey Schooltree | vox, keys Tom Collins | drums Peter Danilchuk | synth, organ Ryan Schwartzel | bass Sam Crawford | guitar
Shueh-li Ong http://www.shuehli.com/ A world renown exponent on the oldest electronic musical instrument; Shueh-li Ong has been crowned Queen of the theremin in Nashville TN, and Diva in Singapore.
Though flattered, she's simply eager to compose new material for the instrument played without touching, and more challenging to perform each time! ThereminVox Italy said, "Shueh-li's an inspired artist with a solid background who has brought fresh ideas into the theremin field."
Since her last album, she has added more such fresh ideas to her playing technique. A theremin-synth concerto is ready to record, and certain movements have already made their way into her 2017 mini tour that began in Dallas TX.
Shueh-li has released 4 albums to date, showing off her studio production talents on progrock, fusion, synth pop, sung songs and more. UsaProgMusic said of her 3rd album, "New, original and engaging sounds are abundant throughout this wonderfully crafted album."
Shueh-li plays synthesizer and tin-whistle alongside her proximity instrument which was customized by Bob Moog.
Her theremin playing appears on an indie Sci-fi film, and albums by ProgRock artists 3RDegree, Little Dipper and Tom Brislin.
Location
NJProghouse Presents @ Roxy and Dukes Roadhouse (View)
745 Bound Brook Road
Dunellen, NJ 08812
United States
