#divine circles

[chhharlottte-blog]

montreal :: me and my sister are putting a little thing together for this show

a night of droney / experimental / ambient feelings

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[rasplyn]

Rasplyn Chants with Laughing Eye Weeping Eye & Lykanthea

TOMORROW NIGHT!!! May 6th!!! Come chant an invocation to the goddess Durga with Laughing Eye Weeping Eye, Lykanthea & Rasplyn (me) at The Burlington!!! Great way to start what will be an amazing show!!! Also playing: Elisa Faires, Divine Circles & Matchess!!! https://www.facebook.com/events/1482596441954922/

[fabricohmagazine-blog]

STAFF SELECTION: Divine Circles - Oblivion Songs

"Given the scope and sonic range of Mulhearn's contributions, it isn't much of a surprise that her solo outlet, Divine Circles, is centered around her inventive and unconventional bow work.  Incorporating overdubs and a generous amount of effects, Divine Circles is about as far typical "violin music" as you could imagine.  With an eye towards texture and repetition, Mulhearn draws sweeping soundscapes from her instrument at one moment while plucking, beating, and thumping unlikely rhythms from it the next."

See more at: http://fabricohmusic.com/staff_selections/divine_circles_oblivion_songs/

[dustedmagazine]

Divine Circles — Oblivion Songs (Paradigms Recordings)

A thought: In the underground rock world, the sound of a violin is a kind of musical equivalent to small-batch chocolate — versatile and rich, yet easy to abuse. There are beautiful sounds that it can make; there are also harsh ones, and hackneyed ones. Sometimes its sounds can nod in the direction of something expansive and beautiful, and sometimes it can be used for easy sentimentality. (See also: the pedal steel guitar.) Warren Ellis — The Dirty Three/Bad Seeds member, not the writer —knows this well; the best of the music he’s made (and there’s a lot of it) aims for a hard-won beauty that stands in the face of sounds more discordant.

Listening to Oblivion Songs, the debut from US Christmas’ Meghan Mulhearn, it’s clear that she’s working in similar territory. Consider the title of the EP as a whole; also consider the fact that the songs on here include “Hymn” and “The Prayer.” This is an ambitious work, but it’s largely successful.

The majority of these songs cohere around Mulhearn’s voice and violin. Most involve some sort of looping of the latter to creating a dense wall of sound; think Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s recent work, or a toned-down A Silver Mount Zion. Within this basic structure, there are some breaks. “Midwest” has more momentum than most, via the steadily percussive sound of plucked strings. And “Ingenue” largely foregoes violin for a slow-burning melody. It’s the sole song on here that roughly fits into a traditional rock-band sound. Emphasis on roughly — there’s a streak there that calls to mind Björk’s “Cvalda,” the rhythms consciously mechanical, even as Mulhearn’s voice shifts through different approaches to the melody.

It’s the songs that head most into drone-pop territory that stand as the most memorable, fitting somewhere between slowcore and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ soundtrack work. “Hymn” finds Mulhearn adopting a balladeer’s manner for her voice, which runs through some multi-tracked permutations. Though it begins with a broad, sweeping sound, it slows, the familiar cadences breaking down into minute echoes of themselves. It in turn evokes “Leave,” the EP’s opener, which takes a similarly deconstructive approach. Here, the feel is less sweeping that swept up. There’s a bleariness to it, the sense of emotions being brought out into the light.

Oblivion Songs is, at its best, a disquieting work. Though Mulhearn’s music is capable of comfort, her focus is more on exploration, of not settling in on one concise style or sound. And while her vocal range is not as broad as the sonic range her violin creates, she uses it well. The way the line “There is a sweetness to the way you say your name,” stands out in “Midwest,” representing one of the points in which lyrics pierce through the impressively textured music heard here. This is, ultimately, a taut and tense record, jarring when it needs to be, and never offering more comfort than it has to. Given how easily music like this can descend into sentimentality, it’s a wise choice.

Tobias Carroll

[paullisicky]

[letskissandbreakup]

Divine Circles is the project of Asheville NC's Meghan Mulhearn, who supplements her usual combo of violins and singing with MORE (harmonising) VIOLINS on the moving post-break up song 'Leave'. The song contains elements of ambient and neo-classical music, but adds a bite to it that lends it the feel of a confessional and experimental work. The key lyric: 'losing him, a losing streak/ losing him, takes the best of me'. Enchanting Stuff.

[lflip]