New Uno Lady Video- Lake Clark Alaska Improv

This piece was written and recorded in real-time and is a sonic expression of experiencing the incredible environment of Lake Clark. It was composed while sitting on a log on the beach of Lake Clark with a zoom recorder at Chultina Wilderness Lodge. In my yurt studio, delay and a few additional layers were added. 

The video is time-lapse footage I took over the 6-week fellowship and shows the spot I recorded at. 

Thanks for watching. Listen to the album and watch the other videos in the links below. 

 

UNO LADY opening for ALEX CAMERON & ROY MOLLOY @ SPACE – Portland, Maine on 9/14


Hello friends, I’ll be serenading you on Thursday, September 14, 2023 at SPACE!
SPACE is located at 538 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101

TICKETS: $20 advance /$25 day of show/ $2 off for SPACE members
8:00pm\ doors at 7:30pm

Alex Cameron is an Australian singer-songwriter from Sydney. Cameron is joined by saxophonist and business partner, Roy Molloy. I’m excited to serenade you and experience Alex’s music in person. Here’s a song to get you stoked.


What a dream. I am honored to share the stage and songs with you all. Please join me as I make my debut at SPACE. Read more and get tickets here!

Warm regards,

Christa

Side project, Rangeley, album release (Tape Hex) + new video

Hey pals, my friends and I have released an album today, Tape Hex! The new project, Rangeley, is musical explorations with my sweetheart, Matt Brown of Leaf Peeper, and our pal, Brian Topf of Skymall (plus a revolving cast of noisemakers.) I sing, play the musical saw, and share field recordings of nature sounds.

A limited run tapes can be bought through Bandcamp (40)

Listen on Bandcamp and Spotify.

Here’s a playlist too 🙂

I also want to share a new Uno Lady music video from the Alaska album. Here is “The Voice is an Instrument”

New Uno Lady Video plus Portland Phoenix Press Writes About Alaska

Here’s a new video for you!  Acappella Instrumental” is on the new album Alaska.  The synth-like sounds are actually psychedelic layers of phased vocals. 

I recorded the footage at Tanalian Falls, in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. The audio was written and recorded at Chulitna Lodge. A bird sampled throughout the album is Swainson’s Thrush. The males defend their breeding grounds by singing a series of spiraling notes inflected upward, which to me sounds like a flute through phaser pedals.

A heartfelt appreciation to Sam Pfeifle at Portland Phoenix, for this incredible article, “Authentically Manufactured: New Maine releases by Uno Lady & Waxfed are artfully constructed” Thanks for taking the time to get to know my music and share.  Here are some clips from the article.

… “Take Uno Lady, for example, and her newly released “Alaska,” the result of a residency at the off-the-grid solar-powered Chulitna Lodge, a wilderness retreat in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve. Here, Cleveland transplant Christa Ebert has captured field recordings of herself doing things like banging on a log out in the forest, or birds swooping past her tent at night, and remixed them digitally into background atmospheres, over which she layers what sometimes sounds like dozens of her own vocal tracks. Maybe there’s a bit of keyboard once in a while. 

The results are warm and organic, sometimes even catchy, as on “Today’s the Day,” which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Magnetic Fields album. Ebert’s lead vocal is lower register and resonant — “I’ll conjure up some urgency and mend all of the emergencies” — while a chorus of angelic vocals shimmer in the background, accompanied by bugs and birdsong, like Snow White wending her way slowly through the forest. Her vocal range is sorta bonkers. 

Her “Venn Diagram,” too, from the “Osmosis” album three years ago, is a delicious bit of indie pop, and she even covered Tom Petty in her early releases. But there’s always something subversive, something new and interesting in the way she constructs her recordings and releases. Her previous release, “Le Flux,” recorded largely in Switzerland and then edited here in Maine, features vocals that are lyricless, and more found sounds turned into beats. Only possible, really, with today’s digital recording techniques, it still manages to transmit an intimacy that should tickle that desire for authenticity….

Maybe you can’t picture them in the room, but you can understand what they’re feeling, and that’s something no machine will ever authentically do.”

Thanks again, Sam. I appreciate your kind words. 

Breakthrough: Watch the New Music Video

“Breakthrough” is the first track on the album. When composing it, the music came before the lyrics. The percussion is a field recording of a HUGE fallen tree in the woods. The resonance of the decayed wood had some serious natural bass. I set up a zoom recorder, and with a mosquito net on my head, pounded my fist on the tree. You could feel the sound waves through the ground as it echoed through the forest. I’m sure I confused some bears, moose, and grouses.

I apologized.

The psychedelic sound in the intro is a field recording of a wilson snipe, a bird I didn’t know existed until this trip. I was fascinated by their sound. I only heard it at night while trying to sleep. This swirling whooshes circled my yurt and sounded like a natural phaser. I learned it’s called winnowing, and it’s not a bird call but rather the sounds of its feathers as it swoops! The specialized tailfeathers create a whirling buzz as it flies to defend its territories and attract mates. I never saw the bird but I heard what I assume was a dozen+ snipes every night.

Nature.org says, “The hollow winnowing of the tail feathers seemingly echoes off wispy cumulus clouds. The faintness can make you second-guess that you’ve heard anything at all. Researchers have determined that peak winnowing happens when snipe are traveling 25 miles per hour.” (And this guy says they can fly up to 60 mph!)

The video features time-adapted footage from Lake Clark, Alaska. Qizhjeh Vena, also known as Lake Clark, is the ancestral homelands for the Dena’ina Athabascan people. These compositions were greatly influenced by the the area. The album is named Alaska as a tribute to the spatial collaboration. This album is dedicated to the incredible artists at Chulitna Lodge. Thanks for watching. 

I had a melody before I landed on these specific lyrics to sing. I’d written the words before, in a different context, but they only existed on the pages of my songbook–until coming together for this song. 

Being a songwriter is vulnerable. Sometimes trauma turns up in verses. Hypervigilance is a coping mechanism. As a mighty worrier, in a misguided attempt to keep me safe and ready for anything, I unwillingly predict and anticipate unknown dangers. My mind conjures up images of tragic events that will never happen to prepare me for the worst case scenario(s). For example, I have grieved many false deaths, including my own, and vividly envisioned myself experiencing natural disasters, accidents, goofs, and falls, all that which never took place. These distressing thoughts can happen at any time and seem to come out of nowhere. 

In my youth, I would be incredibly upset by these intrusive thoughts; they still irk me, but mindfulness and labeling them has helped me loosen their emotional impact. The lyrics to BREAKTHROUGH label the intrusive thoughts for what they are: 

False future fantasy 
Augmented reality
Scenes that were never seen 
Dishonest daydream
Two-timing treacherous thoughts untrue
Breakthrough

On the bright side, real life is a lot better than my worry brain predicts. 

It’s challenging to write such personal things. When I learned that distorted thoughts are a phenomenon experienced by many people, I felt less isolated. I share in case you need to know you’re not alone. 

Please share with friends you feel could use this message too.  

I hope you like the song and album. It’s my favorite yet. Thanks for reading. Sending you love! 

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https://unolady.com/alaska-the-new-album-is-out-today/