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. 

 

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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Here’s a link to all the streaming sites.

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

 

Alaska, the New Album, is out Today!

I’m so excited to share these songs with you!

Alaska is released in partnership with Softseed Music in British Columbia on limited edition cassette tapes (32), each with one-of-a-kind swirl art made by Dave Norman of Softseed Music. The tapes are available at Softseedmusic.bandcamp.com and UnoLady.com.

Dave asked about collaborating on a tape right after my Alaskan adventure. The Wax Mage Records, Single Rider release was how I was introduced to Dave. He runs Softseed Music and Zegma Beach. Red Spade Records created a limited run lathe cut 10” and Dave hand dipped the swirl art.

 

ALASKA, Uno Lady’s 9th release, was recorded at an off-the-grid solar-powered arts fellowship at Chulitna Wilderness Lodge in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, Alaska. 

These songs were written in the moment and inspired by the landscape. You can hear the tranquility of the place within the songs. The percussion was made by drumming on trees and the beats are comprised of bird calls I recorded.  These nature sounds pulse along with layers of vocal harmonies. These truly unique compositions are atmospheric and mesmerizing.  

The album artwork is a photo I took on summer solstice. Taking advantage of the 22 hours of daylight, we zipped around by boat visiting different islands within Lake Clark and sipped on sun soaked teas made from flowers we foraged. 

The art fellowship in Alaska was life changing. I was as enthusiastic as an eight year old over new plant discoveries. I didn’t anticipate creating an album. Being disconnected from social media and online distractions allowed me to absorb and be influenced by the atmosphere. I would record when I felt inspired, which was often. At the end of the 6 week adventure, I had 10 recordings and a new album. All the songs on ALASKA were a product of this once in a lifetime experience. Thank you Chulitna Lodge for sharing your space, good company, and delicious food.  This album is dedicated to you and the artists involved (Here are related posts about my experience at the fellowship if you want to learn more 1 & 2).  

In these coming weeks, I’ll share stories from each song and videos.  Subscribe and follow to see.  Here’s a link to all the streaming sites.

Thanks for reading and for your support! 

Photos by Christa Ebert. Lake Clark, Alaska

Press 

“Not confined to a single genre, UNO LADY draws from minimalism, avant-garde, art rock, and experimental indie on new album “Alaska” IDIOTEQ.com 

Uno Lady News: IDIOTEQ.COM Exclusive Stream of TODAY’S THE DAY, From the Upcoming Album

Not confined to a single genre, UNO LADY draws from minimalism, avant-garde, art rock, and experimental indie on new album “Alaska”

 

Visit IDIOTEQ.COM to hear the exclusive stream of “TODAY’S THE DAY,” the featured track from the new album. 

By Karol Kamiński, IDIOTEQ.COM -“Uno Lady‘s new album, titled “Alaska,” showcases her unique approach to music composition, which involves layering ambient vocal textures with classic doo-wop and jazz styles using experimental techniques. The album features a few tracks that incorporate effected vocals similar to the White Lotus theme, while the final two tracks are meditative and calming in nature.

Recorded at an off-the-grid solar-powered arts fellowship at Chulitna Wilderness Lodge in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, Alaska, this is Uno Lady’s ninth release.

The album will be available digitally and on cassette via Softseed Music, with 32 swirled cassettes being released on March 21st, 2023 at 7am PST / 9am CST / 10am EST. 

Commenting on the new single “Today’s the Day”, Christa’s explains that the music came to her first and she struggled to come up with lyrics until she decided to write about the very thing she was experiencing – being stuck and trying to get moving.” 

The new album will be available on 3.21.23 at the following links:

UNO LADY Bandcamp

Softseed Music’s Bandcamp

Streaming sites

The Songs and Stories of the New Video Album, Le Flux

I flew into Paris but had a show in Strasbourg a few days later. I rented a car for the following morning and booked a room in Verdun, the city in the middle, to help break up the 6 hour drive. The residency that brought me to Europe didn’t start for another week. I explored France and Germany with my camera, capturing footage for the songs I was about to write. 

Near Verdun is Vent des Forêts, a contemporary art exhibit in the woods. Some people fly into Paris to experience the city. I drove 3 hours into the countryside on one-lane dirt roads to hike alone in the forest in 91-degree heat. 

The album artwork and videos for “A New Day” is from that hike. The sculptures in the video are “Cartouche” by Marion Verboom.  “One of those who were too long in the woods,” by Stefan Rinck has been described as everyone’s friend of the forest.


The second song, “Black Forest ” features the trees and mushrooms of the Black Forest in Germany. The song was inspired by a melody I overheard two children singing to each other while hiking.


In “Beach Dreams,” forests reflect on stream surfaces. Underwater footage captures the light through water. 


“Sunshine and Pines” shows scenes of Planplatten mountain (7,365 ft) situated within the Uri and Bernese Alps in Switzerland. On my birthday, I rode a gondola to the top of the mountain with 2 other people and what appeared to be hundreds of pounds of cheese (not pictured).


“Delaney” features live, improvised, and looped vocals. The percussion was made by talented musician and pal, Delaney Davidson. The song is named after him. Many years ago, he tapped on the body of his guitar and I saved the sound to my loop pedal. At the residency, I revisited the beat and wrote the composition in real time as it was recorded. The footage is from the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. 


The dark melody of “And Let Live”’ matched the cold cellar at Chateau Orquevaux. I combined videos of clouds, water, fire, and the basement to achieve the haunting effects. Humble brag that I hit those low notes naturally. This song was featured on a compilation released by Volar Records, “Presence Not Absence – A Benefit Compilation for Trans BIPOC Housing Assistance.” Buy it on Bandcamp if you wish to support it. 


“Anticipating the End” features footage from ruins of the ancient Hohenbaden Old Castle and Burg Alt-Eberstein castle ruins in Germany, and a foggy night in Orquevaux, France. 


Skipping in Place meanders through the town of Orquevaux and showcases the beloved goats of the Chateau and their coordinated dance moves.


“Let it Flow” is the only song with lyrics on the track and the reason the album is named “Le Flux” (“the flow” in French). It features highlights from the trip to France, Germany, and Switzerland.


Thanks for taking the time to listen and view. I appreciate you and your support.
 
Subscribe at UnoLady.com
Buy the tape through Imperial Emporium Sound Options’ Bandcamp
Buy the digital album through Uno Lady’s Bandcamp 
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