Rio en Medio has been represented on stage by a range of musical and visual guests and collaborators - Justin Riddle (drums), Christian Lee (guitar), Nicholas Toll (keyboards and percussion), Justin Hartery (video), Cohdi Harrell (aerialist) and most recently the sound and visual artist Vlad Kromatika.
Danielle Stech-Homsy has also produced an album with Anti Records artist Tim Fite called The Water Island.
Influences
Arvo Part, Samuel Barber, Steve Reich, John Cage, Peter Tchaikovsky, Bob Dylan, Mary McCaslin, Ewan MacColl, Beth Gibbons, Tropicalia, Russian, Spanish, American and English folk music, flamenco, Machaut, John Ashbery, the Oulipo, Paul Blackburn, Jean Cocteau, Vija Celmins, Tarkovsky.
Rio en Medio came into being when front-woman Danielle Stech-Homsy picked up her childhood baritone ukulele and recorded 8 songs in her bedroom in Harlem. These simple, haunting songs, inspired by experimental music and traditional folk alike, and loosely interwoven with natural found sounds and fragmented electronic beats and samples, eventually fell into the hands of Devendra Banhart. This delicately hewn album became known as The Bride of Dynamite and was released in 2006 on his Gnomonsong label, with contributions from friends Sierra Casady (Cocorosie) and Andy Cabic (Vetiver), among others.
Rio en Medio's follow-up release, Frontier (Manimal Vinyl), hailed as "captivating" by Pitchfork, further plays on the tension between electronic and organic sound, balancing delicate vocal harmonies on oscillating synth riffs and driving dance beats offset with gamelan-like percussion. Recorded in Northern New Mexico, where Danielle was born and now lives, the album is imbued with desert and astral references, evoking the original wonder and possibility of the West or the awe of early space travel.
About her inspiration Danielle says, "I have always been drawn to conceptually-charged music that is felt first and maybe never fully 'understood'. I tend to search for music that listens and responds to paradoxical elements like order and chaos. I am always working to serve the mystery."
Since 2005, Rio en Medio has toured worldwide, opening for and often joining in with many notable bands - Grizzly Bear, Cocorosie, Brightblack Morning Light, Patrick Wolf and Devendra Banhart, to name a few. On stage Danielle is often joined by a friend or two on a menagerie of instruments, pedals and samplers... or sometimes she will appear on her own. Either way, she is adept at creating a magical world for the listener to step into.
Rio en Medio "The Umbrella" (Manimal Vinyl; 2008) Directed by Eli Stonberg
taken from the album, Frontier.
1) Audiomachie (6:21) 2) Une ombre vacille en serpentin virevoltant (6:58) 3) Bruissement de griserie (9:55) 4) Propensity to go forward (7:36) 5) Drawing of a Back with a Mouth (4:24) 6) Second Life (3:50)
(39:12)
- The project was about trying to explore different poetry styles, always with different instrumentations and musical structures because I don't want to repeat a single one - An album not directly linked to the four previous ones, but with the impossible to avoid come back to fetish themes - Second Life is about the technological phenomena, but I got better things to do with my life than spending it on the clone of a capitalist society - We might as well hope for a real bankrupcy for all of us, it would be worth it to kill capitalism
Most of you will just want to listen to the music made available. Well, here it is with great streaming (right after MA VIE est ICI which is a reminder of my previous album conclusion) http://www.freakywaves.com
Can I just tell how extremely sad I am am that I missed your concert last night.....I am living in Paris and was so happy that you were playing here...but I looked up the venue and went to the wrong international, entirely. It was in a sketchy part of town and I was alone. I've seen you once before in my home town Denver with Devendra Banhart and it was beautiful. I guess I have to wait.....
We are proud to anounce that we will release 001101100 Ghashtly Interface with the Astral Dominion Ep As a pro printed cover art cdr, limited to 101 hand numbered copy on 07 15 2009. 28 minutes of pure industrial soundscape. You can pre-order your copy now for 9$us North America or 7Euro rest of the world. www.alchemicsoundmuseum.com
Online Now!
