Insect Ark Touring with Locrian Next Month
Doom experimentalists Insect Ark — now a duo after putting together their full-length debut, Portal/Well (review here), under the sole guidance of multi-instrumentalist Dana Schechter — are getting ready to head out on the road next month alongside Chicago’s Locrian. The tour begins in Washington Aug. 14 and ends in Portland on Aug. 22 and runs down and back up the West Coast in the interim, the Brooklyn-based outfit having West Coast roots in both Schechter and Portland-based drummer Ashley Spungin.
As my brain has turned into goo, I’ll turn it over directly to the PR wire, which puts it thusly:
ExperiMetal Doom outfit Insect Ark touring with Locrian
Insect Ark will celebrate the release of it debut full-length album, Portal/Well with a series of North American dates opening for Locrian. The new album is the result of one years’ work in composer/ multi-instrumentalist Dana Schechter’s Brooklyn studio. Exploring themes of corruption of the natural world and facing oblivion, Portal/Well continues the wordless existential narratives already established on 2013’s Long Arms EP and 2012’s “Collapsar” 7″ single. Autumnsongs Records released Portal/Well, on CD in June 9, 2015.
Insect Ark began in late 2011, as the one-woman solo project of bassist and multi-instrumentalist Schechter. As an analog-electronic hybrid with a heavy focus on live performance, Insect Ark has been building a following in the experimental doom scene via consistent touring in the U.S. and abroad.
Dana Schechter, a California native, spent her teens in the San Francisco metal scene, where her love of heavy music gained its foothold. She moved to NYC in 1997; in 1999 she began working as a recording and touring bassist with Swans leader Michael Gira’s Angels of Light and she founded her own band, Bee and Flower, as well. In 2004 Bee and Flower relocated to Berlin, its new base for touring and recording.
By 2008 Schechter had finally found her way back to NYC. There, she formed Insect Ark as an effort to write and tour continuously without the complexities of a band and to reconnect with the darker, heavier, and more abstract sounds of her youth.
In 2015 Insect Ark gained a second member, drummer and electronics operator Ashley Spungin, who is known for her work with the Portland-based band Taurus. While Schechter appreciated the freedom of working alone, she ultimately decided that live drums would be a powerful addition to the project’s releases and shows. The new duo incarnation of Insect Ark began recording and touring in spring 2015.
Insect Ark Opening for Locrian
Fri 8/14 Bellingham, WA – The Shakedown
Sat 8/15 Seattle, WA – Highline
Sun 8/16 Boise, ID – Crazy Horse
Mon 8/17 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Tue 8/18 Las Vegas, NV – Bunkhouse
Wed 8/19 Los Angeles, CA – Complex
Thur 8/20 San Francisco, CA – Elbo Room
Fri 8/21 Sacramento, CA – Starlight Lounge
Sat 8/22 Portland, OR – Panic Room
http://insectark.com/
https://www.facebook.com/InsectArk
http://insectark.bandcamp.com/
