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A Stick and a Stone Premiere “Husband of Wind”; Versatile out Jan. 15

Posted in audiObelisk on December 15th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

A Stick and a Stone

Guided by multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Elliott Miskovicz, Portland, Oregon’s A Stick and a Stone will release Versatile on Jan. 15 through Anima Recordings with vinyl reportedly to follow the tape/DL edition via Blast First Petite. Also stylized all-lowercase — versatile — it is the fourth full-length from Miskovicz and various assembled company, and if you’d like a quick lesson in urgency of expression, I’ll direct you to the quote below wherein Miskovicz describes the process of playing album opener “Husband of Wind” (also premiering below) live. Consider hitting a bass drum with one hand and playing organ with the other while singing in harmony with someone also playing viola. Rhythm, melody and purpose collide in this way all throughout Versatile, across 11 songs and 47 minutes exploring themes of love, nature, queer experience, and identity in songs striking in their human presence and ethereal atmospheres alike.

From the tense unfolding of “Husband of Wind,” “Horsetail” finds lighter resonance in its second half melody while cello adds Americana severity to “Monster Men” and “Hunter” makes a background drone from what sounds like the howling of wolves. The narrative of Miskovicz as trans living off-grid in rural (presumably) Oregon is powerful in terms of both escape and confrontation, but there is an engagement with totality the comes through in the breadth of arrangements on Versatile even as the record stays unified and in no small part defined by Miskovicz‘s vocals. The relative minimalism in the first half of “Meridians,” for example, uses open space as effectively as “Husband of Wind” casts its wash of melody, and that makes the wrenching second half of the latera stick and a stone versatile track all the more agonized and jarring, which it’s every bit intended to be.

Marimba percussion adds a counterpoint to more cello in the centerpiece “Timelapse” as Miskovicz asks, “What makes you so different from the red blooded ones?” in gaunt, throaty fashion, but “Timelapse” finishes on a gentler note with solo vocal. That brings about the 6:18 “Languages Unspoken,” the longest cut on Versatile, with distorted pedal harp and wood flute amid harmonized voices, backing drone, what seems to be a manipulated sample of a siren or something, and an almost scratchy melody line later that might be kalimba and might not — ultimately I suppose what matters more is it’s gorgeous.

While we’re talking about what matters, Miskovicz, who is by no means alone throughout Versatile despite the sometimes solitary feel in the songs themselves, does not simply use these varied arrangements for niche-hunting. Four albums into A Stick and a Stone‘s tenure, this is not I’m-going-to-put-a-wood-flute-on-my-record-and-then-I’ll-sound-like-me novelty, and it’s not spaghetti-at-wall experimentalism either. The abiding notion here is purpose, and while each piece throughout Versatile might seem to bring another element or side of the delivery, there’s a reason these things are there, and they serve the songs throughout, even unto the 82-second guitar-and-voice interlude “Oslo in Snow” and the taped nighttime-crickets and a pitch-shifted alouatta sounding like dog barks that back the subsequent “Heart of a Whale,” viola, violin and layers of harmonized vocals emerging like ghosts en route to the penultimate “Sullivan,” a somewhat back to ground emotive, stately piece on which one can hear what might’ve made Miskovicz approach Amber Asylum‘s Kris Force for mastering.

That leaves “Homewrecker” to close out with lever harp and a surge of threat that is mirrored by strings and shouts in the midsection of its brief run, the melody building behind and taking over to slowly fade out as the last notes are struck. Beautiful, sad, immersive, challenging — Versatile, sure enough, is all of these things, and it still finds its core in Miskovicz‘s performance throughout as the compositional center around which the songs are collaboratively built.

It’s the nature of a release working in this way that no single song will really be able to sum it up, but in terms of ambience and melodic reach the opener seems a fitting enough place to start. Accordingly, you’ll find the premiere of “Husband of Wind” below — note the contradiction in opening with “Husband of Wind” and ending with “Homewrecker” — followed by the aforementioned quote from Miskovicz and more background from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Elliott Miskovicz on “Husband of Wind”:

“As a song about the element of air, I really wanted to record ‘Husband of Wind’ on the pump organ, an instrument that really breathes with its whole body. After searching for almost a year, I finally found a church that would let me record on theirs with no one around. I wrote this song during a time when I was dealing with relentless panic attacks, and when becoming more conscious of breathing was a constant process. This song is one of the most challenging to play on tour, because I play organ with one hand and bass drum with the other while singing harmonies with Billy Ray. Meanwhile, Billy Ray sings the vocal harmony while simultaneously playing their viola part which harmonizes with Myles and Stelleaux’s string parts. In this recorded version, I appreciate how much fuller David’s drumming sounds, along with the deep undertones of the pump organ.”

Formed in 2007 by transgender vocalist/composer Elliott Miskovicz, A Stick And A Stone crafts dark, minimalist, choral-ridden song-spells laced with ambient field recordings and poetic imagery. After a decade of Miskovicz touring the underground circuit as a solo artist while recording with a steady flow of guest musicians, A Stick And A Stone expanded in 2015 to include core collaborators Billy Ray Boyer (Aradia), Stella Peach (Sweeping Exits), Myles Donovan (Disemballerina), and Sei Harris (Mind Parade). Performing as an openly trans and disabled artist, Miskovicz’s work sheds light on the unseen and unheard, calling out to mysterious forces with vital inquiries into surviving and restoring our often fractured world.

Versatile, the upcoming fourth album by A Stick And A Stone, explores the versatility of queer love with songs for friends and freedom fighters, woodlands and waterways, trans ancestors and survivors. Diverging from the heavy doom-shaded opus of their previous release, Versatile is a vivid experimental album home-recorded in remote forested hideouts. While the thread of A Stick And A Stone’s lush, ethereal vocals and minor-key fervency endures, off-kilter compositions of harp, layered strings, pump organ, found sounds, and crystal glass breathe new organic life into the band’s distinctive sound.

Written after Miskovicz’s relocation to living off-grid in the woods after a lifetime in the dense Philadelphia area, these 11 songs follow the journey of the sacrifices we make in the name of solace. When multiple health conditions began exacerbating in urban environments, it became imminently necessary for him to relocate to quieter landscapes. Although rural life was not always easy as a transgender gay male, his songwriting there evolved from a tool for coping with chaos into an expression of reverence for the ecosystems surrounding him.

Mastered by Kris Force of Amber Asylum, with evocative cover art by renowned queer metal artist Stephen Wilson, Versatile comes January 15th on cassette and digitally via Anima Recordings. Blast First Petite (UK) will issue the vinyls when the peak of the plague passes, and everything becomes viable again.

Album Credits:
Elliott Miskovicz – Vocals, Composition, Pump Organ, Piano, Marimba, Kalimba, Classical Guitar, Wood Flute, Percussive Branches, Bass Drum, Found Sound Excavation, Home Recording, Production.

Billy Ray Boyer – Viola
Stelleaux Peach – Violin, Cello
Myles Donovan – Viola, Lever Harp, Crystal Glass
Sei Harris – Cello
Darian Scatton – Pedal Harp, Harp Recording
David Fylstra – Mixing, Tape Manipulation, Percussion, Percussion Recording
Kris Force – Mastering
Stephen Wilson: Cover Art

Photo by Yaara Valey, Tender Heart Productions.

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