Photo by Doro Samson Valdez
Disappointed by seeing a lack of femme, gender non-conforming, and queer artists in Calgary's experimental electronic scene, Heather Ross decided to take matters of representation into their own hands. They started the ambient noise project SKIN and have since put out a handful of releases on Bandcamp.Today, THUMP's premiering "Roots Suffocate," the lead track from their upcoming cassette Calluna Vulgaris out Jan. 30 via Calgary-based label Deep Sea Mining Syndicate. The track is an exploration of texture through a series of layers forged from feedback and loop pedals, culminating in an abrasion that loftily swells and recedes.This process of destruction and growth is a notion that Ross borrows from Calluna vulgaris, a flowering shrub that suffocates the vegetation that surrounds it, and incorporates into the entirety of their album."Calluna Vulgaris is the attachment to the past, the quest for self, and the desire for rebirth. A past grown rooted, blooming only to be burned, destruction to come anew," Ross told THUMP over email. "Only with destruction is anything else free to grow, destroy heather, avoid suffocation. A process of letting go."Listen to "Roots Suffocate" below, and pre-order the album here.Corinne Przybyslawski is on Twitter.