Summon, Episode 5 in Alarm Will Sound’s Video Chat Variationsseries, uses feedback and delay – common video chat annoyances – to inspire artistic creation. As musicians of Alarm Will Sound improvise solos based on Jlin’s composition, Alan Pierson, Alarm Will Sound’s Artistic Director and conductor, captures the music in real time with microphones to generate feedback. In turn, the instrumentalists listen to the “feedback soloist” and respond to the harmonies and timbres they hear.
Jlin says about the collaboration: “Covid-19 threw lemons at us, and we made lemonade with honey. I’m so humbled having gone through this process in such a trying time with Alarm Will Sound. We took every restriction we had and worked it to our advantage.”
Igor Santos worked closely with Jlin and Alarm Will Sound to craft the structure of Summon. Sections of improvisatory exploration of feedback transition into passages of funky, bass-heavy groove. Santos says, “In Summon we embrace ‘error’ as an aesthetic and try to create a system in which each element—audio feedback, latency, orchestration, form, and character—is integrated and informed by each other’s sounds and behaviors.”
Jlin is the recording alias of Jerrilynn Patton, an electronic music producer from Gary, Indiana. Initially associated with Chicago’s footwork scene, her music evolved far beyond that style, exploring unheard rhythms and placing her in a category of her own. Her debut album, 2015’s Dark Energy, was filled with twisted, volatile tracks that seemed far more concerned with venting frustration, anger, and depression than providing dancefloor fodder. The album was an immediate, unexpected success, causing her to quit her job as a steel mill worker and pursue music full-time. One of the most acclaimed experimental electronic artists of the 2010s, she has shared the stage or collaborated with artists such as Björk, Ben Frost, and William Basinski. Additionally, she has ventured into contemporary dance, composing the music for Wayne McGregor‘s Autobiography, which premiered in 2017.
Patton began producing music in 2008, and while her early tracks relied on heavily manipulated soul samples (as is common with the genre), her mother encouraged her to find her own voice. Her subsequent material featured samples from horror films such as Mommie Dearest (1981), but she otherwise largely abandoned samples. Jlin first reached the public’s consciousness in 2011 when her tracks “Erotic Heat” and “Asylum” were included on Planet Mu’s Bangs & Works, Vol. 2 compilation of the Chicago juke/footwork sound, which also included tracks by DJ Rashad & Gant-Man, DJ Clent, RP Boo, Traxman, and other notable producers from the scene. A few Jlin tracks appeared on online footwork compilations, but her debut release didn’t arrive until March of 2015, when Planet Mu released her first full-length, Dark Energy, which included a collaboration with experimental electronic artist Holly Herndon. The album was an immediate critical success, earning rave reviews from numerous publications, including Pitchfork, FACT, and Resident Advisor. Dark Energy was eventually included on a multitude of year-end best-of lists, and was named Album of the Year by both The Quietus and The Wire. A follow-up EP titled Free Fall also appeared on Planet Mu that November.
Patton subsequently quit her job as a steel mill worker in order to concentrate on writing music and touring. In 2016, she remixed Factory Floor‘s song “Wave” and released a few songs online, teasing her second album. The Dark Lotus EP appeared in February of 2017. Jlin‘s highly anticipated sophomore full-length, Black Origami, arrived in May, and included a collaboration with composer William Basinski. Also in 2017, Patton embarked on a project in collaboration with British choreographer Wayne McGregor, soundtracking a dance performance piece called Autobiography; the performance was designed to replicate aspects of the human genome. Jlin‘s soundtrack was eventually given a physical release in 2018, again on Planet Mu.
Described as “otherworldly and mysteriously familiar” (Chicago Classical Review), and as “exciting and clear… with a striking boldness” (Luigi Nono Competition Prize), Igor Santos’ music has been performed internationally, by leading musicians such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Dal Niente, Alarm Will Sound, Riot Ensemble, eighth blackbird, POING, the American Composers Orchestra, and The Florida Orchestra.
Igor is a current winner of the Rome Prize in Music Composition (2021), as well as the Ferruccio Busoni International Composition Prize (2021), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021). He has earned degrees in Composition from the University of Chicago (Ph.D. 2018), the Eastman School of Music (M.A. 2012), and the University of South Florida (B.M. 2010). Additional awards include the Luigi Nono International Competition, the RED NOTE Competition, the Salvatore Martirano Award, as well as awards in Best Sound Design from Theatre Tampa Bay for his incidental music.
Igor is a native of Curitiba, Brazil.
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