Listen, if you’ve never had the pleasure of witnessing a life-sized zoetrope circumnavigate an experimental synthfolk-noise band as they perform in live action, then boy, you haven’t lived. Along with sex, drugs, and Chicago-style pizza, it’s likely one of the greatest pleasures that “we humans” (being the overly-dramatic creatures that we are) can indulge ourselves in. But fret not! If you find yourself up around Chicago on April 6 and/or 7, you can do exactly that by catching a commissioned live performance from the ever-conceiving noise experiment that is Mind Over Mirrors!
The performance, which is set to take place at the stately Museum of Contemporary Art, is essentially a two night album-premier for the band’s just announced new record, Bellowing Sun, which is set for release the same night - April 6 - on Paradise of Bachelors.
Mind Over Mirrors’ multi-instrumentalist Jaime Fennelly has been working for over three years on the project, and was a co-designer — in collaboration with Eliot Irwin and two-time Grammy nominee Timothy Breen (album design) — of the monstrous zoetrope that will be revolving over top of the band as they perform the set. (If you’ve never heard of a zoetrope, don’t beat yourself up too bad — I hadn’t either. They’re those carousel-looking things that have slits in the sides and show animated pictures when you spin them around).
The live multimedia performance was commissioned specifically by the MCA, and will include a multifariously-talented Mirrors lineup of Fennelly (Oberheim SEM, OB-6 synthesizer, Indian harmonium), Janet Bean (vocals, zither, percussion), Jim Becker (fiddle, vocals), and Jon Mueller (percussion, vocals). I don’t know what you plan on doing come April 6, but if you’re an art lover, it might be well worth it to pick up a couple tickets to the show and book an Amtrak ride straight to the Windy City.
Of course, if mixed-media performances and abstract soundscapes aren’t your cup of tea, you can just enjoy a 9+ minute track off the new album straight from the comforts of your home by checking out the album trailer, the artwork and tracklisting, and the new track “Matchstick Grip” down below — or get yourself on over to the official Paradise of Bachelors store to pre-order a copy of Bellowing Sun on limited vinyl. So, relax: you’ve got a veritable zoetrope of options.
Bellowing Sun tracklisting:
01. Feeding The Flats
02. Matchstick Grip
03. A Palinopsic Wind
04. Zeitgebers
05. Lanterns on the Beach
06. Vermillion Pink
07. Halfway to the Zenith
08. Oculate Beings
09. Talking Knots
10. Twenty-One Falls
11. Acrophasing
12. Pause to Wonder