Ethan Rose is a friend of mine from college, who also happens to be a very talented musician. When I say “from college”, I don’t mean we were actually friends then – but I wanted to be. I met Ethan after stumbling into his senior recital (he was a music major; I was a minor), which took place in the beautiful Ewok village style chapel at Lewis and Clark College. The music was a mix of Mu-Ziq style melodic IDM, modern classical composition (one part paired strings with sequencer), plus an inexplicable and totally awesome dub jam. These were all things I was very into at that time. I remember running up to Ethan afterwards and basically asking him to be my friend. It didn’t work: Ethan was distracted loading out his gear, we didn’t run into each other for at least a year after that.
Portland being as small as it is, our paths eventually crossed again. Ethan’s band Adelaide started playing shows at Berbati’s, and we finally became friends. It’s been cool to see his talents gradually seep out into the world, both with Adelaide, who’ve gotten some decent local love and gone on 2 successful tours, and with his lesser known solo stuff. (I should add that I worked press for Adelaide’s tours.)
Where Adelaide is mellow post rocky vibes, Ethan solo is a fucking gorgeous mix of musique conrete and ambient styles. Ethan treats pianos and samples to create a swirling mass of unidentifiable yet distinctly organic sound. His debut full length album, Ceiling Songs, was released earlier this month on the excellent experimental label Locust Music. The album consists of three tracks. The first is 15 minutes long; the second 20; the third 5. These parts flow together as one, filtering in and out of one another as abstract melodies gradually emerge from white noise and fuzz.
Locust has released music by people like Glen Kotche (who also plays in Wilco), Josephine Foster, Matmos, and Keith Fullerton Whitman, and their records are pretty consistently reviewed in magazines like The Wire and Arthur. Hopefully this means that Ethan’s stuff might start to be appreciated by a larger audience. I sure hope so; it’s some of my favorite music to come out this year.
Here’s the third track off Ceiling Songs:
PS: The cover art for this album was stitched together by my dear friend Kat Mannock. It’s a family affair.
