About
Danielle Stech-Homsy is an American musician of Syrian and Ukrainian descent, whose work spans the playful, the evocative and the transcendent, painting luminous and trans-rational invitations to emotion as a destination in and of itself. Stech-Homsy utilizes a range of instruments and processes to stretch and strain, burnish and imbue, the end result being something that can feel inevitable, familiar and yet open-ended. Translation, textual sourcing, chance operations, collage and sampling often figure in her work. This intentional interference is juxtaposed with the clear strains of her voice and minimal instrumentation, which often includes acoustic as well as electronic sound sources.
Stech-Homsy's music has taken her into various contexts where she has performed anywhere from festivals to forests, from Sydney to Paris to Los Angeles. Her first album, the Bride of Dynamite, was released on Devendra Barnhart's Gnomonsong label, with follow-ups on Manimal Vinyl and WW Recordings. Collaborations have included recordings and performances with Grizzly Bear, CocoRosie and koto master Shoko Hikage, among others.
While perhaps best known for the delicate layered acoustics of her former band, Rio en Medio, Stech-Homsy has been working for several years on a sound that reaches further into tonal palettes and lingers on the disfiguration and reintegration of sound and meaning. The Blue Knots is designed for unfolding into new spaces and responding to alternate forms of creative direction.
The Blue Knots' album, Becoming Noise, will be available in the near future.
Check back for details.
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Praise for The Bride of Dynamite
"Entirely enchanting and spellbinding. Highly recommended."
-Gorilla vs. Bear
"A stunning debut."
-Scott Hewicker/Soma
"Her strong but untutored voice has the feel of a private language - loaded, opaque, authentic and inscrutable."
-The Wire
"Gorgeous....Rio en Medio crafts a graceful and breathtaking style of folk that shines magnificently on its own."
-Treblezine.com
"Evoking exotic and perhaps imaginary locations, Dynamite successfully forges a safe and intriguing passage for the less traveled of new world listeners."
-CMJ New Music First
"I am quieted with chills after listening to this dense, haunting and dark folk album by Danielle Stech-Homsy, a.k.a. Rio en Medio."
-SoundFix.com
Praise for Frontier
"Captivating....Part cosmic fun house, part haunted house, [Frontier] keeps you on your toes, waiting to see if the next song will amuse you, entrance you, or scare you silly. Or all three."
-Pitchfork
"Frontier is a strong-lunged otherworldly child, vital and blood red with exposure...An altruistic world of sensual artistry sprung from Rio en Medio's magical Pandora's box."
-wearsthetrousers.com
"Rio en Medio is her own thang, blurring lines like a charcoal artist, the smudges and haze as important as the obvious outlines. A few spots, notably “The Diamond Wall,” have the orchestral ache of Górecki ; a bigger compliment I cannot offer. Frontier largely ditches the folksy elements of her first album and embraces an oceanic, neon flecked hurdy-gurdy approach. This could be the music box score for some alien race or a beloved artifact of a god. There’s something vaguely un-mortal about her soundscapes, which leaves us with the lingering taste of ambrosia. Elusive and unsettling, Frontier is another wholly unique salvo from this brave new artist." -Dennis Cook/jambase.com
"Danielle Stech-Homsy has a knack for creating stunning works of art by piecing together the unexpected. Her sophomore release Frontier, evokes both a Himalayan folk band and a Parisian lounge, as Stech-Homsy’s angelic voice floats over her ukulele, and the experimental sound of a synthesizer. Her stream-of-conscious poetry and sound bytes bridge one song to the next, giving the album the feel of a million different places stretched across one great plain." -Heather Simon/Relix.com