Issei Herr - Distant Intervals (2023) Hi-Res

Distant Intervals, the full-length debut from Brooklyn cellist and composer Issei Herr, is an exploration of memory, dreams, and the infinite possibilities within imagined worlds. Centered around themes of becoming and transformation, the music encompasses the liminal spaces between our past, present, and future selves - our ever-changing relation to personal memories, the ideals and dreams we have for our futures, and the distance and idealism of these infinite versions of self.

Composed and performed primarily through the vast sound-world of the cello, the album is built through layers of overdubbed improvisations, self-recorded entirely in Issei’s bedroom closet. There is an element of newfound wonder throughout the album’s nine parts; the sounds of a single cello, an instrument she has known intimately since childhood, are augmented and transformed through the infinite possibilities of digital production and manipulation - layered and processed audio samples, tape loops, and synth ornamentation. Combining up to a hundred layers of overdubbed cello and processed samples, the resulting sound world is lush, vast, and orchestral in scope. A closing feature by rising vocal star Maria BC transforms and elevates Issei’s string-centered sound world into a euphoric bodily dimension.

Classically trained as a cellist at Juilliard, Issei composed the album during a period of musical and personal transformation - as she moved away from a traditional classical performance path and notated music, while also beginning a long-awaited process of gender transition. While rooted in Issei’s classical background, the music looks outward and beyond limitations of style and genre; while song titles reference staples of the classical repertoire and traditional musical forms, they capture the poetry and fantasy of inner worlds through their improvisatory and deeply personal spirit. From the heavenly heights of the Prelude to the darkest recesses of the Fugato, soft distant whispers of the Interlude and Serenata to the rays of color and pulsating rhythm of the Toccata, the summation is a deeply personal account that conveys universal themes of memory, acceptance, and transformation.

“We may never touch queerness, but we can feel it as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality. We have never been queer, yet queerness exists for us as an ideality that can be distilled from the past and used to imagine a future.” - José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia