79 Ancestors [Profile]

Last week we put out a spotlight on the duo A.M. Architect, who just released Color Field, an audiovisual album composed of 10 tracks and accompanied by a 15 minute short film, released through the interdisciplinary label 79Ancestors. Today, we want to take the time tell you some more about what the label is up to and those involved behind the scenes.

79Ancestors is a record label that was launched in 2016 by Benjamin Wynn, Anthony Ciannamea and Yaniv De Ridder. In their words, “79Ancestors is a hybrid label focused on the production of highly-personal objects and experiences, designed by artists working at the intersection of music composition, performance, cinema and code”. Their first LP release, A Soundtrack to Imaginary Landscapes is a compilation album of eight different musicians including Shigeto, Telefon Tel Aviv and A.M. Architect. If one purchased the vinyl early, it was bundled with a customized 79A Cardboard Virtual Reality viewer (that is now sold out). The goal is that, eventually, each of these songs will have an accompanying visual element to be viewed in virtual reality. Thus far, there is one released for Shigeto’s song (watch here), and four other “episodes” are in the works.

Benjamin Wynn aka 'Deru' by Tim Navis

Anthony Ciannamea is both a filmmaker and designer, and currently runs the design and motion studio EFFIXX. Ciannamea has an impressive history of work in the creative field and has collaborated with many artists, including Prefuse 73 and members of Ghostly International. Ciannamea and Benjamin Wynn have worked closely together on many projects and 79Ancestors is just the latest from these two.

Commonly known as Deru, Benjamin Wynn is a musician who wears many hats. His life of music began in college where he earned a degree in music technology at the California Institute for the Arts. Since then, he has scored for film and television, composed for a ballet called Genus, and released a plethora of albums. Wynn is constantly pushing boundaries, and the more one delves into his work, the more this becomes evident.

The flyer for the third installment of The Echo Society. March 12, 2015

Benjamin Wynn has released four LPs under his Deru project, and there is word that the next album will be released in early 2018. Avid fans of Deru will tell you that his music leans towards atmospheric-based beats with a keen edge for sound design, infused with elements from a multitude of other genres, including trip-hop and IDM. The emotion, texture, clicks, and glitches within his ethereal beats simultaneously uplift and catalyze a longing for the past. It is this dichotomy in Deru’s music that makes it so unique and fascinating.

Beyond Wynn’s personal projects, he is also a founding member of The Echo Society, a non-profit collective of seven Los Angeles-based composers. Anthony Ciannamea as EFFIXX is also a member of The Echo Society, and serves as a lead visual designer. This collective presents one-night-only performances of visual and sonic art, both orchestral and electronic. So far there have been six installments in this series.

The creation of 79Ancestors was inspired by Deru’s concept album, 1979, which also alludes to the name of the record label. It was this project that convinced the founders that listeners are willing to engage more deeply with music, whether that is through visual reality, through a tangible artifact, or through a different lens. This is the intention of this label, to take the idea of an album and to elevate and expand it.

It is clear that 79A is pushing artistic boundaries and will continue the marriage of sonic art with other forms. 79A values the magic of collaboration and the potential of a collective of creative and passionate minds. We are excited to follow along and see what this label has in store; this is only the beginning.

FOLLOW:   79Ancestors   /   The Echo Society   /   Deru - Website & Listen   /   EFFIXX   /   Color Field - A.M. Architect

A.M. Architect - Color Field

Hailing from San Antonio, eclectic sound pioneers Diego Chavez and Daniel Stanush are the duo behind A.M. Architect. The breadth and scope of their artistic prowess seems limitless, blending together a diverse palette of lush, floral tones, pinpoint sound design, meticulously mutated foley, and their own skillsets as cinematographers and motion graphics designers. On November 11th, 2017, A.M. Architect released Color Field, an extensive downtempo journey through the sonic multiverse. In tandem with the musical release, the duo released an accompanying short film and a special “artifact” to bring a personification to the spirit of the LP.

The album is an interwoven matrix of tonal blends, nuanced percussive elements, and atmospheric colorations that speak to a softer side of the human musical spectrum. Each song is its own gift-wrapped adventure. Every moment of tension and point of release is entirely unique and curated to fit the motif like a tailored suit. A mesmerizing flourish of pianos, synthesizers, guitars, disembodied vocals, and subterranean bass lines mesh together to create this auditory masterpiece.

The accompanying video, also entitled “Color Field”, is a melancholy immersion into the ethos of the Color Field album. It opens with a woman in her bathroom staring into the mirror with a pervasive sense of situational abandonment. All comfort is thrown out the window in favor of hair-splitting anxiety. As the film progresses, the woman listens to instructional tapes created by an entity known as “The Spectra Institute”, which seek to explain an experimental therapy that claims to rid the user of self-doubt, lethargy, and painful life experiences.

“At the Spectra Institute, our sensory enhancement programs are structured to help you exist at your fullest potential. Memories connected to a physical or emotional trauma are held by circuitries in the limbic system. These memories can be accessed through reflections, refractions, inflections, and specific wavelengths of light.” What began as an incredibly muted color pallet gradually begins to expand and increase, following the trope of discovery, a return to situational awareness. The films’ thesis presents itself when the woman begins to read a book, entitled “Light on the Path”, and a small newspaper clipping falls out. The headline reads “Will man see more than he knows?”, with the address for the Spectra Institute. It implies a kind of awakening, a form of realization wherein man might leave Plato’s cave of ignorance, and be touched by the light of emotional truth and healing. It is an astounding visual companion to the album, making the release a multi-sensory experience of top-flight design.

As an added token, a limited number of audio-visual “artifacts” have been released, alongside an accompanying 20-song extended soundtrack. The artifact is a visual fx processor that creates gradient, chromatic environments and can be hooked up to larger screens and speaker equipment to amplify the experience. It is variation on a similar device seen in the short film that engages the user’s emotional memory. Altogether, it is the final touch on this artistic exploration of the senses and their interconnectedness.

A.M. Architect continues to push the envelope of arrangement, composition, production, sampling, and the interplay of art mediums with an unparalleled grace and focus. Color Field is an ode to our emotional sensibilities, and the very human ties that bind us to our memories and experiences. Keep an eye out for future releases from A.M. Architect through the multi-medium art label, 79ancestors.

FOLLOW A.M. Architect:   Soundcloud   /   Spotify   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook