SOUND OF CERES - Interview

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Tell us a little about the name, 'Sound of Ceres'...

SOUND OF CERES

The name “Sound of Ceres” references our previous band’s 3rd record titled “Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time”. K of Sound of Ceres played the character of Ceres on that record, and as K is the singer of this new project, it felt fitting to reference their former conceptual self.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

@ ETHEREAL, we enjoy your most recent release, 'Emerald Sea' (2022). What brought about the concept of this cosmic adventure?

SOUND OF CERES

We knew we wanted to create a mythological world for both ourselves and our audience to play in while listening. There were two voices to be heard on this new record, and we played with this idea of those characters journeying through time and space together as Venus and The Universe. Marina Abramović, who voices The Universe, brings her own powerful delivery to the role and in juxtaposition to K’s more wispy vocals, they are able to create together two vastly different deities. Sasha Geffen, who wrote the bio for our new album, was able to take Ryan’s early framework of this concept, and put it into beautiful, poetic form.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Can you tell us about the visuals for 'The Fawn' and some of your favorite visual elements...

SOUND OF CERES

Together, with the direction of our bandmate Jacob, we hand built most of the props and set pieces. Building the clouds was really fun. We wanted to see how big we could make them while still being able to fit them in our car. We also hand built the cave that K walks through. The set felt so magical, we wanted to keep it there forever to preserve and play in. Alas, everything (mostly) must be destroyed!

ETHEREAL.PRESS

What does the Universe mean to you?

SOUND OF CERES

The universe, to us, is a vast experience that holds endless possibilities, opportunities and ideas. Being made of the same basic stuff as stars, we are singular points of awareness in this vastness, “the universe experiencing itself,” as Alan Watts says. And probably, by the sheer statistics of the age and size of this place, there are other points of awareness orbiting other stars.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

How does one find the Universe?

SOUND OF CERES

One finds the universe both by looking inwardly, as we are a fraction of the vastness of that universe, and outwardly, as we can see the imprint we have had on this world and view through our conscious mind, our ability to be aware of that imprint.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Being an 'audiovisual' project, how do you believe the two (audio + video) mediums complement each other? How does this heighten the experience of what Sound of Ceres does creatively?

SOUND OF CERES

Emerald Sea is our best example of our audio and visual forms coinciding.

When people listen to the record, they are able to create a world in their own mind and a story of what they hear. When they come to our live show, they can then see our visual format of the Emerald Sea world. The record was written in three acts, because the live show is three acts long, and visa-versa. With this album in particular, the live show and the recorded album are two halves of the same shape.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Talk to us about the cycle…

SOUND OF CERES

Between each record is different. Sometimes we find ourselves picking up the writing and recording process quickly after releasing an album, but other times it takes a while before another creative spark is lit. We make our art from inspiration. It usually starts with Ryan experimenting around on Pure Data and finding a new patch that begins a cycle of creative overflow.

Once Ryan has his head start, the other three of us add in our own creations, melodies, ideas to that framework. We all live in different locations, so often we are collaborating over email with our dropboxes overflowing. During the writing and recording process, we also begin meeting together to start developing the live show. We’re actually still in the finishing phase of building the Emerald Sea live show, even though the record has already been released.

It takes months, and sometimes years for us to collectively program, build (sets and costumes), and rehearse for a brand new show.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

What's next for Sound of Ceres?

SOUND OF CERES

Now that we've released the audio component to Emerald Sea, we’re focused on finishing the live show and unveiling it to the public this fall so that we can all experience the visual world of Emerald Sea together.

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ARTIST LINKS: WEBSITE - INSTAGRAM - YOUTUBE

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