Alto Arc are announcing their debut performance that is happening on April 8, 2023 in The Hague, Netherlands as part of Rewire Festival. 

Tickets available at https://www.rewirefestival.nl/tickets 

Photo by Elizaveta Porodina

In the video for Alto Arc’s “Bordello”—the second single from the band’s self-titled debut EP, released last week—Isamaya Ffrench appears in a courtesan’s lair, draped in diaphanous silks and surrounded by candelabras like Mata Hari by way of David Lynch. Her co-star, George Clarke, sits to have his tarot read by Ffrench as she sings a ditty over a guitar’s folksy jig, before a glitchy beat erupts and Clarke launches into a demonic growl, his heart bleeding through the white linen of his ruffled shirt and a snake wrapping its way around his throat. It’s every bit as weird and wonderful a visual trip as you might expect from the celebrated makeup artist and creative director Ffrench, and Clarke too, who is best known for his work with the shoegaze-meets-black metal band Deafheaven. 

Despite the sumptuously cinematic feel of the visuals that accompany their music, speaking to Ffrench in London and Clarke in New York over Zoom, they explain that Alto Arc came together as something of a pandemic project, almost entirely over the Internet. Indeed, Ffrench, Clarke, and their two other collaborators on the project—experimental pop producer Danny L Harle, perhaps best known for his associations with the PC Music collective and producing for the likes of Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX, and Trayer Tryon of the offbeat electronic pop band Hundred Waters—have never even been in the same room together.

Full interview via vogue.com

Like opening up an old fairytale book, listening to Alto Arc’s eponymous debut album feels like embarking on an epic journey. The four-piece ensemble, composed of Deafheaven’s George Clarke, Danny L Harle, Hundred Waters’ Trayer Tryon, and the makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, is an unlikely supergroup. But their music is a theatrical and heady listen that borrows on ye olde melodies and theatrical production to conjure heady dreamscapes where beauty and despair clash in constant battle. 

Featuring Clarke and Ffrench on vocals, the five-track EP mostly takes the form of duets, where Ffrench sings with a glassy cadence that flutters between soft melodies and hushed whispers – and Clarke’s death growl cuts through the ambience like a battle axe. As for the production, melodies twist and turn, and the lines blur between what is voice and instrument. There are moments where Ffrench’s voice is pitched-up to cyborgian proportions, acting as a piercing remedy to Clarke’s unearthly vocals. This is sometimes traded in for ethereal dreamscapes, like in the opener “The Model Gospel”, where Ffrench’s voice, light and airy, floats around Clarke’s harsh lament that he is “the sea of longing”. On single “Nocebo”, first debuted on Euphoria last year, Clarke sinks into a low spoken word punctuated with pixelated shrieks, as he asserts, “There is sadness in your sincerity” against the crunch of static.

Full interview via dazeddigital.com

The seismic shifts of the last 23 months have inspired countless weird and wonderful collaborations, but few feel as bold or strikingly provocative as Alto Arc. 

Bringing together Deafheaven vocalist George Clarke, Trayer Tryon of Florida art-rockers Hundred Waters, progressive producer Danny L Harle and revolutionary beauty guru Isamaya Ffrench, the project deals in almost-indefinable soundscapes that combine the eerie electronic atmosphere of latter-day Nine Inch Nails, haunting folk inflections and demonic doom influence. Playing George’s confrontational declarations against Isamaya’s more pixieish intonation, there’s a pervasive sense of high drama and abstract narrative drive across the five songs of their self-titled debut EP, which unfolds like the soundtrack to some dark fairytale. 

As anyone who’s seen the Elizaveta Porodina-directed video for Bordello will know – with that cine-literate clip echoing the gothic grandeur of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula and the surrealist horror of Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin – their ambitions extend to creating bold visual art, too. This isn’t just about making music. It’s about building worlds. 

All of which is even more impressive considering the band have yet to fully come together in the flesh. Joining us over Zoom on the eve of the EP’s arrival, George is looking out his window into the cold light of a New York winter’s day as Isamaya navigates the streetlit bank of a canal in east London. The pair aren’t sure when exactly they’ll be together in the same room again, but that distance and dislocation only seems to add to the aura of this music that feels like it’s been lifted from another world. 

“It’s just how we roll!” laughs Isamaya. “’Let’s just never be in the same room!’ It seems to be working, so we probably shouldn’t mess with it.”

Read the full interview on kerrang.com

ALTO ARC, the band consisting of world renowned make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench, Deafheaven’s George Clarke, experimental producer Danny L Harle and Trayer Tryon of Hundred Waters, has released their debut self-titled EP via Sargent House. The EP also features additional production by Zach Hill on “Yevas Lullaby”.  Coming together via connected interests and respect for one another’s work Alto Arc brings together experimental, pop, electronic, and doom juxtaposed with a visually stunning creative direction to form a body of work that is intriguing, immersive, and new. The group’s first single “Nocebo” premiered on the Season 2 trailer for HBO’s Euphoria while their second single garnered coverage and intrigue from the likes of Pitchfork, Fader, Stereogum, i-D Magazine, Revolver and so much more.

At some point during the pandemic, beauty guru Isamaya Ffrench and Deafheaven frontman George Clarke started a band with progressive producer Danny L Harle and Trayer Tryon from the Florida band Hundred Waters. Four disparate artists at the height of their creativity, the formation of ALTO ARC was unexpected. The funny thing is, you’ve probably already heard their debut single “Nocebo” without realising it, cosying up to Rosalía and Billie Eilish’s "Lo Vas A Olvidar" in the trailer for Hunter Schafer’s special episode of Euphoria in early 2021. Incredibly cinematic, the track – on which Isamaya’s elven vocals dance with George’s proclamations and screams over a stuttering, confrontational production – would be just as at home in a mystical video game score as it is here, kicking in just as the neon-tinged world Rue and Jules inhabit starts unravelling.

Read the full interview via i-d.vice.com

ALTO ARC, a band formed in 2020 originally consisting of Danny L Harle and Trayer Tryon of Hundred Waters before expanding to include George Clarke of Deafheaven and world renowned make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench, have announced their debut, self-titled EP for February 11th via Sargent House.  Coming together via connected interests and respect for one another’s work Alto Arc brings together experimental, pop, electronic, and doom juxtaposed with a visually stunning creative direction to form a body of work that is intriguing, immersive and new. 

Today, watch the video for the first and only single from the project “Bordello”. Directed by Elizaveta Porodina and assembled by a who's who of fashion and production creatives (full video credits below), the video stars  Ffrench as a sinister tarot card reader as Clarke learns his fate. The Director noted "I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this video. Telling this story felt like opening an old book and uncovering a sinister fairy tale. An eerie vibrating presence fell over the rooms we built up, and it felt like oscillating from one dark world to another. It's a privilege to witness such rare and magical moments." Clarke adds "Working with Elizaveta to see her vision through was wonderful and I couldn't be happier with how beautifully this song was interpreted and captured."

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