Alto Arc: the unlikely supergroup merging avant-garde with fantasy

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