Glittering Providence-based band Arc Iris returns with a new album, Moon Saloon, as well as some spectacular new videos.
Arc Iris, a trio coming out of Providence, Rhode Island, saw success in 2014 with the release of Arc Iris, a self-titled debut. Jocie Adams (lead vocals & Low Anthem alum), Zach Tenorio Miller (keyboards), and Ray Belli (drums) create a wonderful combination of low-tempo electronic with refreshing pop-folk. “Moon Saloon,” their second album, is set to be released this month and is being produced by the very in-demand, David Wrench. Wrench is credited for mixing two highly acclaimed projects in recent years: In Colour by Jamie xx and FKA Twigs’ LP1 – if this release is anything like those two, we can expect an imaginative play with-the-edges of pop sound while exploring the parallels of folk’s influence.
Ahead of the release of their second record, Arc Iris have teased us with two stunning videos for both the title track, Moon Saloon, and the first song on the album, Kaleidoscope. Videographers Julia Liu and Keith Heyward, for the Moon Saloon video, used a technique called “stereographic projection” to create tiny worlds.
This melodic solitary story was captured using 6 cameras and “took about 48 hours to render as a single video,” Jocie Adams told NPR Music. The surreal and sparse scene captured in this video is made even more fantastical by the casting of Jocie as a titan figure roaming in and out of the comprehensible understanding of depth.
While Moon Saloon has a rotational symmetry, Kaleidoscope takes a new direction both sonically and reflectively. Arc Iris puts on a dynamic and interactive live performance, which this video alludes to. We asked Arc Iris how being in New England has influenced the work and Jocie replied, “Growing up in New England has had a huge influence on me as a performer. When I was young, I was blessed by the focus that my school put on arts and music. I was then able to take advantage of the youth orchestras and bands in the Boston area as I grew up. My teachers were all involved in many of the Boston area orchestras and arts scenes. Living in Providence now, I feel very lucky to be surrounded by visual arts. This too has had a major influence on our band. I think of music, literature, theater, dance and visual art all as being one unit, in many ways. Check out Big Nazo, for example. Those guys have pulled from so many corners of the art world that it would be hard to keep up with them, if not for the joy that they bring with their performances. Our Universities are beautiful influences on our communities and we happen to be living in a part of the world that is riddled with quirky universities churning out wonderfully optimistic and excited people.”
