String Figures is a trans-global art project and collaborative work between Zoë Mc Pherson and Alessandra Leone based on the ancient and current practice of Cat's Cradle.
A transmedia work in 7 chapters bringing together sound, film, choreography, 3D and macrophotography.
String Figures is an audiovisual album, a live performance, and vinyl+digital releases SF01 & SF01RMX.
SF01 LP
released via SVS RecordsAvailable on bandcamp, boomkat, bleep
SF01RMX LP
released via SVS RecordsAvailable on bandcamp, boomkat, bleep
PRESS
CXEMA by Tanya Voytko / Boiler room by Paul Hanford “Live tonight, Zoe and Alessandra’s multidisciplinary methods are an alchemy of old practices finding new technologies. I watch as string figures loop across the vertical phone-shaped screen that are then curiously mirrored in the raised phones of captivated guests: recording, looping and relaying their own experience.” / Nowness by M. Hansen“Traditional Inuit culture meets techno-futurism in this beguiling audio-visual explosion” / Trax mag by Jean Paul Deniau Qui est zoë mc pherson, la surdouée qui transforme le son de la nature en polyphonie électronique / Directors Notes / Subbacultcha The Best of Belgium “With String Figures the interdisciplinary artist from Brussels succeeded in creating a perfect blend of richly layered textures of noise, traditional and club music. This could be a new treasure if you’re into Holly Herndon, Lucrecia Dalt and Lotic” / The Wire by Tristan Bath
“String Figures manages to remain as challenging as it is danceable, and Mc Pherson’s electroacoustic blend packs and energetic physical punch. / Mixmag by Thomas H Green “With String Figures, Zoë Mc Pherson proves she’s at contemporary music’s vanguard, it’s one of the year’s most intriguing LPs, exploring the area where tribalistic rhythms meet electronica.”/ A closer listen - 2018 top 10 by Richard Allen Mc Pherson’s album is a tale of tribal percussion and transcendent prayer, cultures and communications, languages lost and found. While listening, we’re not quite sure what country we’re in, and that’s the point. We imagine that we never built borders, never taxed travel, never passed laws to exclude our neighbors, instead inviting them over for one big sonic buffet. String Figures reminds us that we’re all connected in one big, beautiful way: a majestic quilt of color and culture. / Electronic Sound by JB “Barring a few examples, most tracks on the project veer from the four/four with polyrhythms taking centre stage, giving the album a looser, tripper feel. « Inoui (and free) », probably the best of the lot, tempers with rhythm almost at a whim, you have to hear the beat-switch around the three minute-mark to believe it. Buy on sight and without though.” / Front / XLR8 “String Figures, exploring the disappearance of cultures as they clash with Westernism and virtual spaces. Bringing in a range of equipment including hardware electronics, throat singing, live instrumentation, and a huge range of ethnographic samples, she uses the idea of "String Figures" (an early means of communication) as a metaphor for this clashing of worlds.” / Bleep “Dense layers of electronic noise, processed recordings of inuit throat singing and rhythmic persistence come together on this fantastic new LP from sound artist Zoe McPherson.” / A Closer Listen by Richard Allen “The music feels vibrant and alive: not a homogenization of influences but a collection of disparate sounds; not a melting pot, but an expression of diversity.[...] By giving the Inuit expression (not simply using them as a sound source, but as a continuing thread), she underlines their value. You are important to me, she says. I hear you.[...] She echoes the teaching of Chief Seattle, drawing nature and beast together as one. By integrating international sounds, she suggests the possibility of new tribes, new alliances. While this does not seem to be the direction in which governments are headed, it does seem to be the direction in which artists are headed, testifying to the power of art as social force. The forward-thinking direction of this music suggests the possibility of forward-thinking politics.” / Booooooom “Leone translates Mc Pherson’s sonic mediations into elaborately choreographed gestures both beautiful and haunting. As Leone describes it, the film captures the dialogue not just between fingers and hands but between bodies, the “continuous weaving” and “patterning of possible worlds and possible times.” Only here: “Zoë is narrator/instigator, conducting carefully orchestrated rituals as a way of thoroughly exploring the relational ties within the concept. The dancers speak their physical language by expanding contracting and interweaving within the string loop.” / Tiny Mixtapes by Mike Pursley /
The Tung / Musicmap Global - interview by Kier Wiater / Chain DLK - interview by Vito Camarretta / The Arts Desk vinyl of the month by Thomas H Green “For anyone who wishes to hear one of the year’s most fascinating, invigorating vanguard records, it’s a one stop shop.“ /
Freq by David Solomons “With String Figures, Mc Pherson has produced a pulsing, undulating serpent of an album. It is a wonderful piece of work, both emic and etic, and prodigiously rewarding in both. Assemble a field kit and make your way through it as soon as you can.”/ The Electronic North by Mark Buckley / Chain DLK by Stuart Bruce / Sentireascoltare by Nicolò Arpinati / Ondarock by Giuliano Delli Paoli / Nowamuzyka by Łukasz Komła / Silence and Sound by Roland Torres / Vinyl frontier RBMA / Radio Student by JAŠA BUŽINEL / Neural / Groove / Wired / Kaltblut / Meakusma magazin, etc.