Raquel Gonzalez
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Chicago musician & composer Raquel Gonzalez has spent the last five years as a studio and live musician for various bands throughout the Midwest, often involved in the composing and arranging process. Their composition series, Sonic Creations with a Lyra-8 highlights a synthesized violin sound and duets between the instrument and a Lyra-8 synthesizer.
\\nAbout the album & its process, Gonzalez says, \\u201cSonic Creations for Violin and Lyra yielded experimentation with my electric violin and a Soma Lyra-8 both separately and together. Side A is mostly standalone Lyra. Straight up, a fair amount of it is harsh noise.
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\\nI enjoyed tuning the Lyra, which was an excruciating process, to create resonance and dissonance intentionally. Side B challenged my ability to compose for violin and my ability to improvise. I would plug my electric violin into the Lyra and mess with the LFO or use other pedals. I love exploring how I can make my instrument beautiful in unconventional ways, and this album is exactly that.\\u201c
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\\nThis is Gonzalez\\u2019s debut release, where near-industrial soundscapes bump shoulders with radiophonic ambience. \\u201cSonic Creations For Violin And Lyra\\u201d is a stunning intro to a beguiling new voice who transcends the \\u201cwoodshedding\\u201d nature of the tracks & elevates them toward a conscious whole.