- Early music, leftfield techno, dub and beyond.
- Welsh artist Kelly Lee Owens has a special grasp on techno. She can make it sound wild and naturalistic, like wind blowing through a dense forest, or make it feel cold and sleek, like a gleaming slab of chrome. Either way, it's always full of emotion, thanks to the intricate textures and distinctive tones of her voice. You might even say she takes a singer-songwriter approach to techno, but that doesn't mean her music isn't suited for the dance floor.
Her most recent album, LP.8, marks a step away from the dance floor, however, and into a place a little more dark and unpredictable. It's also some of her most gorgeous work, centering around "Anadlu," an eight-minute cut that feels perfectly pitched between ambient and techno, with heavy, lumbering drums but an otherwise lightweight, almost wispy feel.
Owens' RA Podcast occupies this zone almost perfectly. Beginning with 11th-century music from Hildegard von Bingen, it ties all sorts of traditions together, from Pan Sonic to Throbbing Gristle to Marco Shuttle to Oneohtrix Point Never & Rosalía. It floats, it accelerates, it loops and doubles back in on itself. An hour of gripping electronics from one of techno's most distinctive voices.
What are you grateful for these days?
People who are patient with my growth and journey. People who expand my perspective and horizons. And literally the fact that I can make music, have it connect to people and that we can be together again, communing in sound.
How and where was the mix recorded, and can you tell us the idea behind the mix?
It was recorded in Australia actually, near the ocean, in the middle of what was supposed to be summer there, but actually was very very wet and stormy—like, more rain than I’d ever seen in my life—so it felt strange, being somewhere tropical, yet actually reminiscent of rainy Wales.
This mix is very different than anything I've ever done before. In that way, it reflects LP.8—soundscapey and dreamlike with some confronting moments thrown in, but always in some kind of flow. I wanted to take the listener on a visceral journey, which is currently how life feels: very beautiful and simultaneous very hard in moments.
What drove the slightly more abstract and ambient direction of your most recent album?
Space and time. Opportunity to create something with zero expectation or pressure. I felt like the pandemic opened up a portal for me to step in to the future and skip making actual third album that people would expect from me and be able to create something that might have been my eighth, so another part of myself came through in this process. Something related to the collective consciousness and unconscious. And what you hear is layers of that. No MIDI, barely anything digital at all actually. Free-form. In a deep state of openness.
You worked with Lasse Marhaug on this last record—what does he bring to the table for you?
He brought even more focused intention in to work. We would chat for hours each morning over coffee about our ideas and intentions. This record more than any other had to mean something, come from a depth that I hadn’t explored before, and also connect all past linages of mine with the present in order to create something hopeful for the future. It had to represent both dark and light, conscious, subconscious, hard reality and positive escapism. Lasse allowed me to fully flow in my creativity, uninterrupted by too much technology. Just press record. He simplified everything and encouraged me to work with my true improvisational spirit.
What's one social or political cause you want the world to pay more attention to?
There are so many, but currently it's the general removal of women's rights and the ability for them to make informed decisions about their own body and therefore their entire life. We will not be silenced or accepting of this erosion.
What are you looking forward to in the near future?
Discovering what my next album will sound like. It's always a surprise to me, and I'm constantly bouncing from one energy to the next. The fact that LP. 8 was more abstract, dark and ethereal, likely means the next thing will perhaps be more centred in the pop / dance world, more shiny and direct in its sounds and nature. Who knows!? I don't and that's what excites me.
TracklistHildegard Von Bingen - O Vis Aeternitatis
Bernhard Gunter - Untitled 1996
Throbbing Gristle - Heathen Earth (The Live Sound Of Throbbing Gristle)
Steve Roach - Atmosphere For Dreaming
Pan Sonic - Gravitoni
Nosaj Thing - Distance
Oneohtrix Point Never & Rosalía - Nothing’s Special
Rehberg & Bauer - An.Mon
Jim O’Rourke - House Of Kaya
Rhythm & Sound - King Version
Russell Haswell - Micromedly
Aleksi Perala - Cycles 6 -
Merzbow - Eat Beat Eat
Mika Vainio, Ryoji Ikeda & Alva Noto- Movement 2 (Live)
Ralph Lundsten - In The Land Long Ago
Yek 128 ??
Gherkin Jerks - Midi Beats
Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer - Retikhly
Tombak Healer
Marco Shuttle - La Sagrada
Peder Mannerfelt - Black Alert
Taahliah - Transdimensional
Vinicuis Honorio - Pandora’s Box
Elephants Memory Remix
Bosaina - Alalone On The Grass