Beacon Sound has announced the debut album from violinist Leslee Smucker, their first release of 2024. Breathing Landscape was recorded in one day inside an abandoned water tank in rural Colorado, absorbing strange harmonics and “explorations of landscapes both exterior and interior.” Breathing Landscape will be released in the digital and vinyl formats on January 26th, 2024.

Smucker, who is a veteran of festivals such as Rewired and Niewe Noten, describes the tank as a “sauna of sound”, writing that she “was transported by the reverberation to another realm. Birds and trucks passed outside, while the wind was an integral part to the sound making.”

bleed (part 9) from Leslee Smucker on Vimeo.

Violinist Leslee Smucker incorporates voice, synthesizers, electronics, film, and poetry into her artistic works. Her modes range from electroacoustic and live acoustic pieces, to compositions for herself and others, and concerts featuring various musical, filmic, poetic, and artistic elements.

Smucker has received commissions from organizations such as Gaudeamus Muziekweek and Rewire Festival. Her electroacoustic works have been performed at Autumn Festival in Brussels, Institute of Sonology, and Wavefield Synthesis Festival in Den Haag.

Currently, Smucker is engaged in an artistic research project titled “buzzing strings/resonant beauty” at Studio LOOS. This ongoing endeavor “challenges conventional notions of beauty by creating prepared violins and composing works specifically for prepared instruments.”