We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Setting Fire to These Dark Times

by Chaz Knapp & Mariel Roberts

/
  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Pressed in the USA

    Includes unlimited streaming of Setting Fire to These Dark Times via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $12 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Manufactured in the USA

    Includes unlimited streaming of Setting Fire to These Dark Times via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $7 USD  or more

     

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

about

“An experimental record with an intimately humane sense of humour.”
Son of Marketing

“[Has] a thorough grounding in classical tradition but a ravenous appetite for and tireless discipline in new work.”
Bandcamp

“A devastating album. The way Roberts manipulates the cello is beyond captivating.”
The Quietus

Two of experimental music’s brightest talents - Arkansas-based organist Chaz Knapp and NYC cellist Mariel Roberts - combine for Setting Fire to These Dark Times, a new album of devastating, crushing beauty that marries dread-filled intensity with breathtaking bliss.

Having both released music on Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records (named after and based in Ismaily’s iconic recording studio in Brooklyn), Chaz Knapp and Mariel Roberts collaborate for the first time on Setting Fire to These Dark Times. The record unites Knapp’s now-trademark processed Yamaha YC45D organ loops, drones, and sonic voyages with the profound, powerful cello performances of Mariel Roberts and her years of experience in the classical, avant garde and experimental music worlds.

“I became aware of Mariel through her album Armament [figureight records, 2021],” Chaz writes. “I was completely blown away and mesmerized. It was so heavy and beautiful. Her playing and interpretations are next level.” Both musicians of phenomenal ability, Roberts and Knapp’s respective skills neatly dovetail into an innately moving experience, brooding with ferocious intensity one minute and soaring with angelic majesty the next.

This collaboration fits harmoniously with figureight’s creative vision. The organisation unifies musicians, artists and likeminded performers into a mutually empowering community, centred around Ismaily’s studio in New York. In keeping with this outlook, figureight records artist and recording studio engineer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Six Organs of Admittance, Marissa Nadler, Wolves in the Throne Room, Boris etc. etc.) mixed the album.

credits

released April 21, 2023

Chaz Knapp - Organ, Vocals, Tape Loops
Mariel Roberts - Cello

Recorded by Chaz Knapp and Mariel Roberts
Mixed by Randall Dunn
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Artwork by Kim Awa

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

figureight New York, New York

A record label & artist collective founded by Shahzad Ismaily.

A home for interior, shy, and hidden works, celebrating musicians rare, weird, and unique.

Our artists may be set apart by musical and geographical distances, but they're bound together in creative and expressive spirit.
... more

contact / help

Contact figureight

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Setting Fire to These Dark Times, you may also like: