Grand Rapids electronic music duo Pink Sky previewed its Lamp Light Music Festival performance this weekend for Local Spins on WYCE, which also showcased songs from Rachel Zylstra, Bigfoot Buffalo, Great Black Night and FLUSHED.
Contemplative Electronic Music: Pink Sky performing during Local Spins on WYCE.
Keyboard player Ryan Hay has long admired electronic music but had difficulty getting past the notion of using computers to create those songs.
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With a background in improvisational rock and jam bands, Hay eventually discovered electronic artists who make their music with hardware (keyboards and synthesizers, from a vintage Fender Rhodes piano to a Moog synth) and “it opened up possibilities for me,” though he says it took him eight months to test out gear and get “all these machines to communicate.”
Meshing that with drum machines played and programmed by Angelica Hay, Grand Rapids’ Pink Sky unfurls truly captivating and “contemplative” electronic music that’s further bolstered by the duo’s visual artwork at shows. The group’s performances feature paintings and video projections that complement the electronic music, something concertgoers will soak in when Pink Sky plays the Lamp Light Music Festival this weekend.
“We hope that aesthetically it fits together to enhance the experience,” Ryan Hay says.
Angelica Hay notes that a video synthesizer is plugged into their gear so the video projections are responsive to the music, creating “this one organic beast.”
In a preview to its festival appearance, Pink Sky stopped by WYCE-FM to perform a couple of songs — “Black Lake”and “Going” — for this week’s edition of Local Spins on WYCE. Listen to the full podcast below.
Pink Sky is in the midst of completing the recording of its first 10-track LP, with hopes of releasing it in 2018. The duo hopes to find label representation and “book a bunch of shows in the early spring and beyond.” (In addition to playing Murphy House at 10:45 p.m. Friday for Lamp Light, the duo also will be performing with Philadelphia artist Rosali at Grand Rapids’ Mexicains Sans Frontieres at 120 S. Division Ave. on Nov. 11).
The 164th episode of Local Spins on WYCE also featured new music from The Zannies, Joshua Davis, M. Teal (this week’s musicians’ pick), The Lasso, LittlGoodBad, Rachel Zylstra, Great Black Night, Bigfoot Buffalo and FLUSHED. Listen to the podcast here.
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (Nov. 3, 2017)
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