Lotus - Bloom & Recede (2022)

"The origins of this album go back to a special set of music we performed at our Summerdance festival in the summer of 2019. We brought out a large stack of modular synths, mixers and effects to play a set that leaned heavily into techno, house and electronica - almost a hybrid live DJ set without turntables. A few ideas from that set became the origins of "Pluck" and "Tar Pits" and created a template for us to dive further into synth-focused music and for me to build a modular system to use live with Lotus. In many ways the musical influences here go back to some of our earliest electronic music experiences - Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Underworld. In the 90s those artists used a lot of hardware synths and analog gear. To my ear, it is a timeless sound that savors the imperfections of the instruments." - Jesse Miller

"In college I heard Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” for the first time and it blew my mind. The piece is an hour-long composition played on violin, cello, piano, marimbas, clarinets, and wordless voice. But when I first heard these familiar instruments it sounded more like electronic music than orchestral. This is because there aren’t sweeping string runs, but rather tight repeated patterns that slowly add notes. The result is a psychedelic tapestry of sound that can feel simultaneously grounding and unendingly expansive. It’s always been an aspiration to pair that experience of Minimalist composition with dance music and improv-based jam music. For this album we tried to bring those three elements together." - Luke Miller