Blevin Blectum (born Bevin Kelley) is an American electronic musician and multimedia composer. She is celebrated as an "icon of deviant and cerebral electronic music".[1]
Blevin Blectum | |
|---|---|
 Blevin Blectum at the Mills College concert in 1999. | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bevin Kelley |
| Also known as | D84, Synopterus |
| Born | 1971 (age 52–53) |
| Genres | Electronic |
| Years active | 1998 – present |
| Website | http://www.blevinblectum.com/ |
Early life and education
editShe was born Bevin Kelley in 1971.[2][3] Her younger brother is musician Kelley Polar[4] and her cousin is musician Rayna Russom. Blectum studied the violin during her youth.
At Oberlin College she began making electronic music at the WOBC-FM studios. At Mills College, she partnered with Kevin Blechdom to form Blectum from Blechdom, an electronica and performance art duo.[5] In 2001, Blectum from Blechdom won an Award of Distinction for digital music at the Prix Ars Electronica.[6]
In May 2014, she graduated with a PhD in Computer Music and Multimedia from Brown University's Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments (MEME) department. Her dissertation committee included writer Brian Evenson and playwright Erik Ehn.[7] While at Brown University she created sound and music for several of playwright Theo Goodell's works.
Career
editBlectum has released many solo albums, and released a CD/DVD Unseen Forces on Matmos's Vague Terrain label as part of multimedia band Sagan with J Lesser, video producer Ryan Junell, and Wobbly.[8] In 1998 she worked at Orban testing radio processing units, in 1999 worked at Thomas Dolby's Headspace and Beatnik Inc. as a beta-tester, and in 2000 to 2004 worked as a sound designer at LeapFrog Enterprises and several smaller sound design companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
She has commonly worked with the software Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Max/MSP/Jitter, Apogee Duet.[2]
An avid bird enthusiast, Blectum quit music for several years and worked as a registered veterinary technician at the Medical Center for Birds in Northern California,[9] before moving to Providence, Rhode Island in 2007.[3]
In 2013, she co-founded theatrical-electro-acoustic-chamber-ensemble The Traveling Bubble Ensemble with Michael Kelley, Elise Kuder, and Marjorie Gere.
In 2011 she was artist-in-residence at WORM, a Rotterdam-based institute for avant-garde music and art.
Her fifth solo LP/CD, Emblem Album, was released on Aagoo records on December 5, 2013.
In November 2017 she released All Day I Dream About Singularity (vinyl and download) under the name Synopterus, on Darling Dada (Paris).
Late 2020 saw the release of a remix track + video, for composer Kirsten Volness's album 'River Rising'. Music by Blevin Blectum, video by Alex P Dupuis.
In 2021 she resides in Seattle, working by day as Senior UX Sound Designer for Echo Alexa Devices, and continues to perform and release music. A new solo record as well as Blectum from Blechdom ('Deep Bone') and Sagan ('Anti-Ark' on the Hausu label) albums will be released later this year.
Discography
edit| Year | Title | Artist(s) | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Pirate Planets | as D84 (Blevin Blectum) | Phthalo Records, Los Angeles, California | |
| 2002 | Talon Slalom | Blevin Blectum | Deluxe Records, Berkeley, California | [10] The artwork and video by Ryan Junell. |
| 2004 | Magic Maple | Blevin Blectum | Praemedia, San Francisco, California | |
| 2008 | Gular Flutter | Blevin Blectum | Aagoo, Brooklyn, New York | The artwork by China Miéville, video by Ryan Junell. |
| 2013 | Emblem Album | Blevin Blectum | Aagoo, Brooklyn, New York | |
| 2014 | Irradiance | Blevin Blectum | Estuary Ltd., Providence, Rhode Island | |
| 2017 | All Day I Dream About Singularity | as Synopterus (Blevin Blectum) | Darling Dada, Paris | http://www.darlingdada.com/en/album/all-day-i-dream-about-singularity |
| 2020 | Nocturne (Psaltriparus minimus Mix) | Music, Blevin Blectum, Video, Alex Dupuis | Remix for Kirsten Volness' album 'River Rising' | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu55wI7cH2w |
References
edit- ^ Liability, Fabien. "Chronicle: Blevin Blectum: Emblem Album". Liability. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
- ^ a b "herstory of electronic music". NerdGirls. 2014. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
- ^ a b Rodgers, Tara (2010). Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound. Duke University Press. pp. 235–242. ISBN 9780822394150 – via Google Books.
- ^ Sherburne, Philip (2005-11-22). "Record Review: Kelley Polar Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
- ^ Suarez, Jessica (22 January 2006). "Pitchfork Interviews: Kevin Blechdom". Pitchfork. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
- ^ "Blevin Blectum: Gular Flutter". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
- ^ Kelley, Bevin L. (2014). Terms of Addition: Compositions and Strategies for Electro-Acoustic Chamber Ensemble (Thesis). Brown University. doi:10.7301/Z0610XQV.
- ^ Golden, Barbara. "Conversations at the Crack o Dawn". Canadian Electroacoustic Community. KPFA 94.1 FM. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
- ^ Segal, Dave. "Having Birds Is "Like Living with Perpetually 4-Year-Old Dinosaurs"". The Stranger. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
- ^ "Blevin Blectum". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
External links
edit- Official website
- Golden, Barbara. “Conversation with Blevin Blectum.” eContact! 12.2 — Interviews (2)[permanent dead link] (April 2010). Montréal: CEC.