5/30/2024

SUMAC Share Documentary Video; New 2xLP 'The Healer' out June 21

SUMAC Share Documentary Video by Damien Neva: Six Hours 42 Minutes with SUMAC (watch)

The band's restorative and cathartic 2xLP The Healer is out June 21 on Thrill Jockey. // Revisit first single “Yellow Dawn” now.

See SUMAC on tour in North America this summer with more dates to be announced worldwide.

SUMAC by Paulo Gonzales. | Hi-res here.

Ahead of the release of SUMAC's expansive new album The Healer and upcoming North American tour dates, Roadburn Festival have premiered a new documentary directed by Damien Neva titled Six Hours 42 Minutes with SUMAC. Filmed at the trio's recent show in Boston, Neva's 15min documentary is an intimate look at one of world's most respected experimental bands. The film not only captures the full cathartic force of the band's live performance, but also the liminal moments that make up touring life: sound checks and SUMAC's careful calibration of their sound to the dimensions of the performance space, conversations with the artists, even grabbing food or prepping to go on stage. It is an unpretentious, honest and highly illuminating portrait of some of improvised/avant/heavy music's most forward thinkers.

On The Healer, the new full length from Northwest-based trio SUMAC consisting of guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner, bassist Brian Cook, and drummer Nick Yacyshyn, the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of 4 tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC presents a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth. 

This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record - narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group's interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors our ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which we may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of The Healer may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence.

Pre-order The Healer here and look for more from SUMAC soon.

SUMAC, on tour:
June 21 Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club (Vancouver International Jazz Fest) ^
June 22 Seattle, WA @ Clock-Out Lounge #
June 23 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios #
June 25 Chico, CA @ Naked Lounge Coffee #
June 26 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill #
June 27 Oxnard, CA @ Mrs. Olson's #
June 28 Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon #
June 29 Los Angeles, CA @ 2220 Arts + Archives
June 30 Las Vegas, NV @ Backstage Bar & Billiards
July 1 Reno, NV @ Holland Project

^ w/ Moor Mother
* w/ White Boy Scream
# w/ White Boy Scream, Grave Infestation
% w/ White Boy Scream, Rile
~ w/ Zachary Watkins, Sulphuric Cautery

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DR. JOHN COOPER CLARKE @ The Teragram Ballroom // 9.28.24 // THE PORTABLE INFINITE

All photos taken by Martin Worster