Wooden Shoe by Silica Gel

Silica Gel adapt medieval texts into lush noise ballads & compose original art songs for two voices, custom electronics, percussion & various strings. Their sound is a unique synthesis of Early music with improvisation and folk elements that create a spacious & highly textured soundworld. Their debut album from 2020 adapts a series of art songs from the 12th-14th centuries including the political satire Roman de Fauvel. Coming out of the Birmingham, Alabama experimental music scene, they have toured nationally.

Wooden Shoe is a playful concoction that warps folk song elements into kaleidoscopic new forms. The album spins like a cart wheel, traversing a richly varied sonic terrain, moving both forwards and backwards in time. The sounds are ancient yet futuristic….wurlitzer organ, mandolin and autoharp combine with bent circuits and digital artifacts in a song cycle that progresses like a hauntological play. On this their second album, Silica Gel deepen their exploration of art song by using elements of clapping games, round songs, hockets, vaudeville and folk balladry to fill out a thoroughly hand crafted songbook. The enchanting voices of Laura and Lauren weave harmonies around the listener like the dreamy revolution of a glowing carousel. The song Coming Age sums up this effect perfectly with a circular melody that could go on forever as if bound for the stars…a hymn embodying the infinite dream of a better future.

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