New York-based visual and sound artist Austin Sley-Julian has spent the better part of the last decade pursuing intermedia work as Sunk Heaven while playing in Sediment Club and Signal Break. American Dreams Records (ONO, Claire Rousay, Brett Naucke) are slated to release the latest Sunk Heaven album August 6 and Ears to Feed has a sneak peek.
“A Nameless Influence” is the second single and video pair from the upcoming THE FVCKHEAѪTED LVNG. The track contains a harsh, scrolling backing track as Sley-Julian recounts the violent, patterned malice of mass political manipulation.
Sley-Julian’s reverberating vocals carve through the murky void: “Have you ever seen such a tragic red/as time stains on the same mistakes?” The track is dense and sifts through a viscous mix of panning static and noise like sand in the hourglass.
Ani Ivry-Block’s chroma green tinkerings offer incredible maximalist results for the “A Nameless Influence” video. It is synesthetic, striking and brilliantly reflects Sley-Julian’s lyrics. A row of outstretched, chained hands moves endlessly toward the horizon flanked by iterations of the singer as it stretches into the distance. The visual is urgent and unsettling, a loud cry in a quiet room.
Sley-Julian’s multidisciplinary practice informs his musical ethos. Sunk Heaven incorporates prepared guitar, handmade instruments, artifacts and debris to grasp and challenge audiences with grating textures and arrangements.
THE FVCKHEAѪTED LVNG seeks to excavate listeners from their own layers of self-protection. “A Nameless Influence” is a hand thrust through the ice sheet, a crowbar to the cryogenic chamber.