Today, the composer and performer Molly Joyce — who’s won acclaim for her uncompromising work that navigates the perceived limits of disability — reveals the new album State Change. Produced with GRAMMY-winner William Brittelle (Justin Vernon, Oneohtrix Point Never, Wye Oak),  via  Better Company Records in North America and FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint around the world, State Change is a deeply personal and visceral meditation on acquired disability and adaptive creativity. She’ll play an album release show in Brooklyn this October, details below. Listen to the stirring State Change here.

Blending influences ranging from the 20th century modernist, minimalist lineage of Philip Glass or Steve Reich, to the spectral drones of Andy Stott, Missy Mazzoli, and Nico Muhly, State Change draws unflinchingly from the medical record of a life-changing car accident/childhood trauma for seven electro-acoustic tone poems — stark and oppressive in its medical aesthetic, yet ultimately cathartic and healing. Joyce crafted the album with GRAMMY-winning producer William Brittelle (Justin Vernon, Duran Duran, Dirty Projectors, Oneohtrix Point Never, Wye Oak).

Of the making of the album, Molly Joyce says, “Some of the album’s tracks were written alongside coursework for my doctorate at the University of Virginia. From what I remember, one of my teachers mentioned the idea of a “state change” with an assignment we were working on, and that stuck with me as the title of the album. The phrase represents the supposed state change one goes through with acquiring a disability and often the accompanying medical procedures. Furthermore, I felt that the title encompasses the musical aesthetic of the album, balancing the more asture electronic elements with minimal yet emotional vocal material.”

“August 6, 1999,” the album opener, surveys with clinical coldness the damage from her initial accident by using real written medical records as her lyrics.  “No function / No flexor / No extensor” and “In the wound / Paint and glass / Flesh and bone” is recited over glinting sine tones that evoke the sterile chill of a surgical theater. Joyce’s voice cuts through: “I lay down / Wound the left / Skin the flap of what remains.” Listen to Second single, the foreboding and minimal “August 13 + 16, 1999,” features vocals from the experimental multi-instrumental and visual artist Fire-Toolz. Atop a narcotized techno pulse, Joyce laces medical terminology with fraying industrial noise that comes to a head when Fire-Toolz screams break through the mix.

Throughout the record, Joyce utilizes the MUGIC (Music/User Gesture Interface Control) device, which lets her shape clusters of sound without triggering stray pitches — something a traditional keyboard wouldn’t allow. Across the record, Joyce uses tools like motion capture systems, the touch-sensored KAiKU Music Glove, and Bela Trill touch sensors. With them, she renders rotation, pressure, and gesturing into live, generative sound. It’s in itself a path-paving use of technology in music and composition, but also a powerful commentary on disability.
Outside of her standalone work, Molly Joyce recently scored the original soundtrack for Patrice: The Movie, a documentary rom-com directed by Ted Passon, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. She’s adept and translating her music to the performance space, as seen last year in her collaboration with Jerron Herman, which focused on embodying disability and in essence extricating one’s self from its perceived constraints. Read more about it here.