James Krivchenia will release his new album, Performing Belief, on May 2 via Planet Mu. As the drummer and producer for Big Thief, James Krivchenia has helped to redefine the folk and Americana influences built into the current indie rock scene. But his solo work falls a bit more into experimental territory — just look at his 2022 album, Blood Karaoke, which found him grafting together hundreds of samples from random YouTube videos. His latest finds him collaborating with bassist Sam Wilkes (Wilkes/Gendel) and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams (Natural Information Society), creating a complex framework of percussion-centric compositions that speak to his understanding of their malleable contours.
The album’s lead single, “Probably Wizards”, is dance music for mad scientists, beats thudding and thrumming in all tempos and timbres, a collage of sounds which suggest spontaneous movement through a synthesis of sonic manipulations and rhythmic sorcery.
Listen below.
Krivchenia will play his first ever live show at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY on June 17. You can grab a ticket here if you’re in the neighborhood.
Performing Belief:
1. Undesigned
2. Judge The Seeds (with Sam Wilkes & Joshua Abrams)
3. Probably Wizards (with Sam Wilkes)
4. Sympathetic Magic (with Sam Wilkes & Joshua Abrams)
5. Bracelets For Unicorns (with Sam Wilkes & Joshua Abrams)
6. Filling In The Swamp (with Sam Wilkes & Joshua Abrams)
7. The Wounded Place (with Sam Wilkes)
8. Metaphoric Leakage (with Sam Wilkes)
Performing Belief is due out May 2 on Planet Mu. You can pre-order the album here. Follow Krivchenia on Facebook and Instagram.
