Jakub Alexanderâs most recent album under his Heathered Pearls alias, last Novemberâs
Cast, is a collaborative affair with an unusual twist. Feeling that something was missing from his instrumental tracks, the Brooklyn electronic musician invited friends and peers to contribute spoken-word recordings to be woven into his own productions. Embedded deeply into the mix, these muttered ruminations lend human warmth even when the words remain indistinct. âSalvaged Copperâ is one of the albumâs deepest, most enveloping tracks, and also one of its subtlest. Over beatless waves of reverberant synths, Detroitâs Terrence Dixon speaks just once, briefly: âEvery time I step outside, people face change; no smiles.â
December 10, 2020
Since his 2012 debut as Heathered Pearls, Jakub Alexander has constructed art music, objects, installations, performances as a way of re-imagining fragments of his past and mapping ideas for his future. The Polish-born, Michigan-raised, New York-based artist and producer sees imagery and narrative framework as fluid components to his craft. Alexander’s first album, Loyal, mimicked the hypnotic motions of ocean waves at night, offering melodic, loop-based ambient music as a tribute to the tasteful influence of his mother and aunt. The second Heathered Pearls album, Body Complex, found inspiration from comfort, imperfection, and visions of interior architecture, transforming Loyal’s soft textures into driving 4/4 figures, glacial tone drifts, and starry synth plateaus. His 2017 EP, Detroit, MI 1997 – 2001, reflected on a formative era through ephemeral dance music. The third Heathered Pearls full-length, Cast, returns to moodier loop formats joined by the d