The unlikely supergroup merging avant-garde with fantasy

by Günseli Yalcinkaya

photography by Elizaveta Porodina

Deafheaven’s George Clarke, PC Music’s Danny L Harle, Hundred Waters’s Trayer Tryon, and make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench have teamed up as supergroup Alto Arc for a spellbinding debut that verges on the grotesque, the sublime, and the macabre.

“We are dealing in theatre. It’s archetypes and melodrama . . . and romance.”

When I first heard that you were all forming a supergroup, I almost couldn’t believe it. How did it all come together?

George Clarke: I know that Trayer and Danny were working together previously. I think they collaborated through production for other artists prior to this, and Danny had certain sections of tracks that he’d been working on. I know that by the time I had met Trayer, they had already tried a couple vocalists who were more traditional, and said that whatever it was that they were aiming for just wasn’t happening. I opted to do my version of it. This is for “Nocebo,” which is the first track we worked on. Him and Danny seemed to agree that they liked the direction. And, really shortly after, I assume because Danny and Isamaya were already working together, Danny brought the idea of having Isamaya join — and it was a natural fit. I think we got like one track over and maybe had a conversation, but we were kind of immediately like, yeah, this makes total sense. What about you, Isamaya?

Isamaya Ffrench: I was introduced to Danny through Sega Bodega, because we’d been talking about doing something the three of us and then this was in the forefront of Danny’s mind. He just invited me to do like a session with him, a free for all type thing, and it seemed to make sense. Like, my voice definitely not lend itself to pop — and, luckily, this isn’t very popular music. It all came together quite naturally. I couldn’t believe that George was singing. In no capacity could I ever imagine working with him. So, I couldn’t say no. The voices work quite well together. Yeah, I find the way both your voices play off each other is almost like Isamaya is life and George is death, with the two continually crashing and colliding against one another.

IF: I think there’s definitely something about there’s an intellectual, subversive character. And then there’s the in the clouds-higher consciousness.

And where did the name Alto Arc come from?

GC: I came up with the name. To be honest with you, I just really liked the way that the two words worked together. I had been thinking about a short, interesting wordplay. And something about the Alto Arc was interesting to me. And it doesn’t really go beyond that. But it leaves us to be very open ended due to its kind of mysterious nature.

Listening to the album has a really visceral quality, like it brings up all these rich images and narratives. What was the thinking behind it?

IF: It’s a very visual project, almost as much as the music. We were talking about it the other day, and it’s all very theatrical and it’s very avant garde. Each of us are avant garde artists in our own world and our own work. Like there’s a huge element of theatre in it all, like, really over the top. I think we don’t want to shy away from that. It’s very helpful to go full force with that kind of approach. There’s parts of it that feel distinctly medieval or fantasy, like they should accompany a Chaucer story, or the Green Knight.

GC: Absolutely, yes. Fantasy was a very early keyword that we were tossing around. There’s an intent for it to be fantastical. And there’s an intent for it to be magical. Something Danny had mentioned really early on is that he wanted something that we could enjoy as much as like a 10-year-old or 11-year-old could enjoy. This really broad fantasy world that of course he’s he’s already very much into and so knows a tonne about that that’s the other thing is that I’ve been able to get more into like this English history and and kind of delve more into this world working with these two then you know, then I ever would in the states. The sounds are also very extreme and that makes me think how all your artistry is extreme in one way or another. What attracts you to it?

IF: It’s really hard to talk about this without sounding wanky. But, for me, there’s a lot of the internal epic, the unconscious, the instincts and all of that. For example, The Wicker Man, the very archetypal and animalistic and ritualistic impulses that drive a lot of those characters. For me, it’s the internal conflicts and the nitty gritty subconscious. That’s what I’m more interested in exploring and then how that looks on the outside, how that manifests itself in lyrics or visually. I think there’s just so much power in a really simple melody or really simple vocal. But the twistedness comes in the duality of that. What are you most excited about with this project?

IF: I just absolutely love what George does. And Trey and Danny. Because they really showcase their own individual talents in in such an incredible way. I’m like, wow guys, you fucking know this. It’s just so nice to be part of something where I really respect the people.

GC: Everyone in the project has so much trust in each other that we really allow room for everyone to individually create and bring to the table. And it does it works. It always works no matter what it is in some way. It’s such a strange beast that we can kind of manoeuvre it in any direction we see fit.