Connected to the mainland only by ferries, Vashon Island sits in Puget Sound, just off the West coast of Seattle. This has been Aaron Turner’s home and refuge for well over a decade as, he explains, “it feels a little removed from the intensity of the city.”
Turner initially entered the zeitgeist in the late 1990s with the boundary-obliterating outfit Isis. He also ran the highly influential record label Hydra Head, putting out groundbreaking releases by the likes of Oxbow, Harvey Milk, Converge, Khanate, Jesu, Botch, Neurosis, and so many more. Since 2014, his primary musical outlet has been the supergroup Sumac with former Baptists drummer, Nick Yacyshyn and Brian Cook of Botch/These Arms Are Snakes.
The term ‘supergroup’ implies side-project, but eight albums in, this is clearly much more of a full-time deal. For Turner, the restrictions of being a three piece was part of Sumac’s draw. “It’s a challenge for each of the players because you really have to make the most of what you’re doing, you can’t hide behind a big wall of other players. It’s forced me to get better at writing and approaching it differently. So, with this record specifically I feel like this is a continuance of that path of exploration and study.”
New album The Healer certainly expands upon their earlier work, taking the band’s sound to greater extremes but also into fresh melodic territory. The blast-beat accompanied sweeping arpeggios on ‘New Rites’ and ‘Yellow Dawn’s sustained organ notes, courtesy of Turner’s wife Faith Coloccia, being prime examples of that. Sumac still, primarily, deal in thundering, distorted guitars, bowel-kicking bass, and drums that could raze a city to the ground. And then there’s Turner’s bellowed vocals which have taken on increasingly guttural textures as if he’s been gargling with glass out there on Vashon.
It’s also clear that the improvisational aspect of Sumac, something that has been elevated by collaborations with Keiji Haino (who Turner describes as “a mysterious force in the universe”), is as vital as ever. Riding on an instinct honed by years of practising and performing together they can sense when to let loose and when to hold back. The whole unit cinches up, cuts the flab and locks into heavy angular cadences that drag all bystanders into the maelstrom.
Durationally, they haven’t held back either. With two tracks around the 25-minute mark, The Healer clocks in at a hardy 76 minutes. Turner explains that he was “drawn to artists who had these long form pieces. Where it took a while for an idea to fully blossom and there was a trajectory which took patience, not only to write and perform but also took patience from the listener, but the rewards were even deeper because of that investment.”
Turner’s predilection for experiencing music whilst lying down gives a little insight into his high tolerance levels for lengthy compositions but also reveals an openness to sound’s potential for physical and mental transformation. “It can really resonate in your body, it can change the way you feel, it can warp your sense of time. Those almost magical qualities of certain kinds of music are the things that I look for.”
This is borne out in his Baker’s Dozen selections. Artists renowned for exploratory passages make appearances. Some more than once. The bulk of his picks are by people who he has either collaborated with, released music for, or, in one instance, married. Whatever the case may be, there’s a sense of a social collective forged from this music. As Turner says: “many of the things that have been really important for me are the people I’ve ended up being connected to and who have formed this musical community that I feel lucky to be a part of.”
After all, no man is an island. Pull up a bed and settle in.
Sumac’s new album The Healer is out now via Thrill Jockey. To begin reading his Baker’s Dozen click ‘First Record’ below.
