tilth soil by RAGE Thormbones

RAGE Thormbones delivers a profound auditory experience on tilth soil, blending raw energy with textured soundscapes. The album navigates through intense rhythmic layers and rich tonal shifts, creating a dynamic interplay between organic and industrial elements. Each track builds upon a foundation of gritty instrumentation and atmospheric depth, reflecting themes of growth, resilience, and transformation — much like the fertile soil suggested by the title.

For over a decade, trombonist/composers Mattie Barbier and Weston Olencki have consistently pushed the outer limits of what brass instruments are capable of. Working in the spaces between contemporary composition, drone, noise, and electroacoustics, RAGE has sought to emulate the electronic with acoustic means, transforming their trombones from orchestral accompaniment into a high density wall of resonance. tilth soil marks a new direction from their previous work. Instead of merely playing the horn with unconventional techniques, the duo physically uses the instruments (and a bevy of microphones) in order to extend the horns’ vibrational spectrum. They shift the trombone away from its place as a clarion call into a stethoscopic ear, listening from where an instrument normally speaks. Buoy sounds from microphones placed inside two horns while they float in the harbor of Bergen, Norway. The lamps are going out uses room resonance captured at the Museum of Jurassic Technology to house overlain, multilayered excerpts of JUZ (A Yodel Cry) by Wolfgang von Schweinitz, the work acting as a tribute to Barbier’s mentor and predecessor at the California Institute of the Arts.

By digging deep into the physical processes of their instruments, RAGE seeks to uncover a wide field of sonic possibilities, blurring the boundaries between human breath and air-powered sound. tilth soil presents this new material in a visceral, dimensionally-sculpted relief.

RAGE Thormbones is a low frequency duo comprised of Mattie Barbier and Weston Olencki. With mainly trombones, they produce sculpted masses of high-density sound, carving metallic resonance and subcutaneous tones to make rooms feel really heavy. They’ve presented work everywhere from Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Darmstadt Summer Courses, Borealis Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, ISSUE Project Room and more recently, as soloists with the Helsinki Philharmonic and SWR Symphonieorchester.

Past collaborators include Ellen Arkbro, Kevin Drumm, Sarah Davachi, Clara Iannotta, George Lewis, Scott Walker, & many more.

RIYL: Yoshi Wada, Toshiya Tsunoda, Nate Wooley, Catherine Christer Hennix, Ellen Fullman

Marginal Frequency is a small batch record label operating in Kitsap County, WA.