Joy Von Spain is a rare bird—with very sharptalons—in
Seattle’s music scene. She studied in the ’90s at Cleveland Institute
of Music underthe late renowned composer Donald Erb, so some of
Von Spain’s music consequently dwells in the heady realms of the
avant-garde (her 2007 album Seeking Stockhausen’s Moustache hints at her academic music background and lack of self-seriousness).
However, she hastens to add, “I severed all tentacles to academia long
ago. I like the nightlife, baby! But I do need a job; anyone hiring
professors of experimental music?”
No doubt Von Spain would make a riveting instructor, but in the
meantime, she also occupies an integral position in the city’s
noise-music underground as half of 100Pieces with Murder,
while also collaborating with various sonic brutes around town, most
associated with Backwards Records. It’s kind of like if Ruth
White were moonlighting in Wolf Eyes.
While writing compositions of great subtlety and unconventional
beauty, Von Spain also shapes extreme frequencies into experimental
noise pieces that show formidable thought regarding dynamics. Her
tracks’ textures tend to shudder off the staves and agitate your senses
with sadistic but not unpleasant astringency. Compared to most in the
genre, there’s much more richness of detail and expansiveness of tone
palette. Von Spain succinctly describes her creative method as
“Substance. Ritual. Catharsis. Repeat.”
Besides being adept on synths such as Alesis Micron, Roland JUNO-60,
Korg Poly-800, and others, Von Spain possesses a beautiful operatic
voice, which may surprise you after hearing some of her more strident
pieces. “My first instrument was voice,” she notes. “I sang others’ new
pieces and my own, as I was often the only atonal singer available.
Most singers were stuck on Verdi, Puccini—I loved Berg, Ligeti,
George Crumb, Glen Benton from Deicide, Siouxsie Sioux, et al.”
Von Spain’s new album, Lady Lazarus (on the Scatological Liberation Front and available at Dissonant
Plane and the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom), largely was recorded
as collaborations, with much assistance from SLF’s Gerald
Hansen. “Beast Blob Parasite” is the wild bull in the symphony
auditorium, coming off like a no-wave fracas that could make Lydia lose
her Lunch. But with “Entrance of Durga,” Von Spain attains a zenith of
aural firepower, unleashing bitter torrents of scarifying noise, like
some infernal choir of the Apocalypse.
Von Spain cares not if this offends your delicate sensibilities:
“99.99 percent of the music ever written utilizing major-key tonality
is garbage. I shun this ubiquitous, Thorazine-manufactured happiness
that in no way reflects the human tragedy. [My] works are channeled
from dreadful realms through this distorted vessel… As Milton Babbitt
pointed out, ‘Who cares if you listen?'” 
Joy Von Spain CD-release party with 100Pieces, In the Age of
Terminal Static, Slicing Grandpa, and others, Sat June 27, Josephine, 8
pm, $7. For more info, see www.myspace.com/joyvonspain.
This story has been updated since its original publication.
