Out today: AVOLA - Zone

Avola's debut album, Zone, is out today on Sleeping Giant Glossolalia.

Avola is the newest incarnation of Portland-based musician/producer Vern Avola, known for her work under the name EMS, and as a member of Elrond and Prizehog. 

Listen and buy Zone, here:
https://sleepinggiantglossolalia.bandcamp.com/album/avola-zone

SGG boss Michael Reisinger describes the Avola sound as "a squalling, disorienting world of heaviness... The journey is enthralling."

Zone is a place of high tension, where contrasting layers of sound combine in thrilling ways. Cinematic synth swells and transcendent guitar drones layer with glitchy beds of arcade-game beeps, white noise, and gunshot snares. Anthemic, soaring potential is kept in check by dissonance and disjointedness.

Zone was recorded and mixed by Avola at a house in the desert near Joshua Tree, California.

Zone is not music of any one genre – it is electronic in nature but possesses a weight that makes it relevant in the context of heavy rockers like Thrones, Big Business and Oxbow, with whom Avola has shared stages in the past.

Sleeping Giant Glossolalia is releasing Zone on cassette (as part of the label's ongoing cassette series that has also included Mick Barr, Growing, and more) and on glow-in-the-dark vinyl (a split release with Nadine Records).

Avola is on tour now:

July 27 - Portland, OR @ The Firkin Tavern
July 29 - Portland, OR @ HFBW
Aug 2 - Portland, OR @ Atlantis Lounge
Aug 4 - Moscow, ID @ Pritchard Art Gallery
Aug 6 - Billings, MT @ Smiling Dog Records
Aug 7 - Minot, ND @ 62 Doors Gallery
Aug 10 - Minneapolis, MN @ Feel Field
Aug 11 - Iowa City, IA @ Gabe's Upstairs
Aug 13 - Minneapolis, MN @ Memory Lanes
Aug 14 - Minneapolis, MN @ Kitty Cat Klub
Aug 15 - Bismarck, ND @ Rhythm Records
Aug 16 - Bozeman, MT @ Haufbrau
Aug 17 - Spokane, WA @ Object Space
Aug 18 - Portland, OR @ High Water Mark
Aug 23 - Portland, OR @ The Waypost

"Portland-based musician Vern Avola makes electronic music that combines a ferocious wall of sound with a deceptively subtle sense of dynamics. One could call it noise music, except that Avola puts enough into weirdly shifting harmonics as she does into abrasion. One could also call it drone, but Avola's approach to synth music is too rhythmic, itchy, and restless to fit easily under that label. She's recently shared bills with artists including electro-pop eccentric EMA, metal band Big Business, and long-running experimental rock outfit Oxbow, to give you some idea of the difficulty of pigeonholing the project."
–Tone Madison