Green Dome - Thinking in Stitches (2019)

Green Dome is a dynamic trio comprising Zeena Parkins (harp), Ryan Sawyer (percussion) & Ryan Ross Smith (piano & electronics). With each member bringing serious cross-genre chops to the proceedings, Thinking In Stitches seamlessly incorporates influences from rock, noise, jazz, and every experimental thread in between. Parkins, called “one of the most compelling performers in the downtown music community” by The New Yorker, has collaborated with everyone from Björk to Matmos, Kim Gordon to Anthony Braxton. Here, she is joined by superstar percussionist Ryan Sawyer (whose own credits include TV On the Radio and The Mekons, among many others) and acclaimed experimental electronic composer Ryan Ross Smith.

The compositions on this record follow a manifesto of predetermined rules to translate the visuals of Shetland Lace knitting patterns into music - to commit to a reading of those patterns, to chart what they have to say, to devise strategies for transmuting the various stitches and the larger geometry of each patterning. Structures are liberated from another kind of musical logic. The patterns offer a through line, a reason for every shift, every disruption and then every return, creating an elaborately detailed work. The results are often surprising, as the performers and listeners are guided by the lace into unexpected musical territories.Thinking in Stitches is the third movement in an on-going series of works devoted to reading lace patterns as scores that began in 2008.