After having recently signed their tour mates, The Russian White, Distortion has now signed North Carolina’s Solemn Shapes. Solemn Shapes just finished the Children of the New Dawn Tour with The Russian White, silver walks and others. Distortion is proud to add them to the growing family and we can’t wait to see what they do next. Expect the new album in the next few months and even more live shows!
Solemn Shapes is a North American electronic music group, formed in 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina where they are currently based. Vocalist and electronic artist Melanie Foxfire met touring synthesist/electronic musician Scott Sunset in 2009 and the duo started playing shows as Solemn Shapes in 2016. The Shapes have played over two hundred shows throughout the midwest, south and east coast USA with several tours since their formation. Their second EP, “Animalism” trended on the Bandcamp Darkwave, Industrial and Electronic charts in 2021 and has received a lot of airplay since its release. They have released music on two compilations and also have two songs in the film Sister Tempest by Joe Badon.
Solemn Shapes is often labeled as a Darkwave band, with influences ranging from early Industrial music to EBM and Electronic music. The name Solemn Shapes is derived from a Vincent Scully architectural article referring to the beauty of Louis Khan’s building, “all the hard and solemn shapes were now derived from an analysis of function and most of all, from the reception of light.” The shapes of the interior, Scully called ‘Brutalist’. Brutal Resonance described Solemn Shapes experimental electronics...”each trickle of electronics layered on top of one another gave me another reason to love, vocals perfectly matched, swiveling between a more-human-than-human vibe to creepy horror-tinged science fiction bouts. Tons of experimental sounds play out." Disturbed By Voices characterized Solemn Shapes’ music as “catchy melodies with brilliant vocal apparitions driven over gorgeously industrial landscapes...hauntingly dystopian, the gothically-tinged industrial/electronica embraces a not-altogether alien landscape, perhaps stressing a future-forced-aloneness with human connectivity verboten except through cold technology.”
Their Animalism EP is a lead-up to their full-length album, Prolonged Exposure to Darkness, which are both mastered by Rob Robinson (ohGr, Order of the Static Temple) with the album scheduled to be released in late 2023 with Distortion Productions, LLC.