Steven Archer’s STONEBURNER imagines dance music from Dune
June 27, 2014 — SONGS IN THE KEY OF ARRAKIS is the new album from STONEBURNER, a solo project by multifaceted musician, artist, and writer Steven Archer. Fusing traditional organic instruments and vocals from around the world with modern electronic dance music, Stoneburner offers Archer’s musical interpretation of the aesthetics and philosophy of Frank Herbert’s classic science-fiction novel Dune.
Four live Stoneburner shows are set for early July (see tour dates, below), and a fall tour is in the works.
Archer is best known as the cofounder of the electronic rock band Ego Likeness (Metropolis Records), which recently concluded its spring 2014 U.S. tour alongside fellow sci-fi-influenced musician Voltaire. He has also illustrated several genre books (Raw Dog Screaming Press), and contributed artwork to the Hugo Award-winning horror/science-fiction/fantasy magazine Weird Tales.
Stoneburner grew out of Archer’s experiments with the fusion of tribal and industrial music, which then led him to wonder: What would a rave sound like on the planet Arrakis? “When I ask people that, they know exactly what it should sound like, even though they’ve never heard it,” Archer says. “That’s a lot to live up to—so I’m pleased to feel that I’ve gotten pretty close."
Dune has been a career-long inspiration for Archer, whose outer-space credentials got a rocket-fueled boost this year when NASA commissioned him to score a video for the upcoming OSIRIS-REx space mission.
"We are living in the future,” he says. “How cool is that? The fact that I’ve composed two Stoneburner albums and an EP on my laptop, mixing vocals and instruments from around the world—that is science fiction! There’s no way I could have the career I have without being able to take advantage of the technology imagined and foretold by visionaries like Frank Herbert.”
The Stoneburner live show is intense and fluid, incorporating multimedia video projections and, often, tribal fusion belly dance troupes. Scheduled dates include:
July 2: The Barbary, Philadelphia, PA
July 3: Main Street Annex, Charlottesville, VA
July 4: Night Shift at Empire: Secret Agent Soiree, Springfield, VA (with Tom Shear DJ Set, Noir, The Rain Within and more)
July 5: Shadowland, Lancaster PA