Collin J Rae / Red Gnein Sextet: Jayiha

Track from the Neuma album, Pandemia:
https://collinjrae1.bandcamp.com/albu...

Maybe the pandemic has finally met its match: A response so visceral – such an unrelenting, coordinated sensory assault – that it will be forced to retreat whence it came. Spearheading this charge is none other than Renaissance artist-provocateur Collin J Rae (also under the guise of the mysteriously underground entity, Red Gnein Sextet). Combining the worlds of noise, photography, artwork, poetry, and portraiture, Pandemia catalogs the devastation of the last few years in a richly satisfying catharsis. If that weren’t enough, it also instructively teaches us words for Pandemic in eight different languages.


PANDEMIA is a despondent howl at the inhumane surreality of three consecutive summers spent in displaced isolation. Recorded during the humid months of 2022, this project is the sonic scion of a pair of successful photo books: Pandemic Portraits Volumes 1 & 2 . Warped faces and unhinged minds permeate the composed noise-scapes, depicted through windows of looming dementia and mania that may feel familiar to many, a literal collapse of “regular” order, civility, and sanity that seem to be an epidemic of their own within the pandemic. Exclusively created with custom and pre-made devices engineered by Tetsuji Masuda of jmt synth in Japan, these aural dystopias were conceived across numberless late nights while hidden away in the basements of Tantalus Studios North. These sounds mark the eradication of the normal, of what was and what will never return as we negotiate our new normal...whatever that might be.
-Doyle Armbrust & Collin J Rae


Collin J Rae is known for his work as a member of Ultra Vivid Scene, Slug, Red Gnein Sextet, Telium Group, Cauterizer, Supra-Argo, Fab .44 and Sex After Death. He has also been a mainstay of the classical music industry for many years and is currently CEO of the Sono Luminus record label.


Collin’s works (both photography and sound) have been published by the likes of TASCHEN Books, Secret Magazine, European Photography Magazine, PCP/ Matador, Sympathy For the Record Industry, Tantalus Recording Group, Banned Productions, G.R.O.S.S Tapes, Pop Nihil and others.

PANDEMIA serves as all aural companion to Collin’s best-selling photography books Pandemic Portraits Volumes 1 & 2.