Blue Lake

Blue Lake

The Animal

Tonal Union

Blue Lake reveals his most ambitious album yet, which finds its visionary creator Jason Dungan harnessing the collective alchemy of his band, with ten spirited tracks that resonate with a powerful directness, evoking an ecological connection to the wider world.On The Animal, Dungan introduces the use of voice as an instrument, as a way of unlocking song-like characteristics. On the gracious album opener "Circles", which sees the group embrace in choral unison, like in birdsong, voices echo as a part of the surrounding sonic environment. The band are fore grounded and formidable in their delivery, forming a rich, acoustic accompaniment to Dungan’s zither strokes, earthy guitars and percussive patterns. The soundworld is noticeably bolder and livelier, as evidenced on "Cut Paper", with now regular mixing collaborator Jeff Zeigler capturing the fullness of the new band sound. Dungan also enlisted the help of Danish producer Aske Zidore who encouraged him toward new working strategies, a liberating intervention which allowed the element of surprise and discovery. The center ground is never fully consumed by Dungan as we find him consciously orchestrating from a respectful distance, giving generous space for the musician's spontaneous performance and improvisation, allowing their musical intuition to give rise to beguiling, holistic synchronicity."The Animal" is a form of musical metamorphosis, still acoustic, yet more amplified, elevating it to new dimensions. The Blue Lake project takes on a new lease of life to encompass collaboration with Jason Dungan bound in a universal connectivity, resulting in his most ambitious album to...

Blue Lake

Weft

Tonal Union

Blue Lake’s new offering ‘Weft’ sees its creator Jason Dungan unearth new musical terrain with a mini-album which presents the projects evolution. Finding inspiration in the craft of weaving and embracing a collective spirit as a band leader, all while readying a new studio album expected later in 2025. It follows the lauded album ‘Sun Arcs’ (2023) with Pitchfork naming it Best New Music, 8.3, amongst numerous other accolades. Blue Lake is the ongoing musical project of American born, Copenhagen based musician Jason Dungan which serves as his artistic platform as composer and collaborator. Developed over the period of 2024 and witnessed at live performances across a swath of European cosmopolitan cities and festivals, the project stands at a new creative juncture. The earthy title track ‘Weft’ emerges with a sense of ease and familiarity as looping guitar riffs in open tunings bed in around a warm cello pulse that provides the essential heartbeat. These interlinking parts align to create his most explicit version yet of an American writing country music in Scandinavia. Dungan named the release ‘Weft’ as a reference to the weaving practice of his partner, Danish visual artist Maria Zahle, whose work “Torso” is featured on the album’s cover. With her works providing a constant source of inspiration to his music and practice as an instrument-builder, Dungan found a symbiotic connection between their mediums, which is reflected in the music on ‘Weft’. A unique element to the overall sound was an acute focus on first-takes and favouring...

Blue Lake

Sun Arcs

Tonal Union

New Clear Vinyl Pressing coming January 2024. Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album Sun Arcs. It follows 2022’s release Stikling, earning a nomination for Album of the Year at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism. The starting point of Sun Arcs saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.” Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person...