Vocalist-composer Sara Ayers is consistent only in her eclecticism – over the course of her career, her music has ranged from folk to punk to bubblegum to rock to electronica to ambient.
Handcrafted in her small home studio, Ayers’ music has spanned the globe. She’s collaborated with such international musicians as Japanese dark ambient experimentalist Ryuta.K and the Russian electronic trio Figura. British electronica kingpins the Chemical Brothers sampled Ayers’ “Everyday We Die a Little” on “Come Inside,” and her EP with New Shiny Things was recently re-released on vinyl by the German label Anna Logue Records.
Her richly textured songs and sonic atmospheres ebb and flow from delicate and luminous lullabies to wall-of-sound banshee wails. In fearlessly following her musical visions, the one constant has been her voice: sung, sampled, layered, looped and pitch-shifted. As Ayers notes, “It’s my instrument, to an obsessive degree. Every other skill I’ve studied – guitar, keyboards, synthesis, and analog and digital recording and mixing – all of that has been in service to my singing. I’m fascinated by the new sounds I can create as well as the physical sensations of singing. It’s a kind of ecstatic meditation, and the songs I write are my way of examining and making sense of the world.”
Discography
Solo Recordings
• Leaving The Land Of Before (CD) Dark Wood Recordings 2018
• Fluorochrome (12" vinyl reissue) Vinyl-on-Demand 2016
• Organica (digital compilation album) Dark Wood Recordings 2008
• A Million Stories (CD) Dark Wood Recordings 2005
• Interiors (CD) Dark Wood Recordings 2001
• Drowning In Light (CD) Dark Wood Recordings 2001
• Sylvatica (CD) Dark Wood Recordings 1999
• Voices (CD) Dark Wood Recordings 1997
• Fluorochrome (cassette) Blotto Records 1985
Compilations
• What Is The Past But A Dream Of The Future? Explorations in Sound, V4: The Sound of Live Performance, Furthernoise 2011
• La Tache Politique Actuelle, Un Nuit Dystopia , Doppelganger Records 2008
• There Was No More Time, Echoes of Polyhymnia, Hypnos 2008
• Are You Coming Home? Arts on the Edge, Saratoga County Council on The Arts 2008
• Starless, The Hawke Chill-Out Sessions, Hawke Media Services 2006
• Leaving the Land of Before, Electricity Is Your Friend, Three Pin Recordings 2006
• Listening To Her Breathing, 60×60 (2006 / New York Minutes) , Vox Novus 2006
• I Sewed The Feathers To My Arms, Ping Ambience 2 , The Ambient Ping 2004
• Are You Coming Home? Visions and Vibrations, Trink Gallery 2002
• Sylvatica, The Infinity Paradox, Digital Intersect Media 2000
• Nighthounds, Every Living Creature, Mp3.com 2000
• Lachrymatory, The Violet Collection: TVC Charity Compilation, Mp3.com 1999
• I Once Remembered Everything, A Little Nip, Grrr Records 1994
• The Lighthouse, Talkwork Performance Quarterly Talkwork 1991
Groups and Collaborations
• Sara Ayers: Ambient Collaborations (Digital album) Endless Ascent 2009
• Star Crossed Others: Star Crossed Others (Digital album) Dark Wood Recordings 2009
• Sara Ayers and Ryuta.K: Kyzyl To Samarkand (CD) Dark Wood Recordings 2008
• Sara Ayers and The Glimmer Room: Don’t Tempt Me (CD track) Framework, A-Frame Media 2008
• New Shiny Things: Changing Colors b/w Breadlines and Dissidence (7" vinyl reissue) Anna Logue Records 2007
• Sara Ayers and Jeff Sampson: Thrice Thy Heart Shall Broken Be (3-song CD) Dark Wood Recordings 2006
• Falling You: The Canoe And The Waterfall, (CD track) Touch, The Fossil Dungeon 2005
• Sara Ayers and G.C. Haymes: Softly (CD track) Untitled Screed compilation 2004
• Delphium: No Return (CD track) Dead On The Inside Hibou Records 2003
• Sara Ayers and Figura: Sara Ayers: The Figura Remixes (CD) Dark Wood Recordings, 2001
• Neverland: Please (cassette track) Talkwork Performance Quarterly Talkwork, 1992
• The Reedies: Mirage (LP track) Live at 288 Lark Street Records 1983
• New Shiny Things: Changing Colors b/w Breadlines and Dissidence (7" vinyl) Blotto Records 1982
• AKA/etc: Waiting For You (LP track) The DIY Album JW Productions 1982
• AKA/etc: Waiting For You b/w We’ll Just Keep Laughing (7" vinyl) Blue Lunch Records 1981