In June 2022, Matthew Swann (he/they) a.k.a. Astral Swans moved into the Residence Inn hotel in downtown Calgary to make bedroom recordings in a hotel room. Swann had been selected as one of three artists for the AIRI summer residency (Artists in Residence Inn) where they would live, work, and create in the solitude of a 16th floor hotel suite in the Calgary downtown. The concept was to return to Swann‘s roots, making experimental bedroom recordings, with no budget, minimal gear, and very little concern for the commodification of the final product.
These hotel songs are all informed by the absurdity of contemporary capitalist realism. Swann wrote “Shine the Light Inside” shortly after the world reopened post pandemic, and there was suddenly a greater divide between the extremely rich and poor. The song is about a billionaire’s rocket going off course (à la Major Tom), and the lyrics are his AI reading aphorisms sourced from self help books assembled by a proprietary algorithm to try and calm him down.
Stream “Shine the Light Inside” featuring Jairus Sharif on a freeform noise sax solo: https://astralswans.streamlink.to/shinethelightinside
Watch the accompanying visualizer by Gino Serpentini, as well:
The single will be released as part of the Split EP (October 13th) with three songs by indie experimental artist Chad VanGaalen on Side A, and three songs by Astral Swans on Side B. Swann and VanGaalen connected during their tenure at the AIRI summer residency.