The Vanishing by Dana Schechter
Regarding the band name: I’ve always been enamoured with the natural world, especially for those things that exist on a scale either too small or too expansive, for human eyes. The mysteries they hold are inspiring and humbling. For me, the name refers to the movements inside my body, my head, as if I am the ark (or the vessel) and the insects are the songs, the bits of creative energy.
‘The Vanishing’ is about the impermanence of life, how existence is fleeting. I find the world to be a place filled with hope and beauty, but also one of great loneliness. I think this is echoed particularly well on this album. I ruminate often about how small yet how vast we are. But it’s never far from my mind how quickly things can change, or be stripped away – physically, emotionally, psychologically. It’s a void and also an openness. Depending on how you look at it, we already are invisible.
It was not lost on me that the album was released (28 Feb 2020) the same week the COVID crisis started deconstructing the entire globe. Seeing how things have crawled to a halt for musicians worldwide, rather indefinitely, the Vanishing also feels like a soundtrack to the end of the world.
I started Insect Ark as a solo project with no idea what the genre was called. Now people call it Ambient Doom Metal, Drone-Noise Metal, I don’t know…Insect Ark is comprised of bass, synthesizer, lap steel guitar, and drums. I’m driven towards sonics that heighten senses and make time slow down; I wanted to make music that sounded like nothing else I’d heard before. I like lots of doom metal, but honestly, definitions of this or any genre don’t impact my choices. I’m more concerned with texture, noise, melody, and the definition and division of aural space.
There is no single focus or concept. Some titles have meanings of personal significance, some have none. I think about what kind of physical landscape the song sounds like. I also think about it visually. Titles come at the very end of the writing process, but in general, I don’t really worry about words. I’m happy if people create their own stories within this music.
