RELIANT
TOM
"Play & Rewind" Album OUT NOW
Stream/Download "Play & Rewind" Album HERE
"Play & Rewind" is Reliant Tom's second full length album, and most personal public work to date. Here's a message from frontwoman Claire Cuny about the album:
First of all, thank you for listening and for your interest in something that is so meaningful to me. "Play & Rewind" was written shortly after my Father, Douglas Cuny, passed away (11.2.18). Moving through this incredible loss was and still remains to be so difficult and painful. While this album is dark, angry, and intense at times, I hope it offers those who have experienced loss some comfort to hear someone's honest story. We planned this release months and months ago, having no idea that the release dates would all be encompassed by a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. I do feel strange releasing music right now, but I hope it offers you something during this extremely trying time. We are all grieving, but there will be an end. Things won't be the same, but hysteria is unsustainable and we will move through. I send all my love to you and your families.
BAD ORANGE album
11.2.18
Diversion Records
Happy Birthday single
9.28.18
Diversion Records
SOS single
3.2.18
Diversion Records
Reliant Tom's EP
10.4.16
Self release
PAST RELEASES:
Press Highlights:
Pop Dust - "Claire's haunting tones invest the lyrics with stark melancholy""
The Spill Magazine - "They explore every musical crevice... full of sheer inventiveness and passion... an effort that leaves nothing off the table and evolves with each listen"
Black Book Media - "Building from moody ballad, to Cobain-worthy midsection and ending in a sparse trance of harmonics, the track viscerally captures the rise and fall of emotions that come with death"
The Joy of Violent Movement - “Aching and brooding... it swoons from the dark and overwhelming weight of loss and grief - and the knowledge that while you will find some way to push forward, that deep down you’ll recognize that your life will never quite be the same”
MXDWN - "Claire Cuny’s rich, sultry vocals take the forefront. Plinking piano keys and a gradually shift into heavier instrumentation add a dramatic flare to the song, showcasing the undeniable chemistry of Cuny and her bandmate Monte Weber"
BTR Today - "Powerful yet soothing vocals accompanied by slow melancholic slide guitar to express the torment, the numbness, and the confusion that balls up inside someone who loses a loved one."
Girl Underground - "Takes a new reality, post-apocalyptic electronics, and expansive soundscape to ride the mental waves of anguish."
Music & Riots - "An intoxicating blend of avant-pop with beautifully constructed and pliable melodies"
The Big Takeover - "A funky, futuristic spectacle that shines brightly"
Art Voice - "Future-pop that sounds like a fiery mix between St. Vincent and Radiohead"
MXDWN - "Delightfully-experimental sound that pushes boundaries while retaining an ultra-cool pop-chic quality that’s like little else out there"
The Deli - "Nothing if not absolutely striking... clever instrumentals and cutting edge musical tech with sultry vocals and sharp-tongued lyricism"
Custom Made Music - “Lush atmospheric tones that radiate with undeniable elegance... highlighted by the hypnotic swagger of vocalist Claire Cuny”
No More Division - "Firm yet beautiful vocals paired... with woozy and electronic elegance"
Music Heartbeat - Fascinating sound design and sensibility of composition with captivating and haunting vocals
Alfitude - “Interesting synth and indie pop.”
Audiotox - “SOS is slow, sensual and has some deep nostalgic feel to it. The chill level is just the right amount, you’re kept on your toes by a grating synth that manages to retain the melodic feel while sounding badass.”
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Meet the Creators: Monte Weber & Claire Cuny aka Reliant Tom
Tracing their origins to a chance meeting at DIY show in Brooklyn in 2015, the Brooklyn-based post rock electronic band and experimental performance art Reliant Tom is centered around its core creative duo, Western Massachusetts-born, Brooklyn-based composer Monte Weber and Dallas, TX-born, Brooklyn-based choreographer and vocalist Claire Cuny. The duo’s collaboration is a seamless synthesis of their individual talents and interests – sound design, wearable technology, modern dance and hook-driven, yet genre-defying songwriting.
“Reliant Tom gives me the outlet to explore both pulse driven works while maintaining the other musical elements which I find fascinating - timbre, aleatoric processes, and interactive technologies,” Weber explains. Adds Cuny, “Our ultimate goal with Reliant Tom is to be a multi-media performance experience that straddles the line between pop and experimental music - and philosophizing about what that even means, and is that even possible as ‘experimental pop’?”
Thematically, the duo’s two previous releases, 2016’s self-released, self-titled EP and 2018’s critically applauded, full-length debut effort Bad Orange, touch upon the pitfalls of digital communication and the generally blasé nature of modern social interaction – through the guise of avant-pop and avant-punk influenced musical devices and arrangements featuring electric guitar, vocals, a hybrid electro-acoustic drum kit, synthesizers and Weber’s Kontrol Instrument, which he developed while studying at the Paris-based Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music as a way to make electronic music more tactile and immersive in its performance.
Slated for a Spring 2020 release through Chicago-based Diversion Records, Reliant Tom’s sophomore effort Play & Rewind is a decidedly bold and self-assured step forward: Cuny’s sultry and expressive vocals while being prominently placed front and center, effortlessly glide over lush yet spacious arrangements of shimmering acoustic guitars, atmospheric electronics and twinkling keys with the material possessing a cinematic air that recalls Dummy-era Portishead, Tales of Us-era Goldfrapp, Radiohead circa OK Computer and others. And while continuing to be tech heavy in their means of sonic production, their thematic exploration of communication and interaction in the digital age takes a back seat. This time taking a more human approach, the material may arguably be the most mature yet accessible, most emotionally honest and vulnerable of their growing catalog.
Claire Cuny
Claire Cuny is a Brooklyn-based songwriter, singer, choreographer and dancer.
At age 13, Claire Cuny founded her love for the arts in Classical ballet but would soon branch out to experiment in various disciplines. She studied the Vaganova technique under Alexander Vetrov of the Bolshoi Ballet and the Balanchine technique under Balanchine’s prodigy, Paul Mejia. Awarded scholarships, she continued her studies at Southern Methodist University where she embodied the Graham technique, jazz, African, musical theatre and choreography resulting in a B.F.A. in dance performance. Upon moving to NYC she began writing songs in her bedroom with a toy keyboard and eventually mustered up the courage to sing/write with various NYC-based bands. On magical day in 2015 she met her current partner, Monte Weber, and began creating what is now Reliant Tom. She is also a proud company member of site-specific immersive dance troupe Linked Dance Theatre.
Monte Weber
Monte Weber is a sound artist and electronic musician based in Brooklyn NY. Weber’s work centers around interactive technology and computer assisted compositional processes, using these tools to explore live physical performance and sound creation in the concert hall and beyond.
Weber graduated from NYU Steinhardt under the guidance of legendary electronic artist Morton Subotnick and avant-garde vocal pioneer Joan La Barbara. In fall 2016, Weber continued his research in computer music at Ircam where he created a live composition tool called Kontrol- a physical performance instrument using an assortment of tactile controllers. While in Paris Monte studied composition with composer Marc Battier focusing on electro acoustic music.
Notable collaborations include: acclaimed members of International Contemporary Ensemble, culminating in performances at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart concert series and National Sawdust BK. Weber music can be heard in concert venues, museums, bars and art galleries throughout the United States.
Weber recently collaborated with Linked Dance Theater a NYC based immersive dance theater company. The project "Remembrance" a ten room immersive sound installation and theater show ran on Governors Island Fall 2019.
ALBUM CREDITS
All songs written by Claire Cuny and Monte Weber
Produced by Monte Weber, Claire Cuny and Scott Simon Haus
Mixed and Mastered by Scott Simon Haus at Process Haus
Engineered by Scott Simon Haus
Drum Tracking by Jules Jenssen for Nevermind the Garbage, Goodbye Silver Moon, The Beach and Cafeteria Believer
Published by Dissonant Diversion Publishing International (BMI)
Claire Cuny: vocals, electric guitar
Monte Weber: nylon guitar, electric guitar, synths, production electronics
Brendan Littlefield: piano
Maciej Lewandowski: bass
Jules Jenssen: live drums for Nevermind the Garbage, Goodbye Silver Moon, The Beach and Cafeteria Believer
Nick Zoulek: Saxaphone for Shape Parade
Album/Single Cover Photos shot by Amanda Kaye
Play & Rewind Musicians
Brendan Littlefield
Brendan Littlefield (b. 1989) is a New York-based composer, singer, and pianist from the Pacific Northwest. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in composition from Western Washington University, and a Master’s from NYU Steinhardt, where he studied under Bang on a Can founders Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon. Brendan is an Associate Artist with Linked Dance Theatre, serving as resident composer and music director, and he sings as a member of the St. Bart's Choir under the direction of Dr. Paolo Bordignon.
Maciej Lewandowski
Originally from Katowice, Poland, Maciej Lewandowski became a staff member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in mid-2013. As Director of Production, he helps in coordinating administrative and performance schedules, concert planning, post-production related matters and oversees the ensemble's travel and accommodations logistics for all of ICE's performances throughout the season.
Maciej has received an undergraduate degree in Bass Performance from Berklee College of Music where he studied with John Lockwood, Greg Osby, Matthew Garrison and Joe Lovano, among others. He has had the chance to perform in many places in the United States and Europe and hopes to have more opportunities to do so. When not in the ICE office, he is developing new methods for undercutting the sanctity of the bio.
Jules Jenssen
Jules Jenssen is a drummer, music producer, Ableton Live power user and educator, and experimental tech troubadour hailing from the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts.
In 2019 Jules debuted a new solo audio-visual project, MAD MIDI, a one-man show where he triggers audio sampled from videos with the accompanying visuals, all from the drums in real time.
Jules was hired by Laura Escude/ Electronic Creatives as project manager for the Transmute Accelerator program which focuses on advanced use of Ableton for live performance design.
Jules designed a line of one-of-a-kind snare drums in collaboration with Taj Monjardo Instruments that were debuted at NAMM 2020 in Los Angeles, featured here: Insider.
During Miami Art Week 2019, Jules collaborated with fine-artist Sandra Muss to created a weather-controlled continuously-evolving sound score using Arduinos and Ableton live to accompany an installation that featured artist Muss created for the Pulse Art Fair.
Jules collaborated with audio engineer Eric Mitchell and musician/programmer Robbie Delprete of Kaptive Audio to create Kaptive’s first virtual Kontakt instrument, Jules tools Vol. 1. An obsessively multi-sampled drum instrument that features performances and tones of one of Jules’ studio drum sets, programmed to offer massive tones and flexibility for drum programming and sound design within Native Instrument’s Kontakt platform.
In August 2019 Jules was featured on the Drumeogab podcast, a division of the world’s leading drum content producer, Drumeo.
Jules is also the live drummer, music director, and playback engineer for rising hip hop artist Tidus, and privately consults and assists numerous artists with their live-show development and proprietary Ableton session build-outs.
Nick Zoulek
Praised as “stunningly virtuosic, whatever the genre.” (Wall Street Journal), Nick Zoulek is a saxophonist of “pure mindfulness and talent.” (PopMatters). A “No-holds-barred engine of avant-garde exploration,” Nick explores new possibilities in saxophone performance, creating visceral tapestries of sound. A concert soloist, he has performed across France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Nick actively researches the saxophone’s role in classical music, and holds degrees from BGSU, the Conservatoire de Boulogne, and UW-Whitewater. Nick’s music can be heard on his solo album Rushing Past Willow (Innova Records).
Reliant Tom Dancers
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Left to right: Anna Zekan, Claire Cuny & Vera Paganin
Vera Paganin
Vera was born in Milan (Italy), where she began her professional training at the Centro Studi Coreografici Teatro Carcano, a renowned academy of the city. There she graduated in ballet and modern dance in 2012.
After her graduation she won a scholarship for the summer intensive at the Henny Jurriens Stichting in Amsterdam, where she met Miki Orihara, a well known Martha Graham dancer, who gave her a scholarship to study at the Martha Graham School in New York.
Vera moved to New York in 2013, after a few months she was asked to join Graham 2. She danced many principal roles in distinguished venues such as the Met Museum, and in 2015 she got the Teaching Training Program Diploma at the Graham School.
She started dancing with Alison Cook Beatty Dance right after, along with other independent productions such as “Devaneio” by Marcela Corbellini Duarte and experimental projects with Fooju Dance Collaborative directed by Adam Dickerson.
Vera spent some time in Europe, where she danced with Aconcoli Dance by Elena Albano in Milan, and she collaborated with the pianist Xavier Boot for the Nationale Indiëherdenking in The Hague (Netherlands), along with teaching Graham Technique workshop in Milan, Sardinia, Rome and Utrecht.
Vera has danced works by Martha Graham, Alison Cook Beatty, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Miriam Barbosa, Blanca Li, Lone Larsen, Kun-Yang Lin, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Elena Albano, Marcela Corbellini Duarte and Adam Robert Dickerson. Ms Paganin is also a certified GYROTONIC® trainer.
Anna Zekan
Anna Zekan is from Newport, OR where she began dancing under the direction of Nancy Mittleman. She continued her training at Colorado College under the mentorship of Patrizia Herminjard, Tsui-shuang Lai, Yunyu Wang, Debra Mercer, and Casey Avaunt. After graduating with a B.A. in Dance and Creative Writing, she relocated to NYC to attend the Martha Graham School Professional Training Program. Since then, she has performed with Coyote Dancers (dir. Maher Benham), Alice Klugherz, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre, Carlos Fittante, and Fooju Dance Collaborative. Anna is also a published writer, barre fitness instructor, and teaching artist.