kee avil – Get In Her Ears

A cell-tingling, evocative soundscape that caresses the senses, Montréal-based experimental artist and producer Vicky Mettler aka Kee Avil has shared visuals for her single ‘HHHH’.

Taken from her debut album Crease, which she released earlier this year, the live video (captured at Sala Rossa as a co-presentation between Live in Concrete and Suoni TV) shows the artist doing what she does best. Full of breathy vocals, ambiguous lyrics and twitchy electronics, the intensity of Kee Avil’s ‘HHHH’ is heightened by Myriam Bleau’s beautiful visual backdrops and Caro Etchart’s delicately crafted crochet costumes, both of which can be observed in the live recording.

“Playing ‘HHHH’ live is a bit like being submerged by waves, vibrations,” Kee Avil explains. “The swells engulf me and I always struggle a bit to hear myself within that, it makes me feel like I’m being kept from the surface, like I have to carve my way out somehow, and I like that. This video presents for the first time the duo version of the live show, with Samuel Gougoux on drums. We’ve been working on this duo setup since January, pulling it apart and discovering how to play this music live, or at least one way of many. The visuals by Myriam Bleau tie it all in, we were interested in exploring physical textures – like wax, paint, leather – to accentuate and create a small world for each song to exist in.”

Kee Avil is currently performing her captivating live show on tour in Europe, full details of which can be found beneath the video for ‘HHHH’ below.

Kee Avil European 2022 Live Dates
04 Nov 2022 – Bologna, IT @Circolo Dev
05 Nov 2022 – Ljubljana, SI @Galerija SKUC
06 Nov 2022 – Bratislava, SK @T3 – means of culture
07 Nov 2022 – Prague, CZ @Punctum
08 Nov 2022 – Krakow, PL @Klub RE
09 Nov 2022 – Warsaw, PL @Chmury
10 Nov 2022 – Dresden, DE @Scheune Blechschloss
11 Nov 2022 – Bremen, DE @Kultur in Buunker e.V.
13 Nov 2022 – Utrecht, NL @Le Guess Who?
18 Nov 2022 – Porto, PT @Understage

Follow Kee Avil on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

An intoxicating, claustrophobic listen that sharpens the senses, Montréal-based experimental artist and producer Vicky Mettler aka Kee Avil has shared her latest single ‘saf’. Taken from her debut album Crease, which is set for release on 11th March, the track unravels like a gratifying exhale, underscored by magnetic electronics and Avil’s intense, alluring vocals.

A guitarist, singer, producer and member of Sam Shalabi’s acclaimed Land Of Kush project, Mettler cut her teeth playing in various noise and improv outfits before fully fleshing out her new moniker Kee Avil. “Songwriting, to me, is like sculpting,” Mettler explains. “It stems from an initial word, emotion or sound, which I then build on, molding it into a more refined shape, glued into an artificial structure. Other times, my role is to peel it, scrape at its exterior, to reveal its natural state and its part within the whole.”

It’s this physicality behind the shaping of her sounds that makes Mettler’s music feel so visceral, especially in her new track ‘saf’. “Is this the same ache we all share? / can you feel it there under your ribs?” she probes over serpentine electronics, urging listeners to immerse themselves in the tense atmosphere she has created.

Following her self-titled EP released via Black Bough Records in 2018, Mettler’s debut album Crease was written over a period of three years, with each song representing “a certain moment in time, an emotion, exercise or spontaneous idea that creates its own world…built without consideration for the other.” With her razor sharp focus and disorientating blend of sounds and vocals, Mettler’s new full length offering looks set to be as spinetingling as her latest single.

Watch the video for ‘saf’ below.

Follow Kee Avil on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Lawrence Fafard (Mask by Ariane Paradis)

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Tag: kee avil

Track Of The Day: Kee Avil – ‘HHHH’ (Live)

Track Of The Day: Kee Avil – ‘saf’