claire rousay is a person who performs and records. She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. Her performances and recordings explore queerness, human relationships, and self perception.
There are no recent albums
Available Formats:
Catalytic Espresso
2021
"A portion of sales will benefit Fendika Cultural Center and Catalytic Sound. At Fendika Cultural Center, we celebrate and renew Ethiopia’s rich cultural heritage. We welcome all creative souls; through exchange of music, dance, art, and poetry, we meditate on humanity’s one-ness, and pray for a peaceful world."
Specifically The Water
Alex Cunningham & Claire Rousay
2019
""She and violinist Alex Cunningham make a formidable improvising duo, tactile and kinetic." -Stewart Smith, The Wire"
Digital
Catalytic Sound Festival 2020: Day 3
Catalytic Sound
"All proceeds raised will go to the Fendika Cultural Center (fendika.org), which "celebrates and renews Ethiopia’s rich cultural heritage. We welcome all creative souls; through exchange of music, dance, art, and poetry, we meditate on humanity’s one-ness, and pray for a peaceful world. Our vision for Fendika is to continue to nurture the artistic community in Addis Ababa, and to grow into one of Africa’s most vibrant centers for artistic innovation and cultural exchange grounded in rich Ethiopian heritage. Funds raised from this campaign will help Fendika pay for basic survival salaries for 33 employees of Fendika, and Fendika Live concert production costs: artist fees for musicians and dancers who perform during Fendika Live concerts that are streamed online, payment for the camera crew for us to stream high-quality programs, transportation costs for artists and camera crew to travel to and from Fendika (They all need to travel by private, contracted cars, as public transit is becoming too risky), monthly wifi cost so we can keep streaming music and other programs.""
Catalytic Quarterly Issues 5-8 (2019)
"n a very limited quantity of 25 hand-numbered sets, we present the first four issues of the Catalytic Quarterly collected in an envelope designed by our own Federico Peñalva. Get one while the stock lasts!"
Aerophobia
Claire Rousay
"It’s a treat to listen to, and there are moments where I thought “I didn’t know the human body could do that,” but this doesn’t appear to be the direction Rousay is moving towards. -Keith Prosk"
It Is Just So Much More Difficult
"Among the tiny pieces of this tangential pattern, motifs emerge, like a scrunching of heavy paper (lately, I keep ripping the pages of my diary right out) and a single booming drum hit honestly and repetitively as a kind of call to arms, ominous, for an impending doom, perhaps, and what is built using those bits post-destruction. The glass, a window, a mirror, by design. Descriptions that reject prescriptive understandings. Working towards solutions, not even methodically, but hypothetically and completely. Sounds of an involuntary faith, which is what faith is. -cookcook, Tiny Mix Tapes"
Several Erasures
"Maybe I got thrown off with the whole solo percussionist thing, because I assumed there’d be a lot of to-do. (And seriously, have you seen what Neil Peart plays?) But Rousay works in miniature – they don’t bang around a massive set or even a rock set, they just work with a minimal, albeit unusual, kit. And Rousay, instead of conventional rhythmic structures, intentionally eschews them for a more abstract experience. Rousay’s percussion is the physicality of everyday life. Closing your eyes and allowing the sound to overpower you will put you in familiar situations with uncommon results. -Ryan Masteller, Tiny Mix Tape"
A Heavenly Touch
2020
""holy fick, i adore this thing" - valyri, rateyourmusic.com"
Vinyl
Tuufuhhoowaah / Bday Shots
""What makes Rousay's recent output distinct from others working in a broadly experimental and percussive manner, however, is her exceptional ability to make the sonic characteristics of any object sound like an invitation to intimacy." - Tom Piekarski"
Cassette
t4t
"Claire Rousay’s t4t is an apt release for 2019. On side a: “things you’ve said you like” she weaves in unaltered spoken fragments - sourced from “emails, texts, sexts, and voicemails” in between the minimalist, percussive textures that she is known for creating. Side b: “things i doubt you’d care about” is more tightly wound, scraping and water and breathing - an anxious and pent listen that ends abruptly and unresolved, literally edging the listener."
Go Back to Catalytic Sound
