Elysia Crampton

Elysia Paula Crampton
Birth name Elijah Paul Crampton
Also known as E+E, DJ Ocelote
Genres Electronic music, Latin music, experimental music
Occupation(s) Musician, producer
Years active 2008–present
Labels Blueberry Recordings, Break World Records
Associated acts Money Allah, Why Be, Rabit, Chino Amobi, Lexxi, Total Freedom, Dedekind Cut

Elysia Paula Chuquimia Crampton is an American experimental electronic musician. Her work is known for taking heavy detail in bringing light to Aymara survival and Latinx culture, queerness and its historic roots in aforementioned Aymara history, naturalist themes, and frequent utilization of samples and arrangements from varying sources.[1]

Career

Elysia Crampton began making music under the moniker E+E in 2008.[2] Crampton's work as E+E mostly consisted of edits and remixes made with a keyboard, acapellas, and a sampler.[3] Crampton self-released two albums, three extended plays, and one compilation of remixes and edits under the E+E alias.[4]

In 2015 Crampton ceased using the E+E alias and released her first studio album, American Drift, under her real name.[3] The album took three years to make and was made as a way to describe her unique experience of finding a home in Virginia in the aforementioned years.[5] The album was released on August 7, 2015,[1] and was met with critical success. The music review website Pitchfork gave the album an 8.1 out of 10 and said, in praise:

"The Virginia producer Elysia Crampton's debut album is only four songs long, but it represents a monumental undertaking. She has described it as an exploration of Virginia's history as well as a meditation on brownness, on being Latina, and as a kind of geology. Her epiphanies feel hard-won, and they shine all the more brightly for it."[6]

Crampton released her second album, Elysia Crampton Presents: Demon City, on July 22, 2016. It was a collaboration with friends/peers including Houston producer Rabit, Danish producer Why Be, London producer Lexxi, and Alabama producer Chino Amobi.[7] Music review Web site Tiny Mix Tapes gave the album a 4.5 out of 5,[8] while Pitchfork said: "Demon City, Virginia producer Elysia Crampton's follow-up to her sumptuous debut American Drift, is a wonder of concision and represents another massive leap forward in her growth," of the album.[7]

Musical style

Crampton's music is notable for drawing from an eclectic and wide variety of influences, both musical and conceptual but with provocative modern context. In an Instagram post, she specifically noted that:

my two main points are that my work be understood as a project of Aymara survival and resistance (despite myriad influences that might be heard or located within the work itself-- there is no term in our language for stable "being"-- which is why Aymara becoming appears multi-faceted, messy, and complex in my work)

--

and secondly, the necessity to omit the term "identity" which is a part of a history of individualism (marked by colonial law in relation to land ownership) as a project of genocidal regulation against Native American people in the Americas-- this can be traced verbatim to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a governmental project of extraction and control.[9]

As a way of summing up her intent to a style, she has used the tag prog to describe her music.[3] During the time of the making of Elysia's album American Drift, she was living in rural Virginia and being inspired by the expansive local geographical features around the area, described as "wild Southern surroundings", in the area, one of which was the Shenandoah Mountain. She previously made journeys around it, with one inspiring track two of American Drift, 'Petrichrist'.[1] Elysia is heavily inspired by varying forms of cultural music and the interesting sound design that often accompanies them, although her upbringing and roots in music have influenced her and show their presence. In an interview, she once remarked that "the older I get, the uglier I want my music to feel, to be".[10]

In 2015, her musical influences while recording American Drift became a long range of styles; Southern hip hop/crunk, Latin metal, North American psychedelic folk, neo-classical music, ragtime, early blues, her brother's avant-garde records, and her grandfather's collection of huayno and cumbia tapes, which showed predominately among her use of samples and rhythms with a highly digital touch and taste for atmospheric soundscapes.[3]

Through music, the post-colonial divide between Peru and Bolivia was bridged for me, and I was allowed to glimpse an ancient, illusive moment of my heritage that barred nationalistic dividings. The mixture of electronic and acoustic sounds, especially in huayno, provided inspiration that has stuck to this day. The incorporation of these textures into my own voice never had to be deliberately sought out; these ancestral/familial narratives, languages, tones, colors… moved with me as I musically came of age.[10]

Crampton also cited many individuals as influences for her 2015 album American Drift, including José Esteban Muñoz (a noted Cuban-American queer theorist), black pianist Margaret Bonds, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (a writer and professor in Medieval studies) and queer performance artist, photographer and close friend Boychild.[5]

Crampton has said that her 2016 album, Elysia Crampton Presents: Demon City, was written in the style of a musical epic poem. She said that the album was inspired by Aymaran revolutionary Bartolina Sisa, who is often remembered in indigenous history.[7] The album is a companion piece to Crampton's theatrical production & DJ set, Dissolution of the Sovereign: A Timeslide into the Future, written and performed as both a 'visual & performative essay', a sci-fi style play, and a futuristic coda to Sisa's story with a passionate narrative revolving around her severed limbs.[7]

Personal life

Crampton took piano and keyboard lessons as a child, but later started taking music seriously after her teenage years, around 2007 to 2008.[1] She was born and grew up around the outside of Los Angeles. Crampton lived a nomadic lifestyle, moving between the United States and Mexico for most of her life[5] before settling down in Weyer's Cave, Virginia, where her family owned an old Italian restaurant.[1] After finishing up her first studio album, American Drift, Elysia visited Pacajes, Bolivia to care for her grandmother Flora.[7]

When Crampton was younger and living in Los Angeles, she worked as an escort. She was in and out of rehab until she learned how to meditate at a Scientology-based center, at which she spent a little over a year. After finishing with the center, Crampton was no longer satisfied with living in L.A., and later ran away to Virginia.[11]

Discography

As E+E

Studio albums

Extended plays

Compilations

As Elysia Crampton

Studio albums

Singles

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Elysia Crampton: Experimental Producer Who Talks to God | SPIN". July 29, 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  2. ↑ "Elysia Crampton and the Art of Survival | Thump". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Breaking through: Elysia Crampton". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  4. ↑ "E+E". Discogs. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  5. 1 2 3 "Blood from a stone: Elysia Crampton strives to make sense of life on American Drift". FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  6. ↑ Sherburne, Philip (August 12, 2015). "Elysia Crampton: American Drift". Pitchfork. Condé Nast. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Elysia Crampton: Elysia Crampton Presents: Demon City Album Review | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  8. ↑ "Music Review: Elysia Crampton – Elysia Crampton Presents: Demon City". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  9. ↑ "Elysia Crampton (@elysiacrampton) • Instagram photos and videos". June 28, 2017. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  10. 1 2 "Elysia Crampton | Interview". July 29, 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  11. ↑ ".ext e n s i o n: Exclusive Interview with E+E". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
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