Evan Shornstein & Will Epstein — VI

JUL 01 2025 · 12:00

Evan Shornstein & Will Epstein — VI (2025) Era: Post-Pandemic Ambient Revival (2023–2025) - A resurgence of outdoor, process-driven improvisation and visual music rooted in new-age and free-jazz traditions, flourishing in independent experimental music communities. High curatorial value as a document of a rare artistic practice: unmediated, outdoor, real-time improvisation translated directly into a visual artifact. The extreme technical metrics — near-black brightness, minimal motion, ultra-long takes — make this an exceptional data point for research into contemplative and anti-commercial music video aesthetics. The piece also serves as evidence of a thriving, critically engaged independent experimental scene operating entirely outside major-label infrastructure in the mid-2020s. Context: "VI" exists within the 2020s wave of artists reclaiming outdoor, site-specific, and process-oriented improvisation as both musical and visual practice. Shornstein (also known as Photay) and saxophonist Will Epstein recorded Frog Raag in April 2023 at Shornstein's property in High Falls, NY, in direct acoustic collaboration with a population of spring peeper frogs. The piece sits at the intersection of free jazz, Buchla electronic music, ambient drone, and what might be called eco-acoustic composition — a tradition with roots in Pauline Oliveros, David Dunn, and the deep listening movement. The visual language of the video — extreme darkness, static, and saturated color — functions as a sonic analog, privileging atmosphere and duration over narrative. The release on the independent label Extravagant Frequencies underscores its position outside commercial music video conventions. Director notes: Track VI is the sixth movement of the Frog Raag album (Extravagant Frequencies, released April 22, 2025), recorded outdoors in High Falls, NY on April 12, 2023. The quantitative metrics — brightness 27.90/255, motion score 0.412, avg shot length 36.59s, 9 scene changes across 329s — are consistent with near-dark environmental or field-recording visuals, possibly capturing the dusk-to-night recording session itself. The YouTube filename identifier [-kzeS81DUoU] may allow direct verification via the YouTube upload metadata.