New Music From Dren McDonald featuring Amelie Anna
Dren McDonald is a San Francisco Bay Area composer, producer, and musician whose work spans video games, film, theme parks, and immersive media. After founding Vaccination Records in the 1990s and releasing music with several Bay Area bands, he transitioned into scoring for interactive media, accumulating an extensive catalog of game credits. McDonald has released several solo and collaborative albums, including The String Arcade (2014), a string quartet interpretation of video game music that won a GANG Award for Best Cover/Remix; Psychic (2022, as polyheDren), featuring collaborations with Josh Freese (Foo Fighters/NIN), Nels Cline (Wilco), and Iva Bittová (Nonesuch); and Oceanic (2024), an ambient record on Appearing Records. He arranged and performed two songs by The Residents for their 50th Anniversary concert, and he has appeared as a guest on releases by Melodic Virtue’s Star Stunted II.
Out at the end of July, McDonald’s upcoming Vox Pterous is a stunning new album on which he takes the instrumental architecture of his celebrated 2023 record Pterous and opens it up entirely, inviting a remarkable ensemble of vocalists into those layered, sonic worlds to create something wholly new. The result is one of the most emotionally resonant records of his career — an LP that sits at a unique intersection of contemporary classical composition, songwriting, and the warmth of the human voice. Advance singles “Resting of Light” (with Carla Kihlstedt and Amelie Anna) and “Fading” (featuring Sophia James) are at radio now.
“‘Fading’ is indeed a thing of beauty, and aptly named. Its hypnotic, cycling acoustics are perhaps the only constant, Sophia James arabesque-infused vocals, and the subtle atmospheres that drift in her wake, often on the edge of disappearing completely, as if a change of wind direction would see the whole thing suddenly dissipate and dissolve.” – Big Takeover
“McDonald orchestrates a nuanced, melancholic environment from unconventional, layered guitar lines, providing a mesmerizing platform for James’ profound, drone-like vocal tones to construct a symbolic dreamscape.” – Obscure Sound
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Label: Appearing Records
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