Iretsu

Based in Portland, Oregon, Ryan Cross, Glen Scheidt, Kate O'Brien-Clarke and Joel Holly are the four wildly talented individuals that collectively make up the magical Iretsu. Their ensemble-generated formula spans genres of pop, world, chamber and electronic, and has been most accurately described as ?avant-everything? (St Johns Sentinel). With an arrangement of twice as many instruments as people, Iretsu promises a musical and visual spectacle: ?Whether they're rocking on guitars or glockenspiels, local electro-pop consortium Iretsu truly knows no bounds? ? Portland Mercury.

Iretsu began in a house in the Sellwood district of Portland, Oregon during the spring of 2002, where Ryan (Loch Lomond) and Kate (Loch Lomond, Eric Bachmann, Pseudo Six) started forming songs using guitar and cello/violin. Joel (Hurtbird, Y5K), a resident of the house, was intrigued and began collaborating on guitar and bass. Within a year, they found their drummer, Glen Scheidt (Basta). They recorded and self-produced their first self-titled EP on four track in the basement of the Sellwood House. They performed these songs live at benefits and fundraisers that revolved around the arts and the less fortunate, as well as regular shows. Their EP found its way into the art-house scene of Portland and a buzz was quickly generated.

Fueled with a set of new songs, Iretsu recorded Moon & Stars Remain in the Morning Sky in 2004 with recording engineers Rob Oberdorfer (Dolorean) and Micheal Jones (Jandek live), mastered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Malkmus, The Standard). Too broke to afford printed CD packaging but with much creative energy, Iretsu gathered in the basement of Ryan's house to fold and machine-stitch a beautiful and limited packaging of the new record. Before they could even promote this record, they were invited to collaborate with the experimental, ensemble-generated theatre troupe Fever Theatre. Iretsu was taken to a retreat center in the Cascade Mountains for a month in the dead of winter to create music for a show based on the life of Leni Riefenstahl. That March they presented 25 performances of Mitlaufer, with Iretsu performing the soundtrack live, which they later recorded that April.

With the release of Moon & Stars, Iretsu refuse to rest on their laurels. True to their improv/arrange/reduce/record approach, the seeds of their third full-length album have already been sown during a four-day retreat on the Oregon Coast. The repertoire is growing?