FRESH WIND SESSION No. 36
Empty Altar
Recording Date: 12 January 2025
KNCE 93.5 FM Premiere: 19 January 2025
Substack Premiere: 23 January 2025
I initially became familiar with the musician Tanner Boerman, the artist behind the Empty Altar project, via their band Dissolves. Somewhat legendary in the northern New Mexico music scene, the group came to prominence in the explosion of shows that lit up Taos in the wake of the Covid lockdowns. Over the course of 2022 and 2023 their raucous live shows increasingly became a place where the Gen Z audience of Taos were able to give expression to their more wild and shadowy impulses. Moshpits proliferated, and the release show for their self-titled album in January of 2024 (which I wrote about in two separate articles for Tempo/Taos News - a preview and review) featured interpretive dancers throwing and mashing fruit on each other.
That release show ended up being the final performance to date of the original Dissolves lineup. Shortly afterwards, the group’s powerhouse drummer Sam Johnson suffered an injury/illness that has kept him unable to get behind the kit. In recent months, the group has begun to play live shows again with new drummer Lou Maiolica. But, the unexpected loss of their drummer led to the cancellation of a tour that would have brought the group to larger and different audiences. In the wake of that sudden loss, Boerman found themself returning to writing the more personal and introspective material of their Empty Altar project, which started shortly after they moved from their home state of Michigan to Taos, NM in 2016.
This session features nine performances from Boerman - among them, two songs from earlier EPs (2018’s “Burning Sage” and 2021’s “Swoon The Moon”) and a cover of Grouper’s “Living Room.” But, the real meat of this Fresh Wind session is a collection of six new songs that Boerman wrote during mid to late 2024. As they navigated the bumpy and unexpected twist of fate that was dealt their band Dissolves, they also went through a period of romantic difficulty and personal crisis. In that crisis, Boerman turned to song. The six new compositions (“Snakes”, “Too Well”, “Nest”, “Full Lobotomy”, “Shake”, and “Impermanence”) are truly an account of a dark night of the soul. I’m happy to share that Boerman has added the songs from this session to their Empty Altar bandcamp as a stand-alone release - a document of this era of song in their life.
If their work with Dissolves gives voice to a sense of communal despair, Boerman’s solo work under the Empty Altar moniker offers a kind of personal exorcism. Think the work of Elliott Smith or early Bright Eyes. Given the many references to suicidal ideation in the new songs, this was the first radio session that I offered a content warning for when I aired it on the radio. That being said, I admire Boerman’s ability to voyage into their shadow realm and bring something back for us in the form of song - something that we discuss in depth in the interview portion of this session. I’m hoping this session may offer some space for you to move through some of your 2025 grief.
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