*Announcing* Jeremiah Chiu - Edge Conditions /// LP, CD, DD out October 9th
(photo by Brian Guido)
*Announcing*
Jeremiah Chiu
Edge Conditions
LP, CD, Digital album
out October 9th
Today, Los Angeles-based composer, synthesist, and multi-media artist Jeremiah Chiu announces his new album, Edge Conditions, with lead single and video “Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines.” The album will be released on LP, CD, and digital download October 9th (and on streaming platforms in full October 27th).
Listen to “Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines” and preorder Edge Conditions here
(Edge Conditions cover art by Korey Martin)
Following three electro-acoustic duo albums with violist Marta Sofia Honer (one in collaboration with late legend of minimalist music Ariel Kalma) and three heavily-fused trance-jazz LPs with his quintet SML (including Spontaneous Music Live, which was named ‘Best New Music’ by Pitchfork just a couple months ago), Edge Conditions settles Jeremiah Chiu into a world of densely layered, tightly composed electronic music deviations in the vein of YMO spinoffs, Arthur Russell 12-inch mixes, Yasuaki Shimizu, classic Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, and Art of Noise. There’s an emotional, energetic arc here — a shining display of Chiu’s range and depth as both a composer and producer in which every facet of his collaborative work and sonic personality feels represented.
The album was mostly written and recorded during February and March of this year. Chiu operated both in isolation and with a select team of musical comrades, while also incorporating live collaborations, field recordings, and audio sketches going back years. Collaborators include Honer (viola), Booker Stardrum (drums), Ben Lumsdaine (drums and percussion), Patrick Shiroishi (saxophone and field recordings), Takako Minekawa (vocals and field recordings), Marquis Hill (trumpet), and Will Miller of Resavoir (EVI).
Chiu’s previous solo album, 2023’s In Electric Time, was recorded over just two days at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum in LA and offered a narrower glimpse into his solo process and sound, essentially acting as a collection of studies & experiments — immediate, improvisational, and born of quick decision making. Edge Conditions expands the aim of that approach to make room for a larger scope of vision, developing under a more nuanced series of self-imposed boundaries, limitations, and clarifying frameworks meant to help connect the threads of the disparate artistic worlds Chiu inhabits in a more patiently-considered way.
In architecture, “edge conditions” are the boundaries, interfaces, or transition zones between two different areas, materials, or states, often acting as a unique, occupiable, or functional space. They describe the interaction between systems—such as public vs. private land, or contrasting building materials—and are critical in architectural design. Chiu says: “Thematically, the idea of an architectural edge condition came to mind during the process of making this record as it, too, felt like a practice bound by (environmental) restrictions, or boundaries.”
Edge Conditions is the first full-frame look at Chiu as a composer. Here, one of the most exciting artists in Los Angeles and a subtly groundbreaking new voice in contemporary music across the globe, finally steps fully into the spotlight.
Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines
Today's lead single “Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines” is a two part movement. The track opens with field recordings and voice from Takako Minekawa behind a steady shaker before the beat drops courtesy of SML bandmate Booker Stardrum. Chiu’s modular chatter sits on top of Stardrum’s deeply saturated low-end percussive bump, augmented by only phrases of tonality amongst the satisfying chaos of pings, clangs, and shimmers. In the second movement, we hear the Chicago-born Chiu channeling the essence of heroes like Tortoise or The Sea and Cake – sounds from a community that Chiu grew up listening to and is now, fittingly, enmeshed in as a forward-marching composer in his own right.
Chiu comments: “‘Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines’ was truly the guiding beacon for the entire record. Prior to rediscovering this track, I imagined an album with a more defined ensemble that was less drum-centric. Once I heard this, I felt drawn to follow this direction and let it take me wherever it was headed.”
The accompanying video was animated and hand drawn by Korey Martin (who also designed the Edge Conditions album cover). Chiu adds: “Korey’s artwork holds visual resonance for what I was trying to create—something analog, abstract, and beautiful, but with some tension and energy that felt like the music. His repetitive visual motifs create a hypnotic quality that perfectly accompanies the song.”
Deluxe Vinyl Package
Edge Conditions comes on 140 gram vinyl inside a heavyweight reverse-board jacket, with IARC obi strip & poly-lined inner-sleeve. Lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST, pressed at Pallas in Germany.
Limited Edition Marble Cream Color Vinyl - $30
Classic Black Vinyl - $27
Summer ’26 Bundle Is Here
Edge Conditions is the second of three new IARC releases to-be-announced by the end of summer. And, per our norm, the LPs are available to purchase together, as part of the Summer ’26 Bundle.
A purchase of the Summer ’26 Bundle (on either classic black vinyl or color vinyl) comes with a bundle-exclusive discount of 10% off the LP prices + a discounted shipping cost.
The LPs included are:
IARC0114 megiapa - Intentions
IARC0115 Jeremiah Chiu - Edge Conditions
IARC0116 tba soon
Bundles will ship from warehouses in the US, EU and UK, but don't sleep.. the quantity available in each warehouse is limited! Early purchase is recommended to ensure the lowest possible shipping and tax costs.
All items will ship around October 16th. Download codes will be sent via email for all the releases by, or before, the ship date.
Live Dates
In conjunction with today's album announcement, Chiu announces US shows this fall in Brooklyn and Los Angeles with more dates to be announced in the coming weeks.
(photo by Brian Guido)
About Jeremiah Chiu
Jeremiah Chiu is a synthesist in the broadest sense of the word—a craftsperson of the modular synth and other musical instruments and tools, as well as an artist, designer, and educator whose work continually brings disparate forms of knowledge into new relationships. While widely recognized for his versatile electronic music as a solo artist, textured recordings in a duo with violist Marta Sofia Honer, and the experimental quintet he co-leads, SML, Chiu has simultaneously maintained a practice as a graphic designer and visual artist, developing a practice attentive to both the structure of technological systems and the contingencies of liveness and emergence.
For Chiu, visual thinking and musical thinking are not separate disciplines but different expressions of the same innate compositional sensibility. This point of view is born equally from his idiosyncratic sense of aesthetics and his capacity for a warm and porous exchange within a thriving community of creative collaborators that stretches between Chicago and Los Angeles.
