Off the 405: L'Rain
DJ set by No Sesso
June 22, 2019
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

L'Rain is the sprawling sparkling pop project of Brooklyn's Taja Cheek. Making her Los Angeles debut, the songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer borrows equally from 90's R&B, musique concrète, and ambient soundscapes. Her first album, released in 2017, grew out of loose recordings patched together to form a tapestry of musical moments often intermixed with sound collages, evoking the expansive otherworldliness of Sigur Rós or Grouper. Her supremely creative approach to music-making aligns with a rising group of musicians like Kelsey Lu and Sudan Archives, who connect classical, R&B, and experimental influences. Written after the passing of her mother, L'Rain's songs translate grief and healing into triumphant expression that embodies both pathos and joy. Flippantly celebratory and lusciously introspective, she has said her music is a meditation on Amiri Baraka's quote: "New Black Music is this: Find the self, then kill it." In addition to her music, she is an assistant curator at MoMA PS1, where she co-organizes the ongoing Warm Up series and Sunday Sessions, cultivating a robust community of experimental musicians, performers, and artists. With new music on the horizon, L'Rain performs on the heels of an artist residency at Brooklyn's National Sawdust and touring dates with veteran indie-rock band Deerhunter.