The Mute Group, "A E I O U"

Post Author: Michael Brummett

The Mute Group is a trio that met and live in Nashville, but followed fairly different paths in making their way to Tennessee.

Background

Bringing together Amy Gill, Zachary Gresham, and John Westberry, The Mute Group draws inspiration from a variety of interesting musical beginnings. Amy is a Baroque organist and the former producer for the Memphis Symphony; John is a University of New Orleans-trained jazz drummer with his own experimental/improvisation career; and Zachary is a Byzantine chanter and the former songwriter for defunct Nashville prog-pop group Umbrella Tree.
Zachary Gresham had this to say about how the group puts their music together:

“Nina Simone opens a recorded performance of “Mississippi Goddam” by saying that the song is “a show tune, but the show hasn’t been written for it yet.” The Mute Group approaches every song this way, except the shows they are writing for are dark operettas for three-piece ensemble.”

“A E I O U” is the follow-up to the trio’s “Brainplate In Eb”, which you can listen to below, too.

Rather intentionally, “A E I O U” was released at 5:28am cst sharp — a time at which the plane of the Earth’s equator will pass through the center of the sun, with British hippies rejoicing at Avebury and Stonehenge. The track was recorded and mixed by Jeremy Ferguson at Battle Tapes Recording, finished by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering. Their 3-D animated video was created by Jonathan Richter.

Support

The Mute Group can be found on Soundcloud, as well as on their own website. On both Twitter and Instagram, the trio is @TheMuteGroup.