Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer - Different Rooms (2025) (Hi-Res)

Different Rooms is a collection of songs and musical motifs we composed, edited, and collaged in the weeks between late 2024 and early 2025. Most of the recorded material was performed during that editing process, except for live performances taken from improvisations we recorded with Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson some time in 2023. In our typical process, much of our material is collaged and combines moments of live improvisation, field recordings, and in-studio experimentation. This record, however, marks an evolution in our approach to studio production.

Our studios are side-by-side. When we were writing this album, you might have found us tracking viola stacks in one studio while, in the other, we were writing through-composed themes and rearranging the material. Granular synthesis and tape manipulation are key tools we use to create variation and movement in a composition. This process often yields surprising results, capturing the emotion but expressing it in unexpected ways. It feels essential that we embrace a bit of chance.

In contrast to our first album, Recordings from the Åland Islands, we wanted this music to feel very present. Where Recordings was intended to transport you to another place, Different Rooms is meant to meet you where you are. It’s a decidedly urban album. The field recordings were captured on train platforms, in city streets, in rooms at home, and intentionally paint a quotidian sonic image, blurring the line between what you hear in your own environment and what is on the record.

The song cycle is set in palindromic sequence, figuratively, with certain pieces (reflected) by a reprised or recurring motif that is often reimagined with new instrumentation.

The sonic and temporal abstraction between what is performed in real-time versus what is recorded, manipulated, and collaged reinforces our intent to collect the works under the title Different Rooms, which literally expresses the way the material was recorded in different rooms while reminding us that our shared experience of present time is also one that is asynchronous, historied, and complex.

released June 20, 2025

All Compositions by Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer;
except “Side by Side” composed by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Jeff Parker, and “Different Rooms” composed by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Josh Johnson.

Performed, recorded, and arranged from November 2024 – January 2025 by Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer in Los Angeles, with additional performance recordings from Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg.

Jeremiah Chiu – modular synthesizer + live-sampling
Marta Sofia Honer – viola + electronics

Jeff Parker – guitar (on “Side by Side”)
Josh Johnson – saxophone + effects (on “Different Rooms”)

Voice on “Long and Short Delays,” “Different Rooms,” and “Mind by a Way” by Giovanna Jacques.

Zhinan Temple field recording on “One of Eight” by Michael Hilger.

Additional string treatment on “Before and After Signs” by Ben Babbitt.

Mixed by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Dave Vettraino.
Sequenced by Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, and Scott McNiece.
Mastered by David Allen.

Album Cover Art by Sam Prekop (Untitled, September 2023).
Photography by Christophe Guary and Daniel Everett.
Design and Layout by Jeremiah Chiu.

Thank you to our Los Angeles community.

Tracklist
01. Mean Solar Time (02:24)
02. Long and Short Delays (04:19)
03. Side by Side (02:35) - ft. Jeff Parker
04. One of Eight (02:12)
05. Before and After Signs (08:01)
06. Different Rooms (07:22) - ft. Josh Johnson
07. Speaking In Parallel (03:56)
08. Side by Side (reflected) (02:11)
09. Mind by a Way (04:51)
10. Mean Solar Time (reflected) (03:52)