Stephen Emmer on Asymmetrical Dot

Stephen Emmer came up in the late ’70s post-punk underground in Amsterdam. His band Minny Pops was the first international act signed to Factory Records. Since then he’s been a curious genre-explorer, working with Lou Reed, Chaka Khan, Tony Visconti, Trevor Horn, Flood, and many others.

His latest album, Asymmetrical Dot, is a chamber work rooted in his Dutch-Indonesian heritage, built around sustained tones, wordless vocals, vibraphone, and strings. The record came out of a year when his mother died and his first grandson was born-and the contracting themes of grief and arrival appear throughout the work.

We cover the album, his hearing loss, and why he walked away from commercial work to make the most personal music of his career.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Stephen Emmer’s Asymmetrical Dot)

Originally published at https://podcast.thetonearm.com.