Valerian-Flores (Negative Scanner) & Theo Katsaounis (Joan of Arc, Aitis Band) Share Horror-Story Album 'The Silence of Memory'

American Dreams Records is pleased to present a horror story that leaves the most terrifying acts just off the page, and a bold new collaboration between Rebecca Valeriano-Flores (Negative Scanner, Tyler Jon Tyler) and Theo Katsaounis (Joan of Arc, Aitis Band).

The Silence of Memory explores violence, memory, family and time perception, and premiered at the Empty Bottle last fall. Valeriano-Flores is best-known for her fierce performances leading Chicago punk band Negative Scanner, but here trades her bracing frontwoman persona for spoken-word narration, against which Katsaounis provides bristling accompaniment.

The Silence of Memory begins in the Philippines, where Valeriano-Flores narrates the first of three interconnected short stories drawing from her childhood and young adulthood. In Part I, Valeriano-Flores travels to a canal where, decades before, her father and uncle hop between logs as they float down the canal. Observing the scene as a child from her adult perspective, Valeriano-Flores establishes her narrative voice, simultaneously unflinching and careful.

Katsaounis applies unsettling, psychedelic ambience to her spoken word, verging between delicate guitar chords, dark, shimmering drones, and dense fogs of static that pitch up with the story's twists. The tension builds as the story moves to California and Chicago, touching on the complex impacts of trauma on family relationships and perception of time, the cruelty of domestic violence, and the challenges of preserving one's sense of self while reconciling difficult, incongruous facts.

Despite its short runtime, The Silence of Memory is committed to nuance and philosophical precision, evoking the quivering intensity of This Heat or Nina Simone and Saidiya Hartman's rigorous literary weavings of violence and intimacy. Together, Valeriano-Flores and Katsaounis create a haunting story-of-stories that crosses borders, genres and generations, illustrating the effects of trauma on memory, our family histories and our day-to-day lives.

The Silence of Memory by Rebecca Valerian-Flores and Theo Katsaounis is out now and available to order from American Dreams here. Listen here: