The Blue Knots today shares single “Bike By”, the latest offering from her forthcoming debut album Becoming Noise, out April 25, 2025. The new project of avant-garde musician and songwriter Danielle Stech-Homsy (formerly known as Rio En Medio) finds her blending minimalist pianet composition with experimental percussive textures, resulting in a sound both intimate and expansive.
Like life itself, the song “Bike By” is in constant motion and has rhythmic cycles that follow their own internal logic, at times casually lining up together – like two people riding bicycles who find themselves riding in unison for a time.
“The opening line of ‘Bike By’ refers to being in silence, but it’s not the silence of turning away from confronting hard truths, or not speaking out about them,” shares Danielle. “It’s the stillness that lets you see more clearly what’s going on below the surface. The song examines humanity’s gifts and weaknesses and attends to the paradox of being human. It also marvels at mutual interdependence, reaching beyond what’s familiar and comfortable to see how we’re all bound up in it together.”
Accompanying the single is an experimental animated video, created by Stech-Homsy, using the barest substances of light and sand, with sound being the third element.
Of the video, Danielle says – “What you see sprang spontaneously from my imagination without any preconception. The fact that the form moves from reptilian to bird-like to mammalian I think is remarkable as it follows the known curvature of biological evolution. The circular form invokes an embryo and the moon is a perpetual metaphoric overlay. The creature is in constant flux and the story is literally coming out of the sand, an interesting idea that correlates to what the more progressive strands of science are now suggesting – that matter itself is conscious.
There is so much to explore for the curious mind within this video. I hope it leaves something for the imagination to build upon.”
Across the 12 tracks of The Blue Knots debut album, Becoming Noise, Stech-Homsy offers a meditation on physical creation, transformation, and the space before becoming.
As Rio en Medio, she released four expansive records, rooted in acoustic string instrumentation. Her first album, Bride of Dynamite, was released via Devendra Banhart‘s Gnomonsong label, leading to collaborations with artists such as Grizzly Bear, CocoRosie, koto master Shoko Hikage and many others. Rio en Medio’s work has garnered praise from publications such as Pitchfork, Gorilla vs. Bear, Treblezine, The Wire, Relix and more.
The Blue Knots is a new chapter in the journey of Stech-Homsy. Lyrically and thematically, Becoming Noise offers personal tribute for anyone who has ever tried to create something, or someone, and instead created themselves in a new light. Its tender tracks reflect on bodily autonomy and discovery, both of oneself and others. Rich with artistic reference, Danielle peppers in works of sculpture, poetry and mythology throughout.
Sonically, the Blue Knots sees Danielle leaning further into the realm of keys and synthesizers.
“The keyboard and piano are a force to reckon with,” she reflects. “They’re held away from the body, contained apart from you, as opposed to an instrument you hold close to your chest.”
This physical and emotional shift has shaped the Blue Knots sound—more structured yet no less visceral. Inspired by the compositions of Francis Poulenc, she embraces the piano’s ability to create realms of emotion, drawing from a classical foundation while pushing toward the experimental.
With this album, the Blue Knots establishes itself not just as a continuation of Rio en Medio, but as an entity all its own: expansive, emotive, and fearlessly art-forward.
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