Music

Video: "Fusion," from maeve & quinn

Each week, Alaska Dispatch News is featuring a different music video from an Alaska artist. Want to suggest a video? Contact play@alaskadispatch.com.

Twin sisters Maris Maeve and Bryce Quinn O'Tierney, who perform together as maeve & quinn, have far-reaching roots in Anchorage. They grew up in Anchorage, started their music studies there, competed at State Solo and Ensemble festival and used to busk at the Saturday markets downtown.

Maris, who sings and plays guitar and piano while Bryce sings and plays violin, describes their music as a blending of folk, pop and threads of Irish traditional. It was when the two left to study at Northwestern's Bienen School of Music in Chicago that their collaboration "really began to develop on classical and indie/folk pop fronts."

"Fusion" is a song that "represented a stage of our journey as twins, of coming together musically and bridging our distinct voices, which we thought would lend itself to a rich visual atmosphere," Maris said.

This dreamy, atmospheric music video for the song was made in 2014, their senior year in Chicago, with direction by Laurel Cohen and cinematography from Lauren Guiteras. The video uses textiles and stop motion to play "off of our language for the experience of fusion -- a threading, weaving of our voices -- as well as our physical interaction when performing live," Bryce said.

Maris said the project required about 50 people at various stages. From recording the song to production and editing, the video was about 6 months in the making.

In the end, "Finding a shared language across mediums, when the goal is to bring this music... to life, is complex, new, deeply personal. But ultimately, it's a beautiful thing when the music can derive from that very individual experience and evolve, reach this point where it's ready to meet a greater audience of listeners and become a shared space," Brycesaid.

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"That collaboration of human feeling is really what we're working for."

The two are currently working on a new album, "Soundings in Fathoms," which they hope to release in 2016 and will include collaboration with musicians across Alaska, Chicago and Dublin.

For more, visit marismaeve.com and marismaeve.bandcamp.com.

Victoria Barber

Victoria Barber was formerly the features editor at the Anchorage Daily News and is an occasional contributor.

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