Cellist Jordan Hamilton and producer The Lasso (the stage name of Andrew Catlin) join Cara Lieurance to discuss their new collaborative EP, The More You Know. The release grew out of a residency with Michigan State University's W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, which hires a musician each year to create a piece of music inspired by field recordings of researchers conducting studies and giving talks on the grounds.
Hamilton says KBS first contacted him two years before he finally accepted, timing that lined up with a self-directed residency he was doing in Los Angeles. Faced with an archive of 70 to 80 field recordings, he decided to not limit himself: "I felt like I couldn't do it justice with one song," he says, "so I made a collection of songs that kind of take the listener — and took myself — through the day that I heard."
Hamilton layered cello over samples of birdsong, insects, and researchers narrating soil experiments and nitrogen reactions, letting the recorded voices sit inside the music rather than dominate it. He says he wanted listeners to feel immersed in the researchers' world "without necessarily catching all their information," so the tracks reward repeat listens. The EP's title, he says, is both a nod to the research project itself and a small jab at "the age of misinformation," meant to champion scientific curiosity.
Once his layers were done, Hamilton handed the tracks to The Lasso for synths and melodies. Lasso, who cites early electronic pioneers like Wendy Carlos Williams, Suzanne Ciani, Tangerine Dream, and Terry Riley as touchstones, says he moved fast. "I probably spent three hours on the whole album, four hours," he says, describing most of his contributions as first-take improvisations recorded in his LA bedroom down the hall from Hamilton's. "Anything Jordan asked me to do is usually really creative and interesting, and I usually just say yes."
The finished tracklist moves through a day and evening at the station, from the birdsong of "Chick-a-Dee" to the insect hum of "Friendly Buzz" and "Bugs Life" to the clinking glassware of "Inside," built from a soil-density experiment. Hamilton, whose cello work has increasingly crossed into hip-hop, ambient, and jazz settings, says the project reflects a broader goal: "I've always wanted to see the cello put in places outside of the classical."
"The More You Know" is streaming now on Bandcamp.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.