Blast Off Through the Wicker

Around the time he switched coasts and settled down in Northern California in 2016, visual artist and indie singer/songwriter Luke Temple (Here We Go Magic) adopted the persona of animist musician Art Feynman. Blending dissipating pop structures, psychedelia, and yearning, cosmic folktronica adjacent to some of his work under his own name, he debuted the project with Blast Off Through the Wicker in 2017.

Feynman's first release, a six-minute instrumental track incorporating environmental sounds ("Rice"), appeared on Bandcamp in April 2016. Obscuring his face in promotional material, he followed it a year later with the Krautrock-influenced stand-alone single "The Shape You're In," which addressed contemporary technology and politics. Recorded with a four-track tape recorder, the full-length Blast Off Through the Wicker arrived in July 2017 via Western Vinyl, which had issued albums by both solo Temple and his band Here We Go Magic. Feynman followed it with a U.S. tour in support of Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, then issued the Near Negative EP that December.

The Luke Temple album Both-And arrived on Native Cat Recordings in 2019 before Art Feynman reappeared with the 2020 long-player Half Price at 3:30 on Western Vinyl. ~ Marcy Donelson