L'Rain

Through L'Rain, Taja Cheek, based in Brooklyn, has been developing an experimental music that crosses psychedelic pop, soul, ambient, sound collage, gospel, free jazz and noise textures in flexible forms where songs are built up by vocal layers, loops and rhythm ruptures. Born and raised in Crown Heights, she studied music and then American Studies at Yale before returning to New York, where she first played in the local indie scene, notably with Throw Vision, while also pursuing programming and curatorial work in spaces and institutions such as Creative Time, MoMA PS1, or more recently Performance Space New York. L'Rain takes discographic shape with the album L'Rain in 2017, released on Astro Nautico, then expands with Fatigue in 2021 and I Killed Your Dog in 2023, two records released on Mexican Summer, where her writing becomes even more fluid, between deconstructed song, discreet pulsation, soul harmonies and abstraction. If Taja Cheek remains the project's center, L'Rain also operates as a collaborative framework, notably with Andrew Lappin and Ben Chapoteau-Katz, in a constant dialogue between composition, improvisation and editing. On stage, L'Rain has circulated between independent rock venues, festivals and art spaces, and has also toured alongside artists such as Animal Collective, Sharon Van Etten, Big Thief, or LCD Soundsystem.