The Blue Knots Shares Debut Album & Tour
June 14 - July 13
The Blue Knots unveil a masterful debut album Becoming Noise, a 12-track exploration of physical creation, transformation, and the space before becoming.
The latest evolution from avant-garde musician and songwriter Danielle Stech-Homsy (formerly known as Rio en Medio), Becoming Noise weaves together minimalist pianet composition, experimental percussive textures, and Stech-Homsy’s delicately powerful vocals—resulting in a sound both intimate and expansive.
Becoming Noise offers personal tribute for anyone who has ever tried to create something, or someone, and instead created themselves in a new light.
Speaking on the record, Stech-Homsy shares: “There’s a subtle story at work in this album, of something becoming, becoming human, and not even knowing what that is. There is a messiness in becoming, it involves dissolution as much as coherence.
We become alien to ourselves as we grow. We look around and feel the disparity between what we aspire to be and who we actually are. The “noise” referenced in the album title is also the messiness of entanglement, we aren’t just us, but we are a refraction of the world around us.”
Listen to Becoming Noise HERE
Alongside the release of Becoming Noise, The Blue Knots has announced a summer Northwest tour with fellow Portland, OR artist Neal Morgan, including performances in Seattle and Portland.
As Rio en Medio, Danielle Stech-Homsy 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, and garnering praise from publications such as Pitchfork, Gorilla vs. Bear, Treblezine, The Wire, Relix and more.
The Blue Knots is a new chapter in the sonic journey of Stech-Homsy. Where her music of the 2000s and early 2010s was rooted in acoustic string instrumentation—baritone ukulele and folk traditions— over the years her creative path has shifted, leading into the realm of keys and synthesizers.
“The piano is a force to reckon with,” she reflects. “It’s 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 subtle colorations of emotion, acknowledging a classical tradition while pushing toward the experimental and avant-garde.
After the last Rio en Medio album in 2015, Stech-Homsy took time away from public performance, immersing herself in quiet experimentation. This period yielded a Russian covers album, an ambient noise project, a lo-fi pop collection—each lending gentle touches on Becoming Noise.
The songwriting process for this album, however, was distinct. “I wrote all of these songs in one period,” she explains. “The words to most came in a single night, spilling out in just a few hours.” This immediacy carries through the record, lending an organic, instinctive feel.
Take opening track, “Sidra,” which emerged as a stream of consciousness and centers a cosmic figure who is being called into being. Subtle reference is made to the 1961 Japanese film Mothra, where islanders call to a guardian figure with the anagrammatic titular syllables. Danielle was later struck to discover the etymological meaning of the name “Sidra”—“of the stars” in Latin. “Sidra” explores the relationship between sound and creation, and the mystery of existence before life begins.
“People are fascinated by the afterlife, but I’m drawn to the before,” she says. “What does it mean to come into being?”
Across the record Danielle ponders on bodily discovery, from the wonder of experiencing your own new body (“Tin Pines”) to the physicality of desire (“Rodin”). The instrumental “Chance I May” offers a moment of emergence. “This is like their dance,” Danielle says of the album’s central figure. “It’s awkward, mechanical—a being coming into its own.”
Single “Bike By” sonically aligns with life itself—in constant motion and with 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 stunning accompanying music video is a work of experimental animation, using the barest substances of light and sand.
Rich with artistic reference, works of sculpture, poetry and mythology pepper their way throughout Becoming Noise. Central track “Brighid’s Song” draws on Celtic lore, paying tribute to Saint Brighid—a pre-Christian figure associated with the hidden life beneath the soil, the potential for growth before it manifests.
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.
Becoming Noise is out now, available on all platforms.
Northwest Tour Dates
June 14th – The Anita, Astoria, OR
June 20th – Turn, Turn, Turn, Portland, OR
June 25th- Sam Bond’s Garage, Eugene, OR
July 12th- The Langley Warehouse, Seattle, WA
July 13th- Special House Show (Location TBA), Whidbey Island, WA
Tracklist:
1 – Sidra
2 – Tin Pines
3 – Brighid’s Song
4 – Chance I May
5 – His Only Confusion
6 – Rodin
7 – Coming Through
8 – Hard Stone
9 – In Futures
10 – Sunspots
11 – Bike By
12 – The Stars of the Kingdom