Noveller

Noveller is the solo project of Brooklyn-based guitarist and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate. While attending college in Austin, Texas between 2003 and 2006, Lipstate played guitar in an experimental duo called One Umbrella with synth/electronics partner Carlos Villarreal. Noveller was born as a guitar-based solo moniker in 2005 when Lipstate contributed songs to a few different noise compilations, as well as self-releasing two 3" CD-R EPs, Vasovagal and Nerves and Endings. Her heavily processed guitar loops result in an icy wash of distant sounds, spare and unsettling by turns. In 2007, a move to the East Coast brought Noveller into the realm of live performance, starting with a spot at Washington, D.C. experimental festival Sonic Circuits. Various shows in the New York area followed, which led to a meeting with sound artist Carlos Giffoni. Giffoni issued the first two Noveller full-lengths, Paint on Shadows and Red Rainbows, on his No Fun Productions label. Both records saw release in 2009. In 2010, Lipstate started her own imprint, Saffron Recordings, releasing third full-length Desert Fires as well as a split LP with unFact. Her fifth full-length, Glacial Glow, was released jointly through Saffron and Weird Forest in May 2011. In the interim between albums, Lipstate kept very busy with one-off festival performances as well as regular shows in Manhattan and Brooklyn and tours of Europe and the U.S. for each new album. She also collaborated frequently, performing at times as a member of Cold Cave and Parts & Labor. Lipstate also acted as a player in Rhys Chatham's Guitar Army and Glenn Branca's 100-guitar ensemble, among other duo improvisation dates with fixtures of N.Y.C.'s experimental scene. Sixth album No Dreams saw release in 2013 on the Important Records label. She returned in early 2015 with Fantastic Planet, an album of decidedly more cinematic soundscapes.