page_title: American Drift
section_title: Concept
hierarchical_section_title: American Drift / Concept
caption_attribution_description: English: High Knob along en:Shenandoah Mountain, taken from along the en:U.S. Route 33 crossing of the mountain. Dark green tree in foreground is Pinus pungens.
context_page_description: American Drift is the first studio album by Amerindian Aymara electronic musician and composer Elysia Crampton, after her previous work under the name E+E. It was released on August 7, 2015, on Blueberry Records and was released to high critical acclaim from various critics.
context_section_description: Crampton described both herself and American Drift as taking a transevangelistic approach. The title track, written for and spoken by her collaborator Money Allah (who also appears on "Wing"), is set as a transevangelistic prayer. Lyrically, it references Paul Claudel's poetic cycle "The Way of the Cross" and the Christian hymn "Rock of Ages", and depicts the "wildly disanthropocentric" transformation of natural settings. "Petrichrist"'s name is a portmanteau of petrichor and Christ, and musically documents Crampton herself driving in her Ford Ranger up the Shenandoah Mountain in Virginia, intended as a depiction of "an encounter between mountain and vehicle, interactions of non-human objects touching one another in a Worlding where all things have agency." "Wing" is a piece in two parts based on particular natural cycles in prehistory; it portrays an impact event, leading into "negative photosynthesis" and finally fern spikes; the track is also dedicated to black pianist Margaret Bonds, whose piano pieces were formulative on the album among Crampton's influences. "Axacan" is named for and musically depicts the Ajacán Mission, where the first Spanish settlement in Virginia occurred violently.
caption: The Shenandoah Mountain in Virginia served as a geographical and geological inspiration for American Drift.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2008:05:13 11:39:04", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "27808", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9485", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:05:13 11:39:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:05:13 11:39:04", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "52", "EXIF SubSecTime": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "90", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "27670", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "78", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}