SOTOL is the solo project of Jenn Arras [ah-raz], one half of Brooklyn duo Ondes. After tours in the USA and Canada and opening for LA Witch, Sextile, and Starcrawler, the lockdowns brought live performance to an abrupt halt.
Arras, a live sound and recording engineer, began working from scratch at home, and nine songs began to coalesce from collected guitar lines, drum machine beats, lyric ideas and field recordings—made with Tascam in-hand.
The songs branch out from familiar structures and, inspired by the futuristes, experiment with musique concrète, layered effects and sound montage .
Arras also performs under the name Zombietooth as DEEJAY. With regular dates at Berlin Under A, Baby’s All Right and Our Wicked Lady, she spins post-punk, darwave, synthpunk, indie dance and bloghaus tunes.
Sotol, named after a Mexican liquor Arras once served at a tequila bar, takes cues from “moody and echoey punk” influences.
RIYL: Dead Moon, Anika, 39 Clocks, LA Witch, Sneaks, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Royal Trux, Chrome, the Kills, Spacemen 3, the Gun Club.
As a text-based artist, Arras creates image transfer collages that engage with themes of mass media, dystopia and mental ennui. She has worked and lived in Bordeaux, Essaouira, CDMX and Aotearoa in addition to New York.
FUN FACTS—
sign: Virgo sun, Leo Moon
colours: orange, green or violet
class: multiclass druid + rogue
C.V.
Group Exhibitions | Residencies—
Magic In The Modern World - July 2024
PoetryXCollage - KolajFest 2022
Politics in Collage, New Orleans, LA
PSNY Virtual Workshops—
Love Poems
Self-Love Spells
Poetry of Recovery
Education—
Certificate, Graphic Design - 2021
Pacific Northwest College of Art
Bachelor of Arts, Creative Writing - 2016
Columbia College Chicago