Stranger Cat
Stranger Cat (multi-media artist Cat Martino) is a Vocalist, Producer, Composer, Dancer, Light Sculpture Creator, Video Maker and Sound Healer. The frequent collaborator with Sufjan Stevens (from Coachella to the Sydney Opera House), Cat has also recorded and toured internationally with Sharon Van Etten, The Shins (SNL), Nathaniel Rateliff, Son Lux, Marissa Nadler, Passion Pit, Mark Gardener (RIDE), and Richard Swift to name a few. Marked by Martino's velvet croon, signature vocal looping, and a production style that is electronic and organic, Stranger Cat delivers a range of intricate and soulful experimental art pop. She was awarded NYFA Women's Grant (2020) & NYC City Corps Grant (2021). Her voice and songwriting at the center, she is surrounded by keyboards, looping pedals, samples from city and nature sounds, and a multi-media live show including self-made crystalline light sculptures made from sustainable, found materials and her experimental dance videos, to yield a full sensory performance experience.
Stranger Cat's debut album In the Wilderness was released on Joyful Noise Records, and NPR cites her work "Pairs high-energy production with soaring vocals that sound like a dare to be free", and Noisey says she "Hangs in a starry galaxy alongside Kate Bush and Purity Ring".
Stranger Cat creates light and sound installations that transport one out of the ordinary world into daydream, fantasy, breath and imagination. She also offers Sonic Sound Baths, using live looped vocals, her original beats, singing bowls and other organic instruments, synths and more, as the YIN side to her higher energy electronic pop. As an experienced Yoga Teacher, she enjoys sharing the power of healing through sound, merged with the chromo therapy visual aspect of her light sculptures.
Not to mention, she will DJ your next event and keep the people bumpin! Her work with choirs and site-specific performance expand her palette to territories inspired by Meredith Monk and Pauline Oliveros. And she teaches inner city kids to make beats and music production, giving frequent Master Classes to students via www.buildingbeats.org ~ who's mission to educate the next generation in music production and provide education and technology access inclusive to all youth despite race or class, is a passion close to her heart and vision.