Process Residency Night: DJ DISSOLVE invites: Erika, othrwrld, JAK

For my third residency, I’m honored to bring together three artists who have inspired me at different points along my musical journey, all of whom I consider masters of their craft.

I first became familiar with Erika during my first trip to Detroit in 2022, when a dear friend convinced me to venture to the longstanding Tangent Gallery for No Way Back, the immersive dance party she helps organize through Interdimensional Transmissions. I was not prepared for the positive overwhelm that would consume me after walking through its doors. That experience became one of my first real introductions to the world Erika has helped cultivate and to a way of thinking about music and the dance floor that has stayed with me ever since.

Erika’s approach to music has always struck me as existing somewhere between the deeply technical and the otherworldly. As a member of Ectomorph, a co-conspirator behind Detroit’s Interdimensional Transmissions, and an artist whose practice is rooted in analog synthesis and live hardware sequencing, she has spent decades exploring what can happen when technology becomes a vehicle for imagination rather than simply a tool. There is something simultaneously solid and ethereal about her work, music that feels deeply rooted in machinery while constantly reaching beyond it.

That same intentionality carries into the spaces she helps create. They are environments where people are able to lose themselves in the music while still remaining fully themselves, where individual expression and collective experience can exist at the same time. That ethos feels deeply aligned with what I hope to cultivate through Process. As she has described it, “No Way Back is an immersive experience for dancing. It’s a safe experience where you can go and dance, lose yourself, have individualism and express yourself in a room full of hundreds of people that are also doing their own thing and having their own unique experience in a group.”

I wanted to bring Erika to Portland not simply because of her skills as a DJ and producer, but because of the care, curiosity, intention, and understanding of the dance floor she carries with her. I hope that if any of you reading this make the great pilgrimage to Detroit, you take the time to visit the powerful space that Erika and her crew have cultivated. Next year will be an especially meaningful time to experience it, as No Way Back celebrates its 20th anniversary during Movement weekend in 2027.

Closer to home, othrwrld is someone I consider one of my twin flames. We’ve been orbiting and supporting each other for many years, and it has been such a privilege to develop as artists alongside one another. We’ve shared countless lineups, had multiple jam sessions, and continued to show up for each other throughout the years. Behind the decks, othrwrld is a powerful sorceress. I’ve witnessed her, on multiple occasions, capture the entire consciousness of a dance floor and place it into a wholly consuming trance. I’ve come to realize that the only way to escape her grasp is to join forces, so I’m thoroughly excited to open the Portal of my residency night alongside her.

And when it comes to the story of Portland’s rave history, it would be blasphemous to leave JAK out of the conversation. His first Portland gig was in 1997, giving him a nearly three decade relationship with the city’s underground dance music community. I’ve been a fan of his work for years, but beyond his musical talents and DJ skill, he is also someone I genuinely look up to as a friend and mentor. Like othrwrld and Erika, JAK is an extremely talented producer, and I’m happy to say I have multiple records of his in my collection. He is kind and generous, but he doesn’t mess around when it comes to his craft. To me, he exemplifies the essence of the underground: an artist deeply dedicated to what he does, with a decades long track record to prove it.

Each of these artists represents something different in my own musical journey: lineage, friendship, mentorship, experimentation, and devotion to the dance floor. Bringing them together for this residency feels like an opportunity to connect those threads in one room. I hope you’re able to join me!


More about Erika:

Erika dreams on the cellular level, or perhaps of transdimensional intelligences moving through strange patterns on celestial objects, working towards a mysterious goal. Her connection to the dreamworld becomes concrete in her approach to music, simultaneously so solid and yet so ethereal. Erika still finds time to accomplish many things in her waking hours, such as being a member of Ectomorph and Circle of Live, co-conspirator of Detroit's Interdimensional Transmissions record label, DJing and making music with her pet machines. Her freeform streaming radio station erika.net was one of the very first iTunes presets, running 24x7 for 17 years from 1999 to 2016. Prior to that, Erika was very involved in WCBN-FM Ann Arbor, as a freeform and jazz DJ, and Program Director.
The daughter of a famed scientist and already running a well known BBS from her bedroom by the time she was 13, Erika is no stranger to expressing her ideas through technology. In 1997 she was handed a TR-606 and asked to join Ectomorph, and has since become an electronic musician of the highest order, focusing on analog synthesis, with live hardware sequencing that allows transformation over time and a deep depth of tone.