OPTOMETRY concert
SA 09.08.25 | Seebühne | 22:00-23:00
Optometry is a Los Angeles-based music duo comprised of electronic musician John Tejada and singer March Adstrum. The band focuses on themes of life, love and loss, weaving seductively melancholic textures together with synths, drum machines, guitars and bass. Adstrum’s ethereal voice brings the electronics to life with heartfelt expression and emotion, while Tejada’s use of vintage rhythm boxes, synths and effects provide a solid sense of authenticity. The duo released their debut album After-Image in 2023, followed by a remix album In-Visible Distance as well as Parallel Distortion, a five song EP released in Spring of 2024.
John Tejada is a Vienna-born, Los Angeles-based electronic music composer, DJ, and professor at CalArts. Tejada’s professional output of music began in 1994 and has never let up, including five albums for the revered label Kompakt, plus releases on Pokerflat, Cocoon, Plug Research, Seventh City, Playhouse, Defected, and his own label since 1996, Palette Recordings. Tejada has also been responsible for remixing more than 100 songs for acts including Orbital, The Postal Service, Télépopmusic, The Field, Bomb the Bass, Way Out West, Kevin Saunderson, Plaid, Psychic TV, Gui Boratto, Simian Mobile Disco and many others.
March Adstrum, raised by two Baroque violinists, was first influenced by the orchestral works of J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Friedrich Handel, among others. From the age of 6 months she traveled backstage with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, and Portland Baroque Orchestra. At the same time she was being raised in a fishing village located in a temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest. Her family taught her to value human connection, nature, and kindness. As she learned about the state of the world, she realized that she wanted to bring something with a good heart into being that could maybe help others feel less alone. At the age of 18, she moved to Los Angeles to study at California Institute of the Arts, where she discovered a great love for punk music, electronics, indie rock, and the D.I.Y. community. Her first official record, an EP, was released in 2021, entitled Veins, Vines, Cables. In June of 2024 Adstrum followed with her debut album Relics from Phantoms.
