“Don’t worry if you can’t understand it,” Irene Ruderman Clark says. “You can feel it.” She is about to sing in Russian onstage at Berlin, the intimate jazz club that hosts all sorts of live music in Minneapolis’ North Loop. It’s a recent Sunday evening, and Ruderman Clark’s band, StoLyette, is hosting an April residency. The vocalist describes another song as heavy and intense, and that’s exactly the way the music feels sitting in the intimate, dimly lit room.

Ruderman Clark’s husband, Ben Clark, is playing bass with an elaborate pedal board. She calls him a one-man band. Mitch Miller sits behind an electric drum pad and calmly adds brooding texture to the songs.

A few days later, the group is sitting in the Clarks’ living room lined with book- and vinyl-filled shelves. Their home in Minneapolis’ Whittier neighborhood is decorated with artwork from their child and Clark’s sister. Over wine and tea, StoLyette — now with the band’s other drummer, Ryan Mach — walk through their history, sonic curiosities, and appreciation for the improvisational nature of their music. “We need to be interviewed once a month so I can learn more about the band,” Mach jokes.

StoLyette began as the duo of Ruderman Clark and Clark, a couple who originally met on MySpace in 2004. Clark had extensive musical experience, but Ruderman Clark had none. Around 2014, Clark’s band, Basuketto, played weekly residencies at the now-closed Red Stag Supperclub and recruited local musicians like Nona Marie Invie, Maggie Morrison, Joey van Phillips, and Aby Wolf to do covers and improvised sets.

Ruderman Clark wanted to give singing a shot, but Clark was hesitant at first. The vocalist promised that she could figure it out, and the two eventually recorded a Russian song for the Totally Gross Holiday Action compilation from the Minneapolis-based label Totally Gross National Product (Poliça, Lizzo, Marijuana Deathsquads). The result was compelling, and the collaboration continued.

Next to join the lineup was Miller, who played a show with the duo at the currently closed Dinkytown venue Kitty Cat Klub. He fell in love with the music, and asked to be in the band. Wanting to add more rhythm to their next record, the duo welcomed Miller onboard. He calls it a dream come true. Titled Mitch, the second album is a simmering, subtly techno-infused electronic record.

Continuing the theme, the band titled its spacey, cosmic jazz fourth album Mach in reference to their fourth band member. Mach knew of StoLyette and Basuketto, and was thrilled to join when StoLyette wanted another musician to add a broader sonic palette to live performances.

StoLyette released their fifth record, GHOST FOX 2020, in March. The album expands on the band’s experimental nature, largely due to the writing process directed by Clark. He sends bass recordings to bandmates, then the others record ideas — vocals and drums — layered on top of the original. The cycle repeats, structures rearrange, and eventually a final product emerges.

Aspects of the record's sound stem from Clark’s experience listening to ’70s African jazz music while in Ethiopia and rap from the Griselda hip-hop record label. “You don't have to look too hard to hear that influence,” Mach says. “There are a lot of beats that sound like they're pulled from records like hip-hop used to be made.” 

So, why is “2020” in the title? The original release was planned for that year, but with more free time during quarantine, there was room to look back at the cutting room floor and reimagine drum beats to create something entirely new. “When you have a little bit of extra inspiration at the very end informed by all the work you've done, usually those songs are some of my favorites,” Mach says. With a well-oiled collaborative process, it was difficult for the band to stop meticulously morphing sound. 

The last song finished was “5 Kittens.” Clark wanted a track with a specific tempo to fit the album’s sequence. Lucky enough, he found an unfinished file to do the trick. It’s a haunting song with dense, creeping harmonies that sound sinister, but the lyrics are actually wholesome. The inspiration? Ruderman Clark points to a blue book sitting underneath their glass coffee table. It’s a Russian children's book about learning how to count.

In 1989, Ruderman Clark arrived in the U.S. as an 11-year-old after leaving Belarus during the exodus of Jewish people in the Soviet Union and following a refugee immigration route through Europe. She pictured herself on stage since she was a child, but hadn’t imagined singing in a band. “I always wanted to be an actress, but then I never did anything about it,” she says. “I vowed to myself that I would always try to be on stage.”

For those who don’t speak Russian, GHOST FOX 2020’s lyrical themes are a mystery. “A lot of it is really intense, like, panic attacks, a lot of ‘Why am I alive?’ [and] ‘All of this is a disaster’,” Ruderman Clark says. In “Whisper Song,” she sings in English, “When I scream my heart explodes / My sadness so complete / In this life what’s left to do / Why continue / No relief.”

When StoLyette began, Clark didn’t want English lyrics. “For the first thing, I thought it would be fun to just have it be mostly Russian,” he says. “And I thought it made it kind of fun to listen to the sound of that language, and also to not know what was being said and have it kind of form its own interpretation in your mind.” More English has been added since, but the multilingual songwriting remains. Many lines are half-English, half-Russian, how Ruderman Clark speaks with her parents.

“It works well, because I have more of a theatrical background, so I think it's not about the words so much,” she says. “It's more about the feel of it, rather than intellectually understanding what the song is about.”

StoLyette’s emotive music invites listeners to interpret and find their own meaning. While mixing the last record, every nuanced sound implanted itself into Mach’s head. “I found myself humming and even singing out loud some of these things I don't even understand,” he says. “I love that!” Ruderman Clark responds enthusiastically. 

GHOST FOX 2020 is StoLyette’s most distilled expression of what they’ve always been about: the desire to experiment and sculpt sounds that transcend language. For Ruderman Clark, the live performance that comes with music production is the outcome of childhood aspiration. “It’s f***ing really cool to be on stage with a microphone and people listening to you,” she says joyfully. “I think my young self would be fainting. It’s more — or different — than I imagined I would be doing.”

StoLyette play the final show of their Berlin residency on Sunday, April 27. Maggie Morrison is the special guest. Info