Swawm Pass's debut recording with artwork using topographic maps from Eastern Oregon.

Eastern Oregon is about to further embrace its freakiness this month. The Baker City noise-funk band Swäwm Pass (say their name three times fast in order to figure it out) will be releasing their first official recording via Brooklyn-based Cimiotti Records. Released on cassette — Cimiotti’s format of choice — “Eastern Oregon Landscapes Vol. 1” is 30 minutes of short bursts of booty-shaking rhythms that give way to bizarre electronic soundscapes with spectral strains of cello and saxophone wafting through the mix. It is the first in a series of releases from Cimiotti Records highlighting music from Eastern Oregon.

For those looking for a quick comparison to draw Swäwm Pass’ sound to, think of the sound collage “Revolution 9” from the Beatles’ White Album, the atonal psyche-rock of the Red Crayola’s early albums, the improvisational freak-out jams of pre-”Dark Side” Pink Floyd, and the industrial aural assault of Wolf Eyes.

Swäwm Pass could be described as “more of an invitation than a band,” according to their co-founder and drummer Riley Hall, a nurse by day who originally hails from Pendleton. Hall conceived of the band with guitarist Euell Macke as a musical outlet for themselves and their friends. Hall’s previous music experience had been playing cello under the tutelage of Loree Tucker-McKenna and singing in the Pendleton High School choir under the direction of Bill Mayclin, so picking up the drums and laying down a funky beat was an adventurous step forward. The same can be said for Macke, who had previously only played acoustic guitar in old-time string bands in Walla Walla.

In order to round out their initial lineup, Hall and Macke reached out to bass player Damon Rose. Primarily a drummer for alt-country bands in Portland, Rose relocated to Baker with his family in 2013 to operate Marilyn’s Music, the local musical instrument and recording retailer. A longtime screen printer and graphic designer, Rose has set up a screen printing studio in the back of Marilyn’s where he prolifically produces T-shirts and hoodies bearing Swäwm Pass’ name in the most clever of ways. Rose has also converted a portion of Marilyn’s into a small recording studio.

Swäwm Pass’ first live performance was during the summer of 2015 at the Frontier Tavern in Haines, a town that inspired Walter Winchell to remark that “if you wanted to kill someone, Baker County was the place to do it.” In the audience was a recent transplant to Baker from the Bay Area, Justin Kendall. Kendall insisted that he must join the band. A tech savvy individual, Kendall fashioned a Wii gaming console that runs a program that turns the unit into a theremin emulator.

Kendall has also added a visual element to the band by incorporating a projector into Swäwm Pass’ shows. He started with a hack of the visualizer from Windows Media Player that provides multi-colored psychedelic patterns in respond to the rhythms of the band. Most recently Kendall has made a cut of “Saturday Night Fever” for their concerts, which plays each scene from the movie in reverse. Watching John Travolta uncomb his hair is oddly satisfying.

Swäwm Pass has been augmented by additional members within the past year. Hall invited his neighbor Griffin Stone, a high school-aged baritone saxophonist, to join, much to his parents’ delight. Paul McNeil, a regular performer with the Baker Community Orchestra, joined the group on electric cello as he was looking for a jazz project to participate in.

This “come one, come all” approach to band membership helps explain the cross section of attendees to their performances: hipsters who’ve expatriated from Cascadia, retirees who patronize the local arts scene, teenagers looking for a thrill, and families with small children. Their performances have seen them play cowboy taverns, sports bars, gazebos in municipal parks, and even the Let ’er Buck Room in Pendleton for a Halloween party. Even if audiences don’t quite get it, they are curious enough to stick around in order to figure out what this band of mutants is all about.

The fact that an avant-garde, noise-funk, art-project band can not only be born in Eastern Oregon but actually thrive here is encouraging news both for fans of challenging art in this region and those who wish to produce it.

If that weren’t enough, a fan of the band who works at the Bureau of Land Management identified an unnamed pass near Dooley Mountain in the Elkhorns. He promptly named it Swäwm Pass in their honor. The site of the pass sits 200 feet from the path of totality for a solar eclipse scheduled for August 2017. Swäwm Pass is plotting how to stage a performance during this astronomical event.

Get ready to freak out.

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James Dean Kindle is a Pendleton musician and executive director of the Oregon East Symphony. Contact him at jamesdeankindle@gmail.com.