Dark Muse is a one woman sound project consisting of the artist Ruby Smith (formerly Phyll). She creates atmospheres ranging from haunting ethereal, to minimal, ritual dark ambient, experimental gothic and noise. Ruby approaches her art with an emphasis on raw emotion, while layering multiple voices as an instrument looped together with sounds that create textured landscapes to float in and out of. Ruby's focus is mainly voice, along with bowed cymbal, guitar, whistles, bells, gongs, water, wood, plastic, human breath, auto harps, metal nails, and other found objects that are then looped through either Line6 DL4's, Boss Loop station, or Ableton Live with added efx. All of her work is recorded in 'real' time & improvised & all of said work is then recorded live. While the Dark Muse owns no "official" back catalog, she has produced several self-released DAM CDs through MP3.com’s music network back in the day and has self-produced several CDR releases. The Fossil Dungeon brought attention to Ruby’s ambitions through the release of her debut CD, "Sounds from Beyond the Silver Wheel" back in 2002. Ruby has compiled 41 self released home burned cdr's on the Dark Muse site. Of the 41 discs, she has re-released a version of her first debut album as well. Each disc has been compiled to relay a flow, a concept or it spans a certain time frame between recorded tracks that tie each mix together, which also mark a turning point in the artists progression. Aside from music, Ruby is also a full time jeweler and artist. She opened her first brick & mortar 'Eyescream' shop in Oakland California in 2014, where she creates custom jewelry and sells her wares and cd's. She is starting to test the waters recording DM FB Live sessions and performs live in her shop for special events. Current Offerings for listening and download/purchase, can be found at www.darkmuse.com ~X~