Comprised of two EP’s on one CD/digital release. Skew / Flume marks a continuation of the long-standing work of American sound artist Seth Nehil.
Category: solo
Bounds treats recorded sound as infinitely malleable; from grains to pulses to pitches to rhythms, loops and cycles; interruptions, repetitions, spaces, pauses; strings in a continuum. Sounds sourced from percussion instruments, subjected to techniques of micro-editing and impulse-response reverb. Acoustic events become alien tones in strata of (artificial) real space.
Meticulously edited studio constructions composed of metallic rattles and impacts, vocal whoops and grunts, and digital silence. A refined use of digital editing techniques gives way to jagged repetitive structures, arrhythmic punk and wild cinematic spaces. Percussive elements are fused together, extracted from found objects, field recordings, synthetic tones, crashes, and drum machine thuds. The textures of hip hop, electronic, industrial and noise are filtered through the craft of musique concrete and sound design. These miniatures serve as a more synthetic and noisy partner to Knives (released in 2009 on Senufo).
Open clusters, animal patterns, resonant “ghosts”, dynamism, percussive bursts and awkwardness. Sources include voice, plucked springs, dry branches, various metal objects, Fender Rhodes, struck pipes, detuned hammer dulcimer, bass drum, clapping, trombone, dry bamboo, signal generator, blown pipes, Chinese mouthharp, church organ, prepared piano, prepared synth, and recordings of the Chicago O’Hare Airport, a rushing stream, mineral deposits in water, snow crystals, heating vents and industrial areas in Portland, OR.
Physicality, suspense, cinematic effects, rhythmic ruptures, and dynamism. Compositional processes include improvisation, blind layering, random muting, re-amping, impact alignment. Many of these tracks were used in the dance performance Bandage a Knife. Sources include organ, prepared synthesizer, trombone, string trio, voice, plucked springs, leather, blown pipes, ice shards, signal generator, drum kit, drum machine, clapping, breaking glass, bowed acoustic guitar, plucked and bowed hammer dulcimer, Fender Rhodes, snapping twigs, piano, feedback, stones, and field recordings of freezing rain on plastic, a rushing stream, a market in Kyoto.
Choral clusters, animalism, extended spaces, natural acoustics, awkwardness, percussive bursts. Site-specific improvisation, blind layering, sonic hybrids, envelope manipulation, faulty tape recorders, live feedback/distortion devices. Sources include voice, hammer dulcimer, glass xylophone, metal objects, feedback, signal generator, detuned piano, harmonica, wood pieces, fireworks, chimes, bamboo swords, sawblades, glass on tile, bass drum, flute, plucked autoharp, tuning forks, snare drum, 300 lbs of rock salt, a book, and recordings of rain in a half-finished cabin, melting snow on leaves, rain on a plastic roof, struck wood (from inside a well pipe), a graveyard and a schoolyard in Portland, OR, ice crystals and wind in the Columbia Gorge, WA.
Percussive bursts, linked events, micro-envelopes, spatial dissonance and crowd noises, Amnemonic Site: a “place of forgetting” – a temporary zone of amusia (the loss of ability to understand music). Sources include wood, fabric, tuning forks, fireworks, beans in various containers, Balinese gamelan, oscillator, blown organ pipes, brass organ reeds, Serge modular synth, metal pieces, and recordings of parks and New Year’s celebrations in Chinatown, Manhattan.
Sequential transformations, the slow revealing of hidden sonic events, linking of sonic layers, re-recording inside resonant objects and room tone. Sound as invention through disorientation (uva / grape / wine / disorientation / mutation = ova / fertility / emergence of form). Sources include ceramic rods, bowed autoharp, metal chain, small glasses suspended in water, and recordings of wind in the Columbia River Gorge, WA.
Continuous pitched sounds with an undercurrent of white noise. Air on the edges of tone, amplified through a compositional process of massing and layering, the incorporation of room tone and re-recording of environments. Sonic shadows – sound as a casting of color or dark, the slowly unfolding shade of space within a field of time, “night music”. Sources include blown bottles, pump organ, voice, bowed autoharp, piano, recorder, sagbut, and field recordings of fireworks, crickets, caves on the Oregon coast, a rotating electric sign in the cobblestone streets of Maribor, Slovenia, boiling water.
Organic and synthetic materials in collision, the layering of divergent acoustic spaces, condensed structures, jumbled sounds and dynamic swells. Basic materials are infinitely transformable, evolving and rearranging through cycles of growth and decay. Sources include bowed wire, harmonica, cello, dry leaves, glass shards, ceramic rods, paper, hand cymbals, small bells, rocks in a wooden box, metal rods, cardboard tubes, tuned cowbells, mechanical viola, seeds on tin foil, bowed glass, recordings in a resonant stairwell.
Seth Nehil 