Drone Records

NEHIL, SETH - Furl

Format: CD

Label & Cat.Number: Sonoris sns-09

Release Year: 2010

Note: sequel to the amazing album from last year "Flock & Tumble"; unique, wondrous music build mainly on instrumental sound sources

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €12.00

More Info

" 'Furl is the sequel to Seth Nehil's critically acclaimed 2009 release Flock & Tumble, also on Sonoris. Continuing his exploration of physically charged, acousmatic sound, these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble. Clusters of bell-like tones pierce hazy, corroded atmospheres. Animalistic yelps, distant pings, percussive bursts and glassy swells all merge in this unique sound-world. These five pieces are both rigorously-assembled and gracefully sparse. Furl will be a welcome addition to the expanding catalogue in Nehil's futuristic organic paradox.What others had to say about Flock & Tumble : Extraordinary a wonderful sense of confidence in the material, an ability to go somewhere quite new.' - Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear). 'Not too often you come across something that just sounds like little else.' - Brian Olewnick (Just Outside). 'An important demonstration of Nehil's abilities, this is a classic sleeper which deserves immediate exposure, well beyond the small circle of experts to which music like this is usually addressed.' - Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes). Biography : Seth Nehil is an artist, performance-maker, and composer with a practice that crosses between sound, performance-events and the visual arts. In recent years he has created large-scale sound performances, collaborated with choreographers including Liz Gerring (NYC) and Linda Austin (Portland, Ore), and has published music on various international labels, including Sonoris (France) and Senufo Editions (Italy). Seth Nehil has also been an editor of arts publications, an organizer of performance festivals and a curator of exhibitions. He currently teaches sound, video and art theory at WSU Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest College of Art." [label press release]

www.sonoris.org

" 'Furl' is already the follow-up to last years 'Flock & Tumble' (see Vital Weekly 684) and continues his shift away from the field of drone music. Like it says on the press release 'these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble'. The music of Seth Nehil has moved into the field of acousmatica. More than on the previous it seems to me that Nehil is working with real instruments (played by himself or others), which are transformed, thanks to the computer no doubt, but he cleverly stays away from the regular type processing that the schooled composers use. Instead he creates quite vibrant pieces of music that bounces off into various directions and moods. Even a quiet piece like 'Hiss' has this vibrancy, with slow changes in sound and volume. As said its not easy to recognize the instruments he uses (piano? guitar? percussion?), but he works with them in a great way. He's now entirely away from the field recordings and drones and works in a modern classical approach. A piece
like 'Swarm' sounds a stage piece with various voices from behind and slaps and bangs on the piano and percussion, with the addition of electronics making glissandi. Yet he has sprinkled the thing with his own magic - the sort of obscuring the sounds and that gives his music something of its own. Its hard to say what that is exactly, but it doesn't sound like anything else, which is the best compliment a composer can get, I guess. Its by far the best Nehil CD I heard and a fine career move." [FdW/Vital Weekly]