SHAKHNES, GRISHA — The Heaver
More Info
https://moremars.bandcamp.com/album/the-heaver
I was going to be a neo-deconstructivist but mom wouldn't let me
Writing about Grisha Shakhness music is quite a difficult task. Grisha is involved with the independent music scene since 2008, at first under the name Mites and then with his real name. All these years, he is practicing on music composition, using mainly field recording, tapes and lo-fi electronics, keeping a beautiful balance between real time composition and experimentation. Grisha's sound work has a very personal character and sometimes it's like the listener following in real time his creative process. He is recording at home, with his presence being notable on the recordings and with the sounds of the environment being welcome on his compositions.
On The Heaver, Grisha Shakhnes works with structure, textures and length, giving space to transformative qualities of sound and repetitive inaudible ones, to shape of his musical work. He improvises and manipulate sounds very gently, creating foggy soundscapes of broken sounds, electronic hums and noises, mixed with pre-recorded material from urban life.
The Heaver includes four new long compositions by Grisha Shakhnes, recorded on Tel Aviv during June of 2021. Released on a limited edition of 100 cassettes, including download code.
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"Music from Grisha Shakhnes, from tel Aviv, made it to these pages a couple of times (Vital Weekly 1208, 985, 939, 880), but already some time ago. I am unsure why it took some time to have a new release, but maybe I missed out on some. His music is usually quite conceptual, even when the concept isn't always that clear. There is quite a bit at work regarding field recording but without much action. Shakhness captures a situation and maybe adds a wee bit of processing, and that's it. In 'About To Collapse', the recorder sits in a car, and it rains, so the window scrapers are on. Maybe a delay pedal rides along? 'Street Life' does that, capturing street life. At night, I think, with minimal action going (or maybe Shakhness lives in a tranquil area). In 'Winding Down', the tap leaks, and there is some highly obscured indoor action; again, we have no idea about the source. In that respect, is the title piece the winner here; I have no idea what's going on there. We have four pieces here, four situations, if you will, or four textures. Each of these textures is mysterious and vague in equal portions. But, perhaps, strangely enough, I found all these highly fascinating music pieces. Is there development or even change? That question I found hard to answer. There are points in all of these pieces in which something changes but is that the result of Shakhness intervening (or composing with sounds), or simply because there is a shift in the sound. Scientists are still thinking about this answer. For me, the answer is not as interesting as the question." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
I was going to be a neo-deconstructivist but mom wouldn't let me
Writing about Grisha Shakhness music is quite a difficult task. Grisha is involved with the independent music scene since 2008, at first under the name Mites and then with his real name. All these years, he is practicing on music composition, using mainly field recording, tapes and lo-fi electronics, keeping a beautiful balance between real time composition and experimentation. Grisha's sound work has a very personal character and sometimes it's like the listener following in real time his creative process. He is recording at home, with his presence being notable on the recordings and with the sounds of the environment being welcome on his compositions.
On The Heaver, Grisha Shakhnes works with structure, textures and length, giving space to transformative qualities of sound and repetitive inaudible ones, to shape of his musical work. He improvises and manipulate sounds very gently, creating foggy soundscapes of broken sounds, electronic hums and noises, mixed with pre-recorded material from urban life.
The Heaver includes four new long compositions by Grisha Shakhnes, recorded on Tel Aviv during June of 2021. Released on a limited edition of 100 cassettes, including download code.
########################
"Music from Grisha Shakhnes, from tel Aviv, made it to these pages a couple of times (Vital Weekly 1208, 985, 939, 880), but already some time ago. I am unsure why it took some time to have a new release, but maybe I missed out on some. His music is usually quite conceptual, even when the concept isn't always that clear. There is quite a bit at work regarding field recording but without much action. Shakhness captures a situation and maybe adds a wee bit of processing, and that's it. In 'About To Collapse', the recorder sits in a car, and it rains, so the window scrapers are on. Maybe a delay pedal rides along? 'Street Life' does that, capturing street life. At night, I think, with minimal action going (or maybe Shakhness lives in a tranquil area). In 'Winding Down', the tap leaks, and there is some highly obscured indoor action; again, we have no idea about the source. In that respect, is the title piece the winner here; I have no idea what's going on there. We have four pieces here, four situations, if you will, or four textures. Each of these textures is mysterious and vague in equal portions. But, perhaps, strangely enough, I found all these highly fascinating music pieces. Is there development or even change? That question I found hard to answer. There are points in all of these pieces in which something changes but is that the result of Shakhness intervening (or composing with sounds), or simply because there is a shift in the sound. Scientists are still thinking about this answer. For me, the answer is not as interesting as the question." [FdW / Vital Weekly]