Seth Nehil - Tracing The Skins Of Clouds (Orogenetics, 1998)

1 Stratus
2 Cirrus
3 Nimbus

It is deceptively easy to characterize Seth Nehil's first album as a drone album. Tracing the Skin of Clouds explores the microscopic variations in long organic soundscapes, with a relatively constant pitch originating from Tibetan bells as an ever-present underpinning. But whereas other drone artists, such as Eliane Radigue or Jliat, emphasize the electronic nature of their sonic origins, Nehil is closer in spirit to the field recordings at the base of the work of Ora or Michael Northam (who worked with Nehil in Orogenetics, an art and music collective active in Austin, TX, in the late '90s). Nehil's music is based entirely on natural sounds and the manipulation of physical materials, and he uses little or no processing on the sounds, differentiating himself by the methods of sound collection. "Cirrus" features wooden chimes, Tibetan bells, scraping percussion, rubbed drum skins, and rolling glass, all gently mutating without any significant events. "Nimbus" is quieter, rustling leaves with distant snaps, with a more ominous electronic-sounding drone fading in and out. The backdrop of "Stratus" is a series of slow-moving, low white-noise waves, possibly originating in wind sounds, with a growing layer of continuous bell sounds moving into a clear shimmering at the end. Nehil's use of ordinary substances to create the album's ephemeral sounds sets his work apart from many others in the contemporary electro-acoustic field, and the paradox of the album's title is reflected in the music's connection between the mundane and the imagination.
Caleb Deupree, All Music Guide

Sound artist Seth Nehil (who has worked with John Grzinich as Alial Straa and with the Orogenetics arts collective) here explores the nature of sound as texture in Tracing the skins of clouds, released on the Kaon label in 1998. Electroacoustic, musique concrète, call it what you like, this project takes a close look at all manner of sounds and aural textures through the use of contact microphones [sic]. The sources are left undefined, which leaves the imagination free to roam for metaphors and guesses as to the objects Nehil is using in these recordings. With a few words on the disc's sleeve - "our bodies trace the tactile tension between ground and sky" - we sense that there is a certain magic at work here. Close scrapings, as if dragging an object on a concrete floor, drones of sounds, seemingly stretched with effects but Nehil has been known to abstain from using any superfluous effects in his work, preferring instead to coax a wealth of sounds and drones from the objects themselves. The three long pieces on the disc are quiet, with rumblings and scrapings layered carefully in complex yet seamless arrangements (this is most clear in the aptly titled third piece, "stratus"), and the results are rather relaxing. My body and my mind are at ease with these sounds, exploring with a strange sort of calm the nuances and details in these uncanny sounds. Highly recommended, and another fine release from Kaon, with an attractive sleeve featuring woodcuts from a seventeenth century text on the history of rare species of plants.
Richarddi Santo, incursion.org

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Jgrzinich - Equal and Distant Lines (Cloud Of Statics, 2005)

1 Evening Bleariness And Quiet Discontent 19:45
2 The Stone Transmissions 16:16
3 Recurrent Territories 7:36
4 Call Of A Brazen Corona 16:32

I remember the name of this artist from the Intransitive label where he has a collaboration with Seth Nehil. However, I haven't heard his solo music before, and I'm quite positively surprised with this CD, which is a part of the so called Cloud Of Statics series of long works or albums on the new label Cloudmirror.
It's a longer album of 57 minutes. Five pieces with various lengths, from 17 to 5 minutes. The first 10min piece is fantastic, stylistically can be characterized as static ambient, there's one main tone or sound or drone which unfolds itself with a certain intensity, never overloaded or over the top. Keeping a nice balance, the static sound goes on, mostly quite focused and gently shifting, pulling you inside the sound. This is for the lovers of sound itself. Fans of Sachiko M's weightless onkyo-sound should enjoy it quite a lot. Very nice album.
Vital Weekly

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Seth Nehil & Jgrzinich - Stria (Erewhon, 2002)

1 Tome Gather 20:00
2 Arboreal 8:30
3 The Mirrored Corner 16:15

by request

Seth Nehil and John Grzinich have been sound collaborators since 1994 when they began the electroacoustic ensemble Alial Straa. In 1998 they initiated a process of recording and experimentation that would result in a pair of full-length cds. The seed of the project originated in Austin, Texas with location specific recordings of found objects played by groups of people.. In the end, it had expanded into a three-year, transcontinental exchange of intensive interaction, questioning and dialogue.

The exploratory focus of stria/confluence is the idea of resonance; the phenomenon of natural vibrations that give rise to intensified or stable structures within sound bodies and fields. In the production of these works, the composers' approached resonance in both the acoustic sound behavior and the social phenomenon in group interaction and/or participation within the context of sound generating activities. It was again applied to the studio in the use of massive multiplications and layerings, resulting in deeply transforming, evolutionary sound fields.

These records extend the perspective elaborated by both artists through their previous solo and collaborative work (as can be heard on Seth's releases on Kaon, Alluvial and 20 City, or John's duet with mnortham on Staalplaat and Orogenetics). These works further an interest in physical materials and natural acoustics which are consequently composed into imbedded, altered and engaging structures. Taking form with the integrity of a living organism, these pieces invite the listener to find his way through the reticulated and stratified development of a subtly unfolding, organic sound-body.
Erewhon

Belle musique de ces deux poètes du sonore qui vont faire résonner leurs drones organiques aux lisières d'un temps immobile. Les mouvements lents de ces sons, comme des coulées épaisses de matières offrent des paysages tendus et étrangement sereins, faits de grincements, de frottements, d'ondes vastes, de résonnances scintillantes, révélant majestueusement dans le temps leurs contours gracieux. On pénètre dans ces flots lourds comme un animal géant, prenant nos aises en se laissant porter par le courant, quittant une certaine pasanteur pour une autre, plus subtile. Le courant nous entraîne dans des cavités obscures, dans des cirques ouverts et gigantesques, d'autres échos apparaissent, habités de fantômes. Dense-musique de déplacement de masses titanesques, on s'y arrête timide et observateur, et au final on n'est pas déçu du voyage.
revue et corrigée

Stria - layers, the overplaced sounds that make up these compositions; strings, the connections and movements that work through them. In 'Tome gather' for example, both these aspects are heard as the piece elides from: burring tones, modulated tonal metals with longer tones and pulses in there as a hidden music; the burring becomes less pronounced, emergent long drones, dense and gorgeous with a percussive note; becoming more voicelike, edgy high tones; the drones start to diverge, becoming more pulsing and noisey; to an atonal conflict of purer tones that interfere-pulse, disturbed voices. There are no points of change on this journey, more gradual modulations, and layer lays on layer.

Building percussive clicks and clatter in 'Arboreal' are rhythmic, slow washes through, sounds separate and rejoin (stringed together), a rapid flowing, then fluttering to the end.

Finally 'The mirrored corner' is buzzing metallic with a clicky click, shimmering and pulsing; a resonant echo deep emerges and is a dark hollow voice that becomes more voice-like; the middle section simples-out, more clicks. A dominant tone develops, shimmering with a sine pulse and a sequence of melodic ringing tones ebb and flow before a brief climax and fade.

The line notes suggest Nehil and Grzinich take recordings of large groups (playing who knows what) in the first two tracks, and wire drones in the third, and then 'compose' them. Interestingly Nehil is the credited composer of the first two, Grzinich of the last (with additions by Nehil), and the pieces have taken a number of years to create. There are some liner notes that may help understand their process - there are hints in terms of 'unfocus' and an overseas collaboration - but it is very trendily obscure. Anyway, irrespective of their methods, the results are dramatic e(in)volving minimalist works.
Ampersand Etcetera

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Alial Straa - The Lumbering Intransitive Dream Of The Alial Straa (Alluvial Recordings, 1997 (2001 reissue))

1 Amness 9:42
2 Solace 24:40
3 Lastic Sted 13:47
4 Tenge/Orr 9:11

This release begins a series of releases for Alluvial in which we will be reissuing old cassette materials and other rarities. The packaging is simple, but attractive and available at a lower price. Each will be available for one year from its date of issue, which is indicated in each release. This particular project stems from the Orogenetic Collective of artists involved in many facets of sound, the physical arts, theory and installation. For this release, AS is Seth Nehil and John Grzinich. It is a more electronic work, rather than incorporating the usual field recording methods and manipulation of physical materials usually associated with them. At 57 minutes, it is a set of compositions which are primarily made up of long, shifting drones, very satisfying. Roughly 200 of these where printed.
Alluvial Recordings

The text/story/myth about what the Alial Straa is found on the card inside the jacket is great, I love it when releases have pointed, relevant literature that succeeds in directing my imagination as I listen to the work. Like some surreal Tolkien/Native American myth….Alial Straa is a collaborative venture of Seth Nehil and John Grzinich. You might remember Grzinich from a colab with Mnortham, Stomach of The sky to be exact. I love this stuff; organic, spooky, sheltered natural-ambient. Struck stones, wind, rustling leaves and groaning gritty ambient swells and waves. A recording that reads like a deep, dark river, currents changing, scenery changing, sounds steady and physical but subtly different in each channel and inlet. Put this right next to IAM Umbrella, Augur, maybe a Rapoon with no beats? Great stuff. In a basic brown sleeve with card inside.
Manifold Records

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Alial Straa - Tunnels / Stairwell (Alluvial Recordings, 1996 (2001 reissue))

1 Tunnels (14:18)
2 Tunnels (15:10)
3 Stairwell (16:07)
4 Stairwell (13:50)

Some great work is being done in the vast silence of this under-distributed, experimental frontier, particularly on cdr. Its like the taper underground of the 80's that involved Illusion Of Safety, Tietchens, Greif, Jeph Jerman and countless others is starting silently again but with new artists and perspectives. Seth Nehil and John Grzinich work with Mnortham on this one, a grey, naturalist work in two sections. Struck stones, rubbed sticks, pale, ragged instrumentation as minimal ornaments in the background. We go from lair to city, cave to tunnel, sky to stairwell in sound. All progression and change, but staying within a composed Jeph Jerman/His Masters Voice sound, natural and barely affected. Like being hypnotized by the wise ghosts of ancient animals, moving with them in spirit through the structures of humankind, feeling the smooth stone and concrete of sidewalls, nature badly transformed into temporary spaces. A hard one to describe, but one that promisesmany plays before its secrets even begin to be revealed.
Manifold Records

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ERG, MSBR & Das Synthetische Mischgewebe - Geosynclines (Flenix, 1998)

1 Stratum: 1 (3:25)
2 Stratum: 2 (9:27)
3 Stratum: 3 (7:38)
4 Stratum: 4 (4:30)
5 Stratum: 5 (7:07)
6 Stratum: 6 (8:15)
7 Stratum: 7 (10:45)

The first release of new label- FLENIX. A collaboration work by MNORTHAMs project ERG, DSM in France, MSBR. DSM mixed collaborative materials by ERG and MSBR using each field recording materials. Atmospheric mixture of noizy and quiet sound. Very good.
Flenix

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Seth Nehil - From Cloud To Seed (Alluvial Recordings, 2000)

A1 Cloud
A2 Leaf
A3 Soil
B1 Crystal
B2 Stone
B3 Seed

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