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Seth Nehil/Olivia Block, "Sunder, Unite"
Sedimental
In many ways Sunder, Unite feels like a continuation of the dialogue that began with Block's first two recordings, Pure Gaze and Mobius Fuse,both released on Sedimental to much acclaim. For those records, herstyle of composition centered on ideas of combination and alignmentinstead of juxtaposition; the music achieved a subtle melding ofextremes: found sound with scored passages, orchestrated parts withimprovised elements, and live or "natural" space with the imaginedresonance of synthetic creation. The disparate pieces of Gaze and Fusecome together to create half-hour intervals of transcendence, subtlesound environments as quick to reject the atmospheric, mood-orientedinterpretation as they are to quietly envelop the most unwilling oflisteners. I feel carried through her deceptively thick and intricatecompositions, afloat on currents of de-sourced field recordings,invisibly suspended piano notes, wind and brass ensembles blowing in asif on short-wave frequency, and all manner of electronic blurts andorganic sounds, sometimes manipulated via sampler, though more oftenleft unruffled to hang like flies in the gleaming web of the whole. Thesensuous drift of these early recordings makes them challenging in thebest of ways; Block's thorough blending of the natural and artificialrealms introduces confusion and disorientation only in afterthought,almost through a willful suspension of disbelief. Even the harshest ofsounds used, such as the clashing rock and wood noise or fireworkexplosions in Mobius Fuse, Block treats with the care of asurgeon, guiding each into unique functionality without a scrap ofsensationalism or over-emphasis. Sunder, Unite works in similarways, but with an increasing stress on the motion and physicalmanifestation of the piece. This shift in momentum comes with thepresence of Seth Nehil, who played with Block in Austin's Alial Straaand whose impressive solo output focuses largely on rough, physicalsounds sourced in the natural world. Much of the sound on Sunder, Unitecomes from previous live and field recordings by Nehil and Block duringa Japanese tour where the duo's performances involved the live, oftenextreme manipulation of natural objects like leaves, grass, and rock.But while these shows seem easily located within the Japanese noisetradition or the influence of sound artists like Akio Suzuki, Sunder, Uniteis a truly foreign creation. The piece is rarely harsh, nor does it getcaught up in Suzuki's ponderous method. Block and Nehil recognize theessential physicality of their source material, but their arrangementsshow greater interest in leading the sounds through the composed dramaof the piece's movements ("through," "within," "beyond" etc). Theyaccomplish this through an elaborate cut-and-paste of the originalmaterial, including the insertion of large chunks of silence andglitch-ist sound-chopping. Elsewhere synthetic drones or heavilymanipulated pieces of the original tapes form swooning backdrops forthe microscopic clatter and pop painstakingly organized across the Sunder's40 minutes. Block's contributions become especially effective as a windensemble fades in and out wonderfully on a few tracks. As a whole, Sunder, Uniteechoes Block's previous work in particular, through the subtle way itbrings together (in this case aggressively) natural or organic soundand "artificial" elements of strict composition and digitaldeconstruction. The result is music less concerned with the detail orclash of different sounds than with synthesis and progression, analways-beautiful blending of disciplines.
In many ways Sunder, Unite feels like a continuation of the dialogue that began with Block's first two recordings, Pure Gaze and Mobius Fuse,both released on Sedimental to much acclaim. For those records, herstyle of composition centered on ideas of combination and alignmentinstead of juxtaposition; the music achieved a subtle melding ofextremes: found sound with scored passages, orchestrated parts withimprovised elements, and live or "natural" space with the imaginedresonance of synthetic creation. The disparate pieces of Gaze and Fusecome together to create half-hour intervals of transcendence, subtlesound environments as quick to reject the atmospheric, mood-orientedinterpretation as they are to quietly envelop the most unwilling oflisteners. I feel carried through her deceptively thick and intricatecompositions, afloat on currents of de-sourced field recordings,invisibly suspended piano notes, wind and brass ensembles blowing in asif on short-wave frequency, and all manner of electronic blurts andorganic sounds, sometimes manipulated via sampler, though more oftenleft unruffled to hang like flies in the gleaming web of the whole. Thesensuous drift of these early recordings makes them challenging in thebest of ways; Block's thorough blending of the natural and artificialrealms introduces confusion and disorientation only in afterthought,almost through a willful suspension of disbelief. Even the harshest ofsounds used, such as the clashing rock and wood noise or fireworkexplosions in Mobius Fuse, Block treats with the care of asurgeon, guiding each into unique functionality without a scrap ofsensationalism or over-emphasis. Sunder, Unite works in similarways, but with an increasing stress on the motion and physicalmanifestation of the piece. This shift in momentum comes with thepresence of Seth Nehil, who played with Block in Austin's Alial Straaand whose impressive solo output focuses largely on rough, physicalsounds sourced in the natural world. Much of the sound on Sunder, Unitecomes from previous live and field recordings by Nehil and Block duringa Japanese tour where the duo's performances involved the live, oftenextreme manipulation of natural objects like leaves, grass, and rock.But while these shows seem easily located within the Japanese noisetradition or the influence of sound artists like Akio Suzuki, Sunder, Uniteis a truly foreign creation. The piece is rarely harsh, nor does it getcaught up in Suzuki's ponderous method. Block and Nehil recognize theessential physicality of their source material, but their arrangementsshow greater interest in leading the sounds through the composed dramaof the piece's movements ("through," "within," "beyond" etc). Theyaccomplish this through an elaborate cut-and-paste of the originalmaterial, including the insertion of large chunks of silence andglitch-ist sound-chopping. Elsewhere synthetic drones or heavilymanipulated pieces of the original tapes form swooning backdrops forthe microscopic clatter and pop painstakingly organized across the Sunder's40 minutes. Block's contributions become especially effective as a windensemble fades in and out wonderfully on a few tracks. As a whole, Sunder, Uniteechoes Block's previous work in particular, through the subtle way itbrings together (in this case aggressively) natural or organic soundand "artificial" elements of strict composition and digitaldeconstruction. The result is music less concerned with the detail orclash of different sounds than with synthesis and progression, analways-beautiful blending of disciplines. samples:
