Ferial Confine and similar

[Zeno Marx]

Zeno, much thanks for the Nebris recommendation. Sometimes a link is worth a thousand downloads. I confess I was completely unfamiliar with the work of James Hamilton; found his Bandcamp, got Bleak Angels, halfway through the second track I realized I needed it all. I've since acquired everything I can, which from Bandcamp means over 10 items, several of them released in January of this year -- all excellent. Not particularly harsh, rather a controlled, painstakingly applied, tempestuousness, only the merest hint of boiling over. Mr Hamilton refers to it at one juncture as "power acoustics", but I can see where he's coming from. Sources include branches, stones, hailstorms, wind, bones, all brought to life with a compositional skill that is undeniable. I'm not sure I've ever heard anything quite like it; if so, not anything as well executed. Wonderful textural studies. Nebris has occupied the bulk of my listening over the past few days, in between Loud Louder Loudest sessions... it has been a very good week. Of most immediate relation to this thread, as they are of the slightly louder persuasion, I would recommend: Shear, Erg, Sarfa, Trace. In that order.

Thank you as well.  Just in the past couple of weeks have I started to include google bandcamp searches as part of my process to find and/or sample music.  It's ridiculous that it has taken this long, but it has.  Such a great tool for labels and artists both.  I hadn't thought to check bandcamp for Nebris.  Honestly, I thought the project was done and no longer of interest to him, and in thinking that, it gave Nebris a finality.  It's great to see all this readily available and that not actually the case.  power acoustics indeed.

*and here's the bandcamp link:  http://nebris.bandcamp.com/

[spiritassembly]

Jason made me aware of the discussion going on here, just fyi nebris is dormant since 2009 but not necessarily dead, might continue if an appropriate way forward can be found. As it is I felt that it was beginning to repeat itself a little and other things (probably of little interest to most people in noise or electroacoustic circles) are taking precedence. When it gets to the stage where you have trouble telling your own compositions apart it's probably time to move on to something else. Anyway, thanks for the interest.

But to close this little derail, Ferial Confine. Not really much like those early recordings, apart, as was already pointed out, "TNB est Mort!" which is like an extended remix and which remains my favourite TNB recording. But some of the Hands To/Jerman things scratch the same sort of itch, if in a more primitive way. Some mid-late 80's Merzbow things also, when he disguises the sound sources a little. Apart from that, I hear occasional similarities in some the work of certain strains of composers like Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana-Maria Avram and so on (especially the former's use and abuse of the piano as source of texture). John Murphy's Ophiolateria thing I remember being somewhat similar too but probably not so easy to track down, and as with Jerman, not quite so refined in the execution/attention to detail.

And what about things like Giancarlo Toniutti's "Epigenesi"? Somewhat similar to FC in the approach to semi-cyclic, unsynchronised acoustic sound brought up to disorienting levels but in longer form, capable of inducing vertigo at high volumes on a good sound system. And of course Toniutti and Chalk would eventually collaborate on "Tahta Tarla" which is a great LP but much more subdued.

[Bloated Slutbag]

When it gets to the stage where you have trouble telling your own compositions apart it's probably time to move on to something else.

That's an interesting self-criticism, given that one of the primary attractions for me, and quite probably the reason I decided I needed everything available under the project, was the very particular, very specific, field of ideas/sounds explored. I really do feel this to be territory that, outside of Nebris, has not been very well mapped. I'm keen to learn the terrain, to acquire the tools (or headspace) necessary for properly informed investigation. Needless to say a very satisfying journey thus far.

Mention of John Murphy is warranted. I considered adding Krang's Neurasthenia to the list earlier on. That very raw sound peculiar to tape releases from the period (c. 1982-5) may translate into what is generally termed "harsh". Parts of this tape sound like the horrified, shrieking gasps of a collapsing metal lung, bleeding into fields of desperate sputter-wheeze. Or is that just the backing tape spooling out? It is in fact the plainly primitive application of materials at hand which serves both to heighten the charm and to rupture, sometimes rather rudely, the momentary intervals of pastoral stasis.

Similar effects are achieved on Vivenza's Metallurgie. While held in some quarters to be among his worst extant recordings, possibly owing to the poor quality of the original source tapes, I really like the way the normally pointed percussive clamor is softly diffused across billowed clouds of hiss and rumble, the somewhat distant orchestrations of JM's patented industrial-strength gamelan coated with a smooth, almost-ambient, sheen. The actual tape issued on Freedom In A Vacuum is a decent-quality affair, wide stereo image accentuating the ample low end, and rendering, at appropriate levels, a surprisingly fleshed out perspective.

[Zeno Marx]

I hesitated to include Tarab, but maybe on the outskirts of such a discussion.  If this was "Like Nebris?", and not "Like Ferial Confine?", it would be more directly appropriate.  Field recording source textures.  I'd recommend a start point of Wind Keeps Even Dust Away.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Tarab

[spiritassembly]

Tarab (who is very underappreciated) does fine, fine work but not so much in the Ferial Confine line, effectively... seems closer to the cusp between Eric La Casa and NFH or Lethe (who is also really underappreciated IMO).

Dug out those old Mnemonists records & tapes and they definitely have textural characteristics in common with FC, though more 'classical' in terms of overall compositional arc. Fantastic recordings.

[nullify]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I still prefer CD over everything.  Then vinyl, then tape.  Though I own some of all, CD is best for my needs and what I grew up with too. So nostalgia + ease of play + convenience wins for me.

[Zeno Marx]

Scouring for the Best of 2016 list...

To great surprise, Tarab released a 30-minute track this year on a web label and a 23-minute track on 3"CD.  I'll listen to the web later, but for now, listening to I'm Lost (2014).  The sonics of Hum of the Druid.  The structures of Zoviet France.  The vibe of Hands To.  The perspective of Nebris.  It's great to see he's still active.  For my money, one of the best of the past decade+.  Looks like he's been rubbing elbows with the greats of Grzinich, La Casa, Haynes, and others.  Good company there.

new Tarab here:  http://www.cronicaelectronica.org/?p=121

[Bloated Slutbag]

Tarab is another great Zeno tip that, with the endorsement of spiritassembly, has more than lived up to expectation. I think my favorite is still my first, take all the ships from the harbour, and sail them straight into hell. Single long piece, but sectioned into distinct parts- from the loud metal scraping of the ships cast off from the harbour through to alternately calm and stormy seas, then the final toilsome heave into the bowels of hell. The most plainly narrative in the Sprod discog if that's worth anything. Though I'm just as enamored with the meticulous junk excreta aesthetic- or as it says in big letters on the website, careful arrangements of sonic rubbish.

Only recently found that he had a nearly full-up bandcamp and have duly set about to plugging holes in the collection:
https://tarab.bandcamp.com/music

Tarab has lately gone very nicely with extended listening sessions that also featured Torba (among my favorites from 2017), Hal Hutchinson metal wreckage stuff, and a hefty dose of MNEM...

MNEM I have come to greatly admire... better late than never... for the distinct taste of mechanical dis-repair, decayed broken down machinery, musty dusty parts as readily repeating in protestation as strategically ripped... raw. Kind of soothing non-obstrusive decay that can as easily serve as bridge between careful arrangements of sonic rubbish and more cantakerous metal-junk bashings. At least to me.

Sir Ashleigh Grove ought to be an obvious tick in the Ferial Confine and related box. Disc on Siren kinda came out of nowhere and has been in fairly regular rotation since. I like the wrinkled rumpled nimpled sound on offer, like concrete musics slowly fed through a meat grinder.

Going back through this thread and thought my description of S*Core

Flavors of ritual "ambient", but a very peculiar kind of ritual, devoted to a god of decaying machinery, with an ambiance of rusted out sewage drains.

...could apply to much of the (recent) Sick Seed discog. Seedy failed "ambient" rituals offered up to unsmiling deity sure to answer the dutiful supplicant by duly grinding face via steel toed booty into rusted out sewage drainage pit, perhaps the faintest corners of the lips turned upwards.

[Zeno Marx]

with extended listening sessions that also featured Torba (among my favorites from 2017)

New to me.  Has an exceptional idea of crunch.  Someone please plug me into a music machine where I'm fed many tracks at once.  I can't get to it all.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Zeno, much thanks for the Nebris recommendation.

I think I owe him a drink for that one too.

[Zeno Marx]

Tarab (who is very underappreciated) does fine, fine work but not so much in the Ferial Confine line, effectively... seems closer to the cusp between Eric La Casa and NFH or Lethe (who is also really underappreciated IMO).

It's only taken me 4+ years to figure out you meant Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar.  Halrum is a fantastic album.  And finally, I'll be checking out Lethe/Kuwayama Kiyoharu.  Time.

[spiritassembly]

Tarab (who is very underappreciated) does fine, fine work but not so much in the Ferial Confine line, effectively... seems closer to the cusp between Eric La Casa and NFH or Lethe (who is also really underappreciated IMO).

It's only taken me 4+ years to figure out you meant Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar.  Halrum is a fantastic album.  And finally, I'll be checking out Lethe/Kuwayama Kiyoharu.  Time.

I guess I was too tired to type out the whole name that day!

Some Lethe/KK recommendations:

The whole Catastrophe Point series - I'm partial to #5 on Intransitive and the #7/#8 2CD on Invisible Birds in particular but they're all great, big open recordings in mostly abandoned buildings. #9/#10 was recorded in a huge abandoned grain silo installation and abandoned maintenance tunnel in my neighbourhood here in Montreal, really nice too. Not always straight live recordings, he layers a bit but there's almost no processing or treatment, just the natural acoustics.

The KK 'Dry Ice on Steel Tables' is exactly what the title says, heated steel screams in big empty space, minimal and ghostly.

The Jonathan Coleclough/Lethe collab Long Heat - make sure you get the double rather than single disc. Monstrous thing.

The two KK collabs with Masayoshi Urabe are excellent as well, remote, haunted sounding things, cello, sax and metal junk.

[Zeno Marx]

https://sethnehil.bandcamp.com/album/uva

[Acne]

https://sethnehil.bandcamp.com/album/uva

stumbled on this dude the other day while looking for work similar to Hildegard Westerkamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Aa-JskUY0

[Zeno Marx]

https://sethnehil.bandcamp.com/album/uva

stumbled on this dude the other day while looking for work similar to Hildegard Westerkamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Aa-JskUY0

If you found you like Nehil, and in case you don't already know, there are others like him.  Yannick Dauby.  MNortham, aka Michael Northam, JGrzinich.  Hitoshi Kojo.  I'm drawing a blank to the others I associate with this group.