Garden of Secrets nt003/Discus97

This third release from the new nexTTime production site is a collaboration with multi instrumentalist Alexandru Hegyesi.

This is our second collaboration, and i wanted to use a similar compositional process, build upon previous material, and yet end up with totally different results.

Still, using techniques of electroacoustic music, processing and sound design, i wanted to have more of an immediate feel for this album, to create music that could be played by a live band, and this involved more complex arrangements of instruments as well as electronic sources and samples. There is even some beats programming and percussion, voice samples but mostly, more prominence for sections freely improvised.

 

This time, as well as receiving a range of recordings from Alex with his wonderful performance on instruments such as dulcimer, gusla, Bavarian zither, prepared chord-harp, psaltery, prepared cymbalum (see album page for an impressive comprehensive list)… i directed some of the playing, or requested pieces in a particular key etc in order to fit in with compositional ideas, harmonically but also texturally, using extended techniques and focusing on sound and grain.

The process of producing and composing this album was much more complex than our first collaboration, and this relied less on digital ‘sculpture’, and instead, focused on layered arrangements of multiple sources.

The result is quite varied and represents many stylistic approaches based around sections of improvised music, including jazz, avant-folk, noise, prog and hopefully, you will find more…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winds of Change nt002

Second release from the new nexTTime production output is a collaboration with multi instrumentalist Alexandru Hegyesi.

File sharing over the net, the starting point was a series of short recordings by alex featuring cymbalum, bowed & picked soprano psaltery and dulcimer.

This material was processed and sculpted to produce a range of samples that provide harmonic, textural and rhythmical contents. The compositions were then arranged, and finally, i added field recordings and saxophone improvisations.

 

 

First released by netlabel electronic musik as em124

 

Seven Sounds nt001

The first release from the new nexTTime production output is a collection of electroacoustic compositions.

The music is composed using sounds from the 5 elements (TCM, qi gong), and use resonant frequencies of the recorded natural sounds.

Each element is attributed an energy centre and entrains the body and the corresponding chakras following techniques of sound therapy. Beat frequencies are used throughout and help the mind settle and relax.

 

 

 

The nature of reality in a Theory of Everything

Imploding Stars

is a journey into space, a weather check on the nature of constellations, planets and stars, or is it atoms and particles? Same difference. With titles like ‘waiting for space to expand’ and its mirror image ‘waiting for space to contract’, it becomes obvious that we are considering timelines so large that they are difficult to comprehend. And so it is with the size of those compounded-constellations of sounds, it is difficult to tell what we are looking at (or hearing). It feels a bit like the type of abstract art photography that blurs perspective and one wonders if they are looking are a macro landscape or the micro world.

This music is like fractals.

In Buddhist teachings you can find comments on notions of endless time or space. This culture worked with a sense of time, periods like kalpas, that are hard to even grasp (time stretches that cover appearance and disappearance of entire universes). Similarly with scale, there is this understanding that everything is empty of inherent existence and you can analyse any ‘thing’ that comes into existence down to its basic components and the conditions by which it came into being – there is no such a thing as a permanent, unchanging entity.

But it does not stop here. Even atoms and particles are compounds and one could, given the ability to perceive such things, keep going smaller still into other realms of existence, into a universe of vibrations so ‘small’ that no one can actually even consider, let alone measure. In line with buddhist teachings that are 2500 years old, quantum science is now considering fields that act as a matrix for the arising of material forms, and inform the nature of compounded vibrations. All is energy.

The music here gives the impression that we are taken on a journey into the micro realm, with sound processing like granulation taking the ear into increasing smaller fragments until the point of origin, the first sound that is the breath, has been completely deconstructed and nothing remains but the ghost of a sound, to the point of near silence.

Or is it? Are there other realms to explore further? Even points of silence retain a certain tension, or expectation, as if one is suspended in space.

This is a concept album with a coherence of sound and approach, and if you willingly engage with the work and let yourself be drawn into its universe, the bulk of its 78 minutes may appear just like the blink of an eye. But reflecting on buddhist practice, you have to let go of the self and dive in. Let the change happen, and with such a journey into the very matter, the nature of things, one cannot remain unchanged.

If this were a collaboration between a saxophonist and a digital artist doing various manipulations, this work would be easier to understand, but it would not be the same of course. Here though, the same artist does both, live in the studio, in real time, compromising the instrument and extended techniques (and all the research into the instrument, control and hours of work that this implies) and surrenders to the sound of strings of plug-ins (yes, the scientific metaphor can run all the way… fractals, remember?). Rather than having a saxophonist and electronic artist performing their best licks, what you have is an instrumentation that becomes transparent and lets the concept, the singular sonic identity of the work come to the fore.

Entire musical world-systems collide, improv jazz, electroacoustic and experimental electronics, new music, contemporary and its minimal spectral approaches and so on. If this work was placed in a different context, with an accompanying band, the correlation to modern jazz such as the Norwegian cool, with added electronics to stripped down harmonic contents and fragile melody, would be clearer. But in this case, the work is very hard to classify. Perhaps it is the whole point to not reduce this entire scientific enquiry to a musical style. Because you know that this came out of the mind of one person, you can relate with its uniqueness as a deliberate positioning. There is a sense of an intention to make this a listening experience and not another ‘improv’ ‘jazz’ or ‘electronic’ album.

The work on the saxophone is mostly extended techniques, sounds peripheral to the instrument; and although some notes can be heard at times, most of the sounds you’ll hear from the saxophone are stripped down to the basis of breath and overtones that derive from its flow.

This essential material of breath becomes metaphorical for the most essential material that exists; it is like prana or qi that infuses life into the all. And ensues a series of pieces with a common theme around space, the universe.

Out of emptiness, vibrations. Then particles of sounds are created. The album takes you through world systems and different universes, some more or less populated and dense, some very minimal where everything is fragile and impermanent.

The processing is multi-layered: computer-based manipulations such as granulation, spectral processing and synthesis retain essential aspects of the original sound, but also multiply, sculpt and transform the results in unexpected ways. And because a number of tools are at work at all times, it is hard to tell exactly what is the result of what effect – reality is never all that it seems. The processing itself is also compounded – a construct with ever changing combinations that give the character to its own sonic architecture. And the origin, the conditions by which what we hear arises is very hard to perceive. We just have to go with what is and enter its realm in order to feel the very nature of things.

This is a very unique listening experience and the use of headphones is highly recommended as one enters into this ‘other’ sonic reality. For sure, this is not background entertainment, and it will take some commitment or listening attention. Just like the cinema is designed to remove people from mundane reality and place them into a controlled environment for optimum experience, suspend disbelief and become wrapped into a story, here too, if one enters this sound world and let go, follow the journey that is presented, with open mind, the rewards will be great.

Imploding Stars

“An excellent and ingenuous musician Perez is an authentic master of his instruments, which he builds into sequences of impure electroacoustic processing then allowing himself episodes of sparse noise and endless ventures into the almost inaudible.”
Giuseppe Aiello, Blow Up 05.19

Imploding Stars is a series of improvisations on soprano saxophone with live processing, using a range of plug-ins to manipulate the sound of the saxophone, cut fragments and explode them into nebulae of sounds.

The work on the saxophone is mostly extended techniques, sounds peripheral to the instrument; and although some notes can be heard at times, most of the noises you’ll hear from the saxophone is stripped down to the basis of breath and some overtones.

This essential material of breath becomes metaphorical for the most essential material that exists; and ensues a series of pieces with a common theme around space, the universe. So as my first solo CD, the process of recording this becomes an act of creation with the breath as its beginning.

Out of emptiness, vibrations. Then particles of sounds are created and the rest is history. The album takes you through world systems and different universes, some more or less populated and dense, some very minimal. Each track has a different approach and treatment of the sax, and I hope you’ll find that is a sonic treat with surprising variations along the way.

I am very grateful to Andy at Focused Silence who supported me with this release. You can listen to tracks on bandcamp, while the CD is available from the label’s website.

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The Great Flood… new release by Hiss Noise Records

i’m very pleased to announce the release of an album by the Japanese netlabel Hiss Noise Records.

The Great Flood is a one take improvisation of electroacoustic music recorded in 2007. as you probably noticed, I have been releasing music, selecting significant works that have punctuated my musical development over the years. each new album is in a very different style and conceptual approach to composition (please see the compositions page for other releases). hopefully, there will be many more to come, taking us closer to my recent practice. but for now, I am delighted to see this work made available for public listening.

this piece was recorded at a significant turning point in the development of my electroacoustic work. I had a few years of practice after my first laptop outing during my university years, playing solo, and in many collaborations. this included intensive training, performing improvisations live while I was hosting a radio show on Sheffield live every week for a period of time and later, performing regularly while in France with incredible musicians like my good friend Heddy Boubaker (in duo – see our live in theatre du ring – or in groups like H2C), or with the electro-jazz quartet nobi-nobi
and many others, for example, during the zieu m zic festival (see the chronological database of performances in my website). fresh from the festival in the summer of 2007, I negotiated my way over to Sheffield through disaster zones and amongst severe floods that hit the country at the time.

the album came out of this period of work and experiences. I tried to combine my attraction to minimal material influenced by the unessentialists, the traditional electroacoustic compositions, the noise and improv practices, and the sound therapy which had become part of my working ethos.

I hope you enjoy the journey.

many thanks to yoshinori for his enthusiasm and agreeing to take this work on his label, and for the fitting and very beautiful artwork.

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hervé perez: laptop, field recordings, sound design, processing, electronics – live recording and mastering.

recorded on july 1st 2007 – mastered at nexttime studios

This recording is an improvisation performed with laptop. the sound materials comprise field recordings, sound design, live processing and electronics.
Field recordings feature sounds from the five elements, and are processed to highlight musical and vibrational qualities inherent in the elements. Location recordings also present a range of soundscapes of both natural and constructed environments, architecture and architectural spaces, all focusing on the principle of resonance.

The piece was performed during a time of great floods that hit the entire country and reflects on our complex relationship with the environment. The problem of climate change is ever more relevant today and this is reflected in the interaction between sounds natural and industrial, recorded and electronically produced.
The titles further this theme in reflecting on the very basic act of perception, our interpretation of what reality is and how we position ourselves in relation to it; The inner and outer realities as they come into contact.

 

 

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impact – new release by pan y rosas discos

 

impact

is a concept album based around a simple approach: work around peripheral sounds and extended techniques, extract the most unusual and unheard from my instrument using close miking techniques.

 

after many years of dedicating all my attention to the saxophone, i decided to revisit some of the techniques i used when playing prepared electric guitar, this time using the strict limitation of dry acoustic guitar. the architecture of the instrument is altered using props strategically placed along the strings. the instrument sounds radically different, and placing it flat on the ground makes the physical relationship completely new.

turned percussive, harmonic contents augmented, resonance shifted, the guitar sound is barely recognisable. the conventional effects and textures are abstracted and this allows for a new range of soundscapes and dynamics. the mike positioning deliberately picks up every sound, every detail in a raw and intimate way that makes this recording unforgiving and intensely present.

 

in a similar way, the soprano saxophone is explored from the inside and exploded with precise positioning of mikes in order to concentrate on fragments of sounds usually unheard. for the whole of this recording, not a single note is played, nor the instrument approached in a traditional way. instead, i focus on the tiny percussive sound of keys and bursts of air around the body of the saxophone. the harmonic contents is purely structural, and modulates in microvariations according to the air flow.

another type of sound here is drawing harmonics hidden in the white noise of full blow air through the saxophone tube. the sax is mostly played without mouthpiece.

in both instances, the close miking technique takes you inside the instrument, and the spatial arrangement expands the physicality of the instruments beyond our experience of their sound, into the acousmatic listening. i strongly recommend using headphones for the full spectral and spatial experience.

 

the composition is full of details and sonic events carefully placed, so that the listening experience is fully immersive, very physical and quite intense at times.

as expressed above, this piece is raw and unforgiving. i made a deliberate aesthetic choice to present known instruments in a very challenging way, highlighting sounds which are mostly never heard. to this, i added some field recordings that augment the already rich palette of textures and gestures. the very tactile and sensual quality of field recordings add another dimension of sonic experience. and yet, here again, our sense of comfort is thwarted by altering recognisable natural sounds through the use of digital processing, positioning and perspective.

 

while in the process of making this album, i came across a documentary film about the horrors of war in the current form of colonialism. this raw and deeply upsetting revelation somehow connected to the close affect and impact i was looking for in the sounds i was creating. so i decided to add some of the devastating accounts and interviews from the film in the form of samples.

 

this work was made in 2011. for years i focused on being creative and producing a large amount of compositions and recordings. i am now in the process of making public some of these. so i am very pleased that the net label pan y rosas has kindly agreed to publish this one.

you can hear and download the full album from pan y rosas:

http://www.panyrosasdiscos.net/pyr217-herve-perez-impact/

 

 

touch base

 

 

 

 

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She Flows Like Water… new release

i’m very happy to announce the release of an album of early electronic compositions by picpack label. these are tracks that range from abstract glitch to slow moody grooves all the way to electroacoustic composition. most of the tracks feature field recordings and found sounds which were digitally manipulated and sculpted to produce a variety of textures. this selection gives quite a good feel of the type of work produced over a period of time when i was experimenting with processing techniques. often, a piece of music would be composed of one single sample recording processed in various ways to extract different aspects of the sound; harmonic, textural, rhythmical etc.

i hope you enjoy listening, as much as i enjoyed working on these. the album page can be found here. and you can hear the music on archive.org as well as from the player embedded below.

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Jazz beats and sax

lately, i have revisited the idea of working with backing tracks using computer. I find it is a quick way to lay down a few musical ideas.

at first, i was not keen on using software instruments, and spending time on the screen tweaking midi information. i’d much rather get my hands straight into matter and sculpt into the immediacy of sound. but still,  it is fun to improvise to some groove and it provides a change to electroacoustic abstraction and field recordings.

using ableton live, it is easy to get a few simple ideas down and quickly move on to recording sax lines, and then still have the option to rework the structure. sometimes rhythms and harmonic structures are programmed, sometimes played on the fly.

and i do like messing with beats and groove, even at times improvising bass lines on the keyboard of my laptop…

i have been focusing on ways to develop musical narratives in improvisation. and i have been trying out various ways to find melodic or harmonic paths to navigate outside of established structures while maintaining a sense of evolving melody.

this work has come out of a desire to expand narratives in longer forms. i felt tied down by shorter cycles that keep resolving to the root, and wanted to open up the possibilities of extended melodic development as found in western and indian classical music. however, i did not want to fall into completely random root movements. i guess, i wanted a method that would be suited to support free flowing improvised narratives without being tied to a structural approach or to the predictability of a specific, limited linguistic approach. (i really do not take on the idea of limiting musical expression to the form of a language and follow on this metaphor to expression in terms of a personal vocabulary, and the implied pitfalls of predictability. ok, let’s not get too political or philosophical here.)

so to sum up my idea in a few (but rather big) words… i felt i needed to free myself from limiting structures and find an open method for the free flow development of narrative in improvisation. so i had to look outside of cyclical forms that imply repeated return to a root and this sense of continually converging back to a fixed point.

for this, i started working with musical ‘sounds’ that dissociated ‘root’ with ‘tonal centre’. this is a very interesting and important distinction, and looking into Steve Coleman’s idea of negative chords helped a lot. and then, it was just a question of finding paths that diverge from the informed habit of sequencing the tonal centre in a predictable manner. the only way was to follow the logic of an organic narrative development and of course not falling into the pull of following protocol. a very good bass player once said to me the very simple rule that applies to all music, ‘harmony always follows melody’. it had to be this way, and not the opposite.

so in the development of melodic narrative, i removed the anchor, this force of attraction found in tonal centers, and instead looked for ways to follow the logic intrinsic to improvised narratives, so that the melody would keep unfolding without being tethered. i had to rethink how i looked at musical forms (and even how one looks at form… is emptiness, emptiness is form… remember?).

i started developing modalities (rather than scales), harmonic shapes (rather than chords) and considering axis (rather than tonal centre) and therefore orbits, pathways, nodal points between orbits. we’re not lost in space here, this is not music of the spheres, nor a nihilist chromatic hell, however, i had to detach from traditional approach to tonality and think in terms of interval relationships – in order to be able to move freely between paths, while retaining a narrative logic, that is without sounding completely aleatory, chromatic or just random.

of course, it takes a long time to assimilate all this method in my playing, to be able to improvise with it, particularly as i do not have a mathematical nor analytical approach when playing. free flow is essential to creativity i believe, and one way to detach from predictable structures is to ‘walk away from the expectations of the world’, as is expressed in another article you can find in this blog.

this approach also has taken a long time to develop, and i found that some aspects of it started to show in the solo work i have been documenting as ‘sounding out‘.

so here are a few pieces that i have recorded using sets of chords and beats, which of course are all arranged in advance using live, and then improvised saxophone lines over the top.

to finish with, a few more pieces hot from the press…

as usual, i hope you enjoy listening to this work, and would love to hear your thoughts and reactions…

peace,

xrv

The Bridge – album release

 

Hervé Perez & André Darius – The Bridge

 

Released
06 May 2015

“

building bridges is a tricky business. the rivers we cross are never the same. as we leave the shore behind, we do not know where we will land.

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it is with great pleasure that i announce the release of the album The Bridge.

this work is a collaboration between bass player extraordinaire André D and Hervé Perez.

 

i have been working with andré for a while and we have collaborated in various projects. we have released an album together with guitarist christophe meulien published by french label Nowaki.

we both participate in an ongoing real-time improvisation online following visual scores and queues generated by a max-msp program designed by jesse ricke and lisa lee

working online and collaborating using file exchange is becoming a strong feature of my work. and andré is a master at this. you can find here a discography of his diverse work.

i am very excited by this collaboration. and working with andré is an honour and a real pleasure. i think we cover a really eclectic range of material and yet our sound remains coherent throughout. i see this as a concept album where we experiment with different composition methods, with a common approach. some of the playing is very abstract, some is rather melodic. there is pure improvisation. there is digital sculpture. there is even rhythm. there is complex arrangements. there is noise. there is groove.

the starting point was a recording of me playing drums. yes, right, drums. and i am no drummer, by all means. i just had an opportunity to spend some time with a kit a while back and played around. just enjoying the movement, enjoying the flow, my inability to keep a rhythm, but my interest in tone and timbre. all right, i will admit at this point having practiced snare rolls in the past. it was at a time i was experimenting with recording techniques on a Fostex 4-tracks, discovering improvisation and making sounds with anything i could get my hands on. i had various hand percussion, and my set included three large metal tubs collected when i worked in a paint factory. i had two toms with microtonal differences and a makeshift snare on which i did the notorious “papa-maman” exercise. and i could march the hell out of a military roll.

so here i am dancing around the drumset while my friend’s out of the house, recording this on my zoom. turned out pretty good for a non-drummer. even better, when later, i discovered some cool effects accidentally processing the recording in ableton live. this unleashed the beast, and i started hacking, chopping, sculpting the heck out of this drum track, using a mixture of plugins and painstaking cut and paste, chop, chop by hand and precise placement.

as we had been talking about doing a duo project, i sent andré the drum sculpture. a long track of a messed up, choppy crazy noise full on drums. of course, andré recorded some amazing improvisation that gave sense to the noise and gave it life. this was the basis for the two longer pieces in the album. i then re-cut and refined the drum part. and gradually, i added my signature mix of field recording sounds, some harmony and sax improvisation. somehow, it just worked.

we decided to record some new tracks with a closer more intimate feel, focusing on timbre and closer to the spirit of improvisation. this time, andré started off with bass and eub and we produced two shorter tracks that are more stripped down and purer.

a while later, we thought we’d need more material and yet another method. andré recorded two very short melodic improvisations which i cut up and processed. i wanted some drums to refer back to the original tracks and decided to use samples from a recording session with peter fairclough. one piece is heavily processed, in keeping with the original pieces, another has a real groove to it. in both cases, i used a range of bass samples, some direct sound, some processed, spread out sparsely across the drum tracks. and finally, recorded some sax improvisations in two different styles.

throughout the project, we have used different methodology, approaching composition in different ways from simple takes to complex arrangements, from dry sound to very processed and cut up samples. with each approach, we produced tracks in pairs. and within each pair, we covered very different styles of playing. and yet, the overall sound remains coherent. it is as if the group had instantly developed a signature sound. and yet, this is very different to whatever we both have done individually.

i must say, i am very excited by this work, and i am delighted that we are now releasing it, hoping to share this with as many people as possible. not just because of the sheer volume of hard work and time put into it. but because i sincerely believe there is something of great value here. we have undoubtedly put our heart and soul in these recordings, and even after many hours of work and listening to the pieces over and over again, i can still feel it. i still enjoy listening to the work. and i really hope you will too.

please help us make more, and support this work by donating generously. but most importantly, sit back, relax and… enjoy…:

andré and hervé are pleased to give you, The Bridge