the hanged swordsman nt007

Let’s go back in time to have a look at early electronic compositions as release number seven in the series of nexTTime production.

This album marks a significant turning point in my work in sound design, digital processing, composition and approach to sound in general. I was still working on a pc at the time and focused all my efforts in sculpting sounds, often using a single source or limited amount of material to create an entire piece.

For example, the opening track is made from a single short sample from Kenneth Kirschner, inspired by a competition organised by Deupree’s 12K label following the release of seminal work post piano. Unessentialists and minimalism has been an important inspiration and yet, I am very much interested in texture, harmony and spectral composition, and in this case, getting deep into the textural and timbral quality of the sounds I used.

Often unrecognisable, the sound sources are still very present, and inform the nature of the compositions. The last piece is another example, with limited source samples recorded in a derelict mill in the peak district. I spent a lot of time in the area taking photos. Soon after, the mill was restored and now has been transformed into luxury accommodations. And yet I cannot help thinking about the many children who died there, working in awful conditions. I think this place has always kept a very weird vibe.

The track diamond is made from guitar samples and the title describes the process the original sounds went through to emerge as they are now.
Cell Breakdown was the soundtrack used for a video installation, diffused in a reverberant gallery space when I was studying at art school.

I am pleased to share this work now, and hope you enjoy its documentary value and its significance in relation to influential electronic music.

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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kipple live at mopomoso

kipple is the unique free jazz sextet i play with. the unusual instrumentation features two strong electronics section alongside guitar to provide both harmonic, textural and noise dimensions to the music. and as well as drums, we have two other acoustic players on trumpet and soprano sax.

we play with a surprising range of dynamics from full on free jazz to minimal noise improv and out of nowhere, a slow melody may appear and take you to ballad cloud-land… to then slap you straight back to contemporary weirdness and dissonant multiphonia…

it’s a rollercoaster of a journey and it won’t leave you any minute to catch your breath.

of course, music is best experienced live… but john russell at mopomoso is kindly documenting all his events, so here are some cool videos from london’s vortex.

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Ian Simpson (electronics), Derek Saw (trumpet/flugelhorn), Shaun Blezard (electronics), Hervé Perez (soprano saxophone), John Jasnoch (guitars) & Charlie Collins (drums/percussion) at Mopomoso free improvisation night. Filmed by Kostas Chondros at the Vortex, London, on 17 February 2013.

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Kipple is a word coined by the remarkable science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It refers to the sinister type of rubbish which simply builds up without any human intervention. Eventually, one day, the entire world will have moved to a state of kipplization

From Phil Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

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“ Kipple combines the momentum of ESP era free jazz with a 2 man low fi electronics section in place of the piano. The rhythm section is that used by Sonny Simmons on his UK gigs. The free blowing trumpet/soprano sax front line manages to be intense and relaxed at the same time. “

(Phil Morton, Frakture, 2011)

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Download @ The Internet Archive :: Direct Download :: Listen @ The Internet Archive

Released by Electronic Musik

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Download @ The Internet Archive :: Direct Download :: Listen @ The Internet Archive

Released by Electronic Musik