jeremy bible & jason henry
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//OUT:NOW magnet (gruenrekorder)~germany (09) ound (abgurd)~russia (08) marker (gruenrekorder)~germany shpwrk (experimedia)~us vryashn (gears of sand)~us vector (experimedia)~us glare (resting bell)~germany |
//OUT:SOON:2010 vryashn (gatefold color lp) (infraction)~us vowl cd(mystery sea)~belgium spc cd (tokyo droning)~japan |
Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry – Magnet [cd]
Processed Field Recordings & Electro-Acoustic Sound Art Collage
Preview and purchase HERE
Last Thursday while spending the week with artists Tanner Menard and Chika we received the tragic news of the death of artist and friend to many in the community… Danielle Baquet-Long (1983 – 2009) known for her solo work as Chubby Wolf, her poetry and writing, and as one half of the prolific husband-wife duo Celer. A great sadness fell upon us and our hearts have been hanging heavy since receiving the news. A devastating loss. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with her husband and creative partner Will and their entire circle of family and friends.
Here is what Will has been sending out to friends…
:::
Dear friends,
With great sadness I have to announce to you, our friends, that Dani passed away yesterday, July 8. On Tuesday morning I woke to find her unconscious, and not breathing. The medics were called, and she was revived, but fell directly into a coma and didn’t wake up. She passed away yesterday at 3pm, with her family by her. All that is known to say why is that her heart stopped, for no foreseeable reason. The only relation is that her father died in the same way, of a cardiac arrest at the age of 29. She was 26.
Right now I don’t know how to express the loss and sadness I feel, knowing that someone so ultimately close to me, and such an inspiration and friend to so many other people in the world is gone. All I can say is that she won’t be forgotten, or pushed aside only because she’s gone. She’ll always be with me, as my inspiration, my love, my everything. All I can say is I miss her, every second.
Right now I won’t be able to answer many emails, as there’s only so much I can talk about this. Time will heal this, but I know the sadness will never go away. This, I’m ok with, as I never want to forget every way she changed my life, and touched my heart.
I appreciate all your support and love, and even though many of you only knew her through her poetry, or her music, I hope they are good memories. Enclosed is a favorite photo of her, taken at her beach, at home.
Also, here was her favorite quote:
“The Meaning is in the Wonder”
- Kenneth Patchen
Sincerely,
Will
Tonight @ Now Thats Class in Cleveland 10pm – Jasper TX, Anduin, @TannerMenard, CHiKA, Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry $5 goes direct to artists
Tonight on WCSB 89.3fm Cleveland – 7-9pm E Jasper TX, Anduin, @TannerMenard, Jasper TX, CHiKA, Bible & Henry online: www.wcsb.org/listen
reminder: the show is tonight
10-2
lineup:
10pm – jeremy bible & jason henry
11pm – tanner menard
12pm – jasper tx & anduin
Also…. tune in prior to the event….
Wednesday on WCSB 89.3fm Cleveland – ambient sound artists Jasper TX / Anduin / Jeremy Bible + Jason Henry / Tanner Menard / and CHiKA (motion visual artist) will be special guests on The Mysterious Black Box radio show. 7-9pm e.s.t. -
listen online: www.wcsb.org/listen
Also dont miss us at Ingenuity Fest this Saturday in playhouse square where we will be performing our sleep concert. Bring your sleeping bag and pillow and get some sleep while we perform a/v for you.
Hope to see you there.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=11213+Detroit+Ave.%2C+Cleveland%2C+OH
Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry installation @ Cleveland Museum of Art this Saturday
This Saturday June 20th at Cleveland Museum of Art’s Summer Solstice Unveiling Event will debut the first iteration of Bible & Henry’s multi-channel generative installation. A piece developed specifically for Cleveland Museum of Art’s unveiling event.
For this project sounds were collected from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s galleries and construction site. These sounds were then edited and processed into 108 audio files of varying lengths from 5 seconds to 4 minutes with corresponding silent files. During the installation these sounds will be broadcast from 10 small independent and wireless device/speaker configurations placed throughout the new gallery space. Each of these channels play the sounds in varying orders creating a generative immersive sound environment. A virtual aural eco-system.
More details regarding the installation will be posted at some point after its debut.
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Unveiled (For Ten Tiny Speakers), 2009
Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry
(Akron and Canton, Ohio)
This sound-art installation features recordings from the Cleveland Museum of Art construction site and galleries, processed for generative arrangement through ten independent speakers to create an immersive aural ecosystem.
Please visit http://jbjh.experimedia.net for more information on the piece and the artists.
Jasper TX
|| Gothenburg, Sweden || http://myspace.com/jaspertx || Miasmah, Kning Disk, Fangbomb, Fenetre, SMTG Limited
Besides being one half of the rather amazing post-rock duo De La Mancha, Jasper TX’s Dag Rosenqvist has released a number of carefully drafted and very well received solo recordings with labels such as Miasmah, Kning Disk, Fangbomb, and Lampse. His work is primarily guitar driven soundscapes covered in layers of drums, voices, organs, toy pianos, field recordings, and effects. Comparisons have been made to artists such as Fennesz, Aidan Baker, and Machinefabriek, with whom Rosenqvist has done two collaborations. In 2009, he followed 2008′s “Black Sheep” album on Miasmah with a new record titled “Singing Stones” on Fangbomb and the collaboration with Anduin on SMTG Limited. This will be Jasper TX’s first ever US dates.
Anduin
|| Richmond, Virginia || http://smtgltd.com/anduinore || SMTG Limited
Anduin’s Jonathan Lee creates dark, pulsating ambient electronics soaked in layers of synths, samples, and field recordings. He has collaborated with a number of international artists including Svarte Greiner, Jasper TX, Stephen Vitiello, Noah Saval, Xela, Gareth Davis, and his own experimental band Souvenir’s Young America. His live shows and gallery instillations include a variety of self-made sets, collected props, and hidden lights. In 2009, he has 3 new releases: a live collaboration EP with Svarte Greiner, “The Bending Of A Light” LP with Jasper TX, and a new full length titled “Abandoned In Sleep,” all of which are on SMTG Limited.
Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry
|| Ohio || http://jbjh.experimedia.net || Infraction, Gruenrekorder, Experimedia, Abgurd, Gears of Sand, Resting Bell, Smallfish, Audiobulb
Sound artists Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry collaborate to fuse elements of musique concrete, acoustic, and electronic music. By means of conceptual, experimental, and algorithmic recording and processing techniques the duo seek to expose a synergetic relationship between real world found sounds, acoustic instrumentation, and electronic sound design. The duo’s creative amalgamation of these elements have created a moody and growing body of sound works.
Tanner Menard
|| New Orleans, Louisiana || http://tannermenard.archaichorizon.com || Install, Archaic Horizon, Friendly Virus, Kafua, Experimedia, Loose Filter Music
At the age of 11, Menard composed his first works for piano. For nearly 20 years he has composed and curated experimental sound works and installations both for electronic media and orchestral ensembles. In 2002, his world was permanently altered by his experience working with Naut Humon, the well known curator and then label owner of Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco. There Menard discovered the aesthetic world of ambient, experimental, and minimal electronica. Menard’s music has appeared on the radio, on tv, in plays, at art galleries, and in major concert halls across the world. In 2005 Menard served as an artist in residence at Arizona State University where he collaborated with Jeph Jerman, Gary Hill, and Daniel Bernard Romain for his installation, “Envyronie”. Menard is rapidly becoming known for his work as an internet artist and publisher combining blogging, music creation, conceptual art, installation, remix and international collaboration.
Original Motion Visuals by: CHiKA
|| New York, NY || http://imagima.com/ || Modul8, Korg, Experimental Television Center, Forward Motion Theater
CHiKA is a live media artist working in the international VJ and experimental music scene. Her performances vary from minimalist geometric patterns to unique compositions overflowing with a variety of forms and color. She has performed at The Museum of Modern Art, The Hammer Museum, Mutek, The Mapping Festival, Decibel festival, Platform Bohenstrasses, Theatre Maisonneuve, Asia Contemporary Week, San Francisco Art Institute, Remix Hotel Miami, Eyebeam, Monkeytown, The Issue Project, Galapagos Art Space, Tonic, Eyewash and numerous private parties, festivals, events, galleries and night clubs. She is currently resident VJ at monthly event “The Future is beautiful”. Her work was featured at Club Chroma and on Joost and Eyewash 3 DVDs by Forward Motion Theater.
Wednesday July 8th, 2009
@ Now That’s Class
Show starts at 10pm / $5 (goes directly to the artists)
11213 Detroit Ave.
Cleveland, Oh
216-221-8576
http://myspace.com/nowthatsclass
Brought to you by:
))) SMTG LIMITED (((
http://smtgltd.com
Experimedia
http://experimedia.net
Bent Crayon
http://bentcrayon.com
EVENT PAGES AND SAMPLES:
http://www.last.fm/event/1099209
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=89290771481
A sound art installation piece created by Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry for the Cleveland Museum of Art’s new gallery unveiling event. The piece will be featured on “display” in the new galleries on June 20th.
Unveiled (For Ten Tiny Speakers)
Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry
Akron/Canton, OH
jbjh.experimedia.net
Recordings from the CMA construction site and galleries processed for generative arrangement through ten independent speakers to create an immersive aural eco-system.
Ian Hawgood contributed a detailed list of his favorite albums of the year to portuguese online magazine bodyspace.net. His contribution is almost halfway down the page.
Along with including Experimedia in his thanks to labels who maintained a challenging dimension in his 2008 Review for TheMilkFactory, Max Schaefer also rated Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry’s album Vryashn #5 in his top 20 of the year. That also puts us in TheMilkFactory’s top 20 overall. Thanks to Max and TheMilkFactory!
from: textura.org
Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry: Vryashn
Gears of Sand
“On Vryashn (a stripped-down version of “variation”), prolific duo Bible and Henry present two long-form settings that at times unfold so glacially they mimic the physiological slowdown that occurs during deep sleep (in the creators’ own words, “(t)he common theme for this body of work is the sensation of dreams within dreams, …(s)pecifically a dream of being surrounded by snow, becoming numb and falling asleep only to awake in the rain in another dream and location”). The two incorporate “water line pipes, wine glasses, rain on a window, and a garage lamp” into the recording but piano is the dominant sound source, though the pair uses digital processing to stretch some of the instrument’s notes into infinity and layer them into heaving, cloud-like masses. In “Vryashn 1,” a largely untreated piano motif bounces across the surface of the windswept trails that escalate and decompress behind it until the sounds coalesce into a singular rumbling mass that calls to mind Charlemagne Palestine in the brick-like solidity of its clustering. Immense piano-generated swathes of haze introduce atmospheric ripples of fog and rain as the now-melded mass heaves like the exhalations of a sleeping behemoth. The half-hour “Vryashn 2” follows without interruption, immediately introducing a textural roughness absent in the opener. Muffled noises—human or animal—emerge alongside foghorn-like bell tones that pierce the early morning harbour mist. There’s an unhurried feel to the piece’s development but there’s also ample activity and detail in play, and part two—presumably abetted by field recordings—exudes a real-world quality that the comparatively hermetic first part eschews. Chain-like sounds clatter amidst rippling noise patterns as “Vryashn 2” gradually gains some semblance of rhythmic definition when the first part’s blurry piano swathes and bouncing motif re-appear to progressively wrest control from the textural treatments. Using a minimum of means, Bible and Henry create in these two pieces fully-formed soundscapes that while long in duration never feel as if they should be shortened, and consequently Vryashn proves to be an excellent showcase for their particular brand of experimental artistry. -December 2008″
Review of Vryashn by Stephen Fruitman for sonomu.net
The present reviewer must confess to having no idea of this duo´s
track record, but artistically at least it looks like a case of the old
ketchup-effect: nothing, nothing for a long time and then suddenly,
splat! Five releases on three different labels, including their own, in
a matter of a few short months.
Vryashn is presented as an “avant-garde sound experience” intended
for deep listening. A tad generic as a description, but then the two
extended pieces on this album really need no further introduction or
setting of the scene. What Bible and Henry have created speaks for
itself, and it does so softly and with great authority.
I fell for the first piece directly. In its slow, organic growth it
displays compositional maturity and dexterity. Vast grainy spaces shift
as viola and cello sway back and forth, the elements become integrated
and build a perfect whole. I am almost sad to have it come to an end.
It is a space for quiet contemplation and reflection, as sparse and
sacral as a Zen garden.
Initially I found myself indifferently disposed toward the second,
half-hour long piece, which would seem to be an altogether different
animal than its predecessor. Instead of floating in glorious statis, it
is more of an off-kilter collage; this must be the “avant-garde” bit
promised by the press release. I´m still not really enjoying myself -
until around the seventeenth minute when what sounds like an orchestra
schooled in nothing but holy mininalism begins to swell and we are back
in territory much more familiar and, to be honest, much more worthwhile
your time.
Having also recently heard Bible and Henry´s “Marker” on
Gruenrekorder, I know they are dedicated field recordists, but I prefer
their talent at creating mood, sustaining techniques, sounds bleeding
into one another, shifting colour. And the first seventeen minutes of
that second track simply seem out of place on Vryashn. Excise it and
you have what in my opinion is one of the most polished musical moments
of a year quickly approaching its end.
Can anyone translate for us by any chance?
A review by Tobias Bolt on Queitnoise.org
2008-10-21 – Review – Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry
Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry – »Marker« (Gruenrekorder)
Field
Recordings und akustisches Instrumentarium sowie deren ausgiebige
Bearbeitung bilden das Fundament für »Marker«, dem vorliegenden ersten
Part eines zweiteiligen Albumkonzepts auf Gruenrekorder. Dessen Urheber
sind Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry, ein, milde ausgedrückt,
veröffentlichungs- freudiges Tonkünstlerduo aus Ohio, deren zu Beginn
etwas distanziert wirkenden Klangraumentwürfen man sich idealerweise
mit Kopfhörern und viel Aufmerksamkeit nähert.
Denn gleich die
ersten drei der insgesamt fünf Stücke umfassenden CD präsentieren sich
als jeweils knapp viertelstündige, ziemlich spröde Skizzen. Diese
machen es, düster pointiert und oft mit ein wenig zu auffällig
arbeitenden rhythmischen Loops durchsetzt, einem nicht immer leicht,
fokussiert zu bleiben. Nur allzu schnell verliert man sich in den
weitläufigen Nebenhöhlen aus bis zur Unkenntlichkeit herangezoomten
Sounds, tackernden Rhythmen und Field Recordings von Alltagsgeräuschen.
Eine merkwürdig faszinierende, ausgedehnte Klangschattenwelt, die
langsam vorbei zieht und erst mit dem vorletzten Track »Glacr«
emotional greifbarer wird.
Dieser bietet fein geschwungene,
hypnotische Ambientflächen mit sanften Geräuschbruchlinien.
Gletscherspaltenmusik, die mit unverhohlenem Hang zum Symphonischen
angenehm an die besten Momente von Biospheres Breitwandepos »Substrata«
zu erinnern vermag. Versöhnlich schließlich auch der Ausklang, in dem
sich bereits zuvor verwendete Ausschnitte aus Talkshows zwischen
melancholisch verkatertem Gitarrengeplonker verflüchtigen. Ich sag es
mal so: ein seltsames Album, bei dem es sich durchaus lohnen kann, über
gewisse anfängliche Unnahbarkeiten hinwegzuhören.
//
English Translation//
Field
recordings and acoustic instruments as well as extensive treatment
thereof are the groundwork for »Marker«, the first part of a two-piece
album concept for German label Gruenrekorder. Creators are Jeremy Bible
and Jason Henry, a duo from Ohio. At first their sounds act a bit
reserved so earphones and a high attention level are definitely
recommended when the first three of overall five tracks present
themselves as roughly 15-minute long brittle outlines. With their
sometimes gloomy punchlines and slightly predominant working
rhythm-loops it’s not always easy staying focused. Quickly one can
loose oneself in the spaciously burrows built of nearly unrecognisable
sounds, rattling rhythms and field recordings of everyday-sounds. A
strangely fascinating sound-twilight-zone is passing by and it is not
until the fourth track that it becomes more emotional tangible. This
one features delicately carved hypnotic ambient surfaces with gentle
rupture lines of distant noises and an avowedly disposition to the
symphonic – which reminds of the best moments of biospheres epic work
»Substrata«. Eventually the album closes in a relaxed conciliatory
atmosphere where details from talk-shows dissolve between melancholic
hung-over guitar-chords. Let me put it that way: a strange and
beautiful album, that definitely will reward a closer examination.
The October issue of Textura features reviews of three recent albums by Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry. Also if you are on the Textura mailing list there are some Experimedia triva questions with Experimedia releases as prizes. Keep an eye on Textura next month as well for further exciting Experimedia coverage.
“Vector, Shpwrck, and Marker are naturally complementary recordings from Ohio-based sound artists Jeremy Bible and Jason Henry that fuse found, acoustic, and electronic sounds into abstract material of pointedly evocative design. The Experimedia releases are distinctive on a visual level too, with the releases’ discs tucked away in tall, three-panel packages whose photographic imagery parallels the duo’s sonic approach by magnifying natural imagery to degrees of near-abstraction (leaves on Vector, charred wood on Shpwrck); though more conventional in dimensional terms, Marker’s cover imagery is similar in tone to the Experimedia packages. The concept even extends to the releases’ allusive and distancing song titles (e.g., “Alska,” “Rtn,” “Vctr,” “Glacr”).
Four of Vector’s six pieces are in the twelve-to-fifteen-minute range, so the material has ample opportunity to develop. Apparently, acoustic sounds such as piano, cello and voices comprise part of Vector’s sonic palette but, true to genre form, the processing manipulations are so thorough they lessen the recognizability of said elements. The gloomy dreamscape “Alska” wends through Philip Jeck territory when sounds of gouged vinyl and industrial noise loop incessantly alongside phantom winds and sheets of distorted noise. It’s followed by “Fndt,” an industrial mass of metallic, static-soaked rumble that writhes and heaves for a queasy fifteen minutes, and “Flck2,” where waves crash through layers of granular grit prior to the emergence of aviary chatter, traffic sounds, and percussive knocking. Multi-tiered waves crest and fall throughout “Rtn,” after which Vector grows increasingly nightmarish as it works through the brief “Vctr” and convulsive machine noise of “Lmp.”
Shpwrck is not only broader in its stylistic range but, in some respects, the easier listen of the two. Though three pieces still exceed the ten-minute mark, half are under eight minutes and, while there’s no diminishment of abstract character, the overall sound design is sometimes less dense and therefore easier on the ears. The framing pieces, “Shpwrck1” and “Shpwrck2,” suggest that the recording would make a natural companion to Mesoscaphe, the recent work by Mathieu Ruhlmann and Celer whose nautical focus is the thirty-day 1969 Gulf Stream voyage of the Ben Franklin submarine. One would expect Shpwrck to sound darker by comparison, given the violent fate intimated by the title, but in fact only parts of it are bleak in spirit. The two “Shpwrck” tracks are, in fact, rather peaceful settings of muffled tonal drift, with rustling percussive clatter a constant companion to foghorn-like tones that pierce the shadowy haze. Blustery trumpet smears in “Dstromsh” recall Toshinori Kondo’s playing on Paul Schutze + Phantom City’s Site Anubis, and the track itself is an apocalyptic nightscape that would sound perfectly at home on Schutze’s recording. Elsewhere, crowd chatter humanizes the gloomscapes “Yetisltk” and “Yetiatk” while “Sphotnblp,” “Luupn,” and “Cldstrct” concentrate on tinkling bell tones, reverb-heavy piano, and curdling string atmospheres respectively.
Marker is very much sonically in keeping with the other two, despite the fact that it’s issued on Gruenrekorder, a label more known for its field recordings output than experimental electronic music-making. Much like Vector, the hour-long Marker features four extended settings (fourteen minutes apiece) and a shorter outro. As before, field elements (e.g., children’s voices, radio talk show conversations) and natural sounds (e.g., cymbal percussion) swim in thick electronic baths amidst alien noises of unidentifiable character. The release rarely resembles music of any conventional kind and is clearly geared towards the listener weaned on heavily abstracted soundscaping. The industrial soundscaping of “Ast” unfolds in a queasy ebb-and-flow that feels akin to a turbulent dream-state, after which phantoms drift through an industrial wasteland in “Fragmnt.” The recording’s finest moment arrives when Bible and Henry navigate vast expanses of frozen tundra during the vaporous epic “Glacr,” a slowly heaving mass of ambient cloud formations whose immensity overshadows all that’s come before. The tranquil closer “Indnt” is almost as appealing, despite being the complete opposite of “Glacr” in so many ways. Even so, ending the album with gentle guitar shadings and restrained atmospheric textures (including a re-appearance of the earlier talk show snippets) is a smart move on the creators’ part given that it’s the last impression the listener takes away when the recording’s done. File all three releases under “immersive headphones listening.”
The interesting blog site Amphibious Andromeda by Ricardo Bloch which posts a photograph and sound for each day of the year…has used a fragment of the piece ‘frgmnt’ from Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry’s album Marker on the German label Gruenrekorder.
Another very flattering review of Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry‘s album Vryashn on Gears of Sand…this time by the respected uk print magazine The Wire.
“2008 is shaping up to be a busy year for the Ohio duo – three albums have appeared over the last few months, and another four are scheduled before the end of the year. And if they’re all as immersive and incantatory as Vryashn, we’re in for a treat. Schematically, this record is as simple as it gets – two lengthy, sonorous tracks clocking in at a total of 50 minutes – but the closer you look, the more complex things get, with looming, viscous currents offset by a seductive parade of pattering detail. Fluttering piano notes pierce shifting planes of texture, catspaws of white noise skip across the swell, and Echoplexed flurries float, like distant birdsong, back and forth across the threshold of audibility. Vryashn reveals a perfect balance between fluidity and architecture before disappearing into a haze of chiming bells.” – The Wire
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Max Schaefer put together an eloquently written review of the Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry album ‘Vryashn’ for the respected ezine themilkfactory. Thanks to Max and themilkfactory for the very kind words and support!
The two suites of ambitious, sweeping sounds that express but never wholly manifest themselves here, superimposed as they are in layers to infinity, were inspired by the shifting perspectives and hallucinogenic detail of dreams. The mind reels in the declamatory breathlessness and multilayered incantations, out of which slip assiduous sonic close-ups that are soon swallowed by depersonalized electronic shadows, and which return hereafter only as distorted or transformed traces that haunt and push the works further still.
The duo’s approach is anything but radical. They draw heavily from piano and a slew of musical and non-musical instruments, which are then subtly treated through a laptop. It becomes exceptional owing to its almost shocking organizational smoothness that belies the multiplicity of its sources and therefore highlights how ambient music has internal collage logic at its centre.
Some very substantial and evolving electronic sluicing abounds on Part II, ranging from petite fog exercises, with blurred piano chords winking like stars, post-industrial roughness and rippling textures to drones that arc deep into the night sky. Things progress slowly but eventfully; and eventually gently-contoured textures sweep in and then oxidize, while faint striations and distressed electronics obscure the background and create an atmosphere of unexpected menace. Before the work ends, another turn of logic finds its place, as some digital flutter and micro-sonics swell into a fecund, almost celebratory whole. Few albums so thoroughly and unapologetically apply themselves to such a trenchant aesthetic and then manage to mine so much from it.
4.2/5
Marker, the new album by Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry is now available from the Frankfurt, Germany based label Gruenrekorder.
SYNOPSIS: Marker is the first in a two part album concept for the Gruenrekorder label by Canton, Ohio, US based sound artists Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry. Marker combines multiple elements in order to create constructed fictional environments, realities, locations, and atmospheres. Field recordings captured from the northeast Ohio region and often times in and around the individual artist’s homes, processed and clean, play a large part, alongside treated and processed acoustic instruments and subtle touches of electronic sound design.
CONCEPT: The two albums, Marker and Magnet, were created with the intention of being experienced both individually and consecutively allowing for up to four unique listening contexts. It is also recommended that the pieces which the two albums are comprised of are combined and experienced in a random manner creating infinite listening experiences.
PROCESS: The sound elements presented on both Marker & Magnet were recorded, composed, performed, collected, and organized by the artists individually over a period of time for the intention of single impromptu & improvised collaborative recording session. Following this ‘content collection’ period the artists met for a lengthy recording session at Jeremy Bible’s Experimedia Studio1 where these individual sound elements were arranged, processed, and mixed by the two artists in an improvisational manner under conditions of half sleep like states of subconscious focus. The elements of surprise introduced in a collaborative improvisational recording scenario play a large role in the duo’s process and resulting sound works.
Review site WHITE_LINE has posted very kind reviews of three of Experimedia’s recent releases.
A trio of new releases from Experimedia demonstrates that Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry are alive and well, and making great work as usual. Housed in very extravagant fold out packaging with beautifully photographed natural elements such as burnt wood, leaves, mould etc, they more than hint at the quality of the releases contained within. Also included in the trio of releases is a new work from Illusion of Safety, a group that should need no introduction to 40 somethings like myself, who invested a lot of time and energy seeking out IOS releases many years ago in what would arguably have been their heyday. Dan Burke’s project resurfaces in the form of The Need to Now , a 7 tracker that does not dissappoint these ears, having not heard their more recent materials, this was a welcome opportunity to experience IOS’s distempered sampling, and edgy, tightly wound atmospherics. IOS have distilled their overall sound further since I last heard them, leaving yawning chasms of near silence to add drama and anticipation, allowing their taut, aqueous ambiences to swirl around sharply focussed field recordings and organic elements. Once again, IOS demonstrate a mastery of the medium in a welcome comeback.
Next up is Vector, a fine release from Messrs Bible and Henry specialising in stripped bare atmospherica, and discrete washes of near oceanic sound draped with granular surface textures. Pieces like “fndt” take an oblique approach, where the sounds of what appear to be jungle or forest ambiences are interleaved with oddly out of kilter sonic presences, somewhere between urban gamelan, and ritualistic chanting moving in and out of focus. The overall recording technique is slightly tainted, like oxidised metals, grating and grinding against each other, leaving a trail of dusts and shavings. In fact, the ensuing tracks, “flck2″ and “rtn” have a similar feel, creating shimmering, dusty trails, that feel somehow unearthly and disjointed, yet holding the attention all the while.Closing track “Imp”, once again uses organic sampling to fuel auditory out of body experiences with razor sharp sampling wrapped around an eerie piano or keyboard central theme, a dreamy, hazy closure to the whole proceedings.
Next up is Shpwrck from Bible and Henry, with trademark titling pared down to the barely discernible, leaving a measure of interpretation to the auditor. Once again, the pairing fuse heady organic field recording with strange, angular atmospheres, that remind me of some of the early recordings on the UK’s EM:T label, back in the day…in the main, these are eerie and spacious works, conjuring dark, but not altogether uncomfortable imagery, infused with the spirit of Dada, being a close cousin of musique concret perhaps, or some of the early works of Pierre Schaefer at times. Pieces like “sphotnblp” are pure experimentalism, using light and space to perpetrate areas of wondrous tonalism. The duo’s overall approach is certainly a breath of fresh air, as their canvas is littered with creative and original solutions, defying any obvious genre (always a good thing in my book), and creating a language all of their own. These three releases come with my highest recommendation, and in the words of Bible and Henry – “excllnt”. BGN
Review by Frans De Ward from Vital Weekly 638
JEREMY BIBLE & JASON HENRY – VECTOR (CDR by Experimedia)
JEREMY BIBLE & JASON HENRY – SHPWRCK (CDR by Experimedia)
Two new artists I think (with the amount of music arriving everyday one can’t always be sure), this time from Ohio, are Jeremy Bible and Jason Henry, who are closely connected to probably their own label Experimedia (ok, I reviewed music by Bible before in Vital Weekly 586). Two nice packages (glossy fold out prints) hold two of their recent releases. From the website I gather they “seek to expose a synergetic relationship between real world found sounds, acoustic instrumentation, and electronic sound design” and more than once such terms as ‘painting’ and ‘images’ are used. The language used on the website might be a bit swollen, but these two men do a nice job at what they do. Hardly surprising by any account, as both of these discs contain music that could go down as ‘experimental’, ‘ambient’ or ‘drone’, or anything that is a combination of these words. There are large chunks of field recordings to be spotted around here, sometimes almost ‘clean’, but at other times highly processed. Some of the techniques involved sometimes are bit dull, like time stretching, but throughout I must admit they do a fine job. Listening to both in a row is perhaps a bit much, but I must say if I had to choose a favorite from these two, I think ‘Shpwrck’ would be it. It’s a little more diverse in approach, with a more varying input in sounds, instruments and sound processing. Both dwell a bit too much on the use of reverb, but such is unfortunately a common place in this kind of music. Quite enjoyable late night music. (FdW)
A review of our album Vryashn has been posted on Furthernoise.org by Alan Lockett as part of a profile of the Gears of Sand label.
“Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry harness an array of electro-acoustics in forging Vryashn, a work of great depth and subtle eloquence. JB&JH propose a theme of the sensation of a dream within a dream; of being surrounded by snow, becoming numb and falling asleep only to awake in the rain in another dream and location. Various phases of such an experience are depicted, from elated to disorientated. Various sound sources – piano, water line pipes, wine glasses, rain on a window, and a garage lamp – articulate Vryashn’s variations; a two-part immersion zone of fragmentation and re-moulding that shuns the delicacy of a Budd bath for riskier reefs towards Andrew Liles’ The Dying Submariner and Aloof Proof’s Piano Text. JB&JH curate a descent into a drowned world of wrecked and wracked elegiacs, attended by envelopes of trills pushed into spills, redrawn revenants distended in a quest for new euphony. The duo’s design is to pique to poke in textural caverns and inlets of accidental harmonics. They achieve this, “Vrashyn I” exemplifying the warmth and spacious movements of their reverberant Satie dissolution – a fine exhibit of well-treated piano.”
Jeremy Bible and Jason Henry’s Shpwrck, is a beautifully diverse opus, bringing together a wide range of acoustic instruments and field recordings through unique processing and arrangements. Dark and minimal yet oddly comforting, Shpwrck’s wide open spaces succeed at creating exotic environments illustrating the duo’s growing attention to detail at crafting and bringing together delicate textures into lengthy abstract sound art montages. Subtle breaths of musicality lie amongst constantly evolving beds of atmosphere. Touches of gritty surface noise and found recordings approach from the distance and momentarily come into focus. Shpwrck comes packaged in experimedia’s custom signature three panel folding tall slim pack featuring the photography of Jeremy Bible and is protected in a clear poly sleeve. Your order of the limited edition packaged CD includes immediate bonus downloads of the album in highest quality MP3 and/or lossless FLAC formats so that you may begin to enjoy the album before your package arrives. Orders of the physical package (including free bonus downloads) can be made HERE for $10. Download only sales of the full album in FLAC or MP3 are exclusively available HERE $5.