....................... gyre

Gyre is a sound art project which investigates, and then renders abstract, acoustic experiences of place and location. The collaboration of Seth Nehil and jgrzinich has no doubt been informed by the vast distance which separates their homes in, respectively, Oregon and south east Estonia. The pair work acoustic material from "empty barns, forests, fields and hills" into heavily processed passages. The process is most recognizable in "Weald": sparse, echoing taps and gongs sketch out the contours of their surroundings, as they ring and report back from distant surfaces. But Nehil and jgrzinich also invert such notions. For "Cast", they use their source sounds not to imply or describe any kind of space, but to build a gathering slew of thickly textured sound, which enters into the listener's space like a concrete object.
- Sam Davies -The Wire, Oct. 06

Congealing, free-wheeling atmospherics remain the order of the day for Seth Nehil and Jgrzinich, the unofficial tag team of archaeological experimentalism. The three long tracks on Gyre sport sound sources culled from wildly distant points on the compass. “Cast” takes it cue from whatever the duo lifted from the pine barrens of Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; if the resultant haunted audio is to be believed, that portion of the Empire State hosts a forest perilous, some mythological playground where the earth has opened and fanciful beings scuttle about. Ethereal drift magnified under the watchful eyes of its perpetrators, during the piece’s 20-minute duration campfires cackle, whipped up by cyclonic winds, warming the rampant sprites’ arcane rituals. Estonia provides the brick and mortar on “Weald,” wooden wands banging about a pindrop tabletop while noises of dubious supernatural natures play hide and seek. “Furl,” also birthed in Estonia, boasts a similar tableau of cooing, irising noises that flit about like light glimpsed through cracks in the foundation. An unnerving and unsettling experience, Gyre is a curious oddity amongst the catalog, rendered with exacting precision and a sculptor’s fine hand.
> Darren Bergstein, e|i Magazine, 8.2007

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Born from location recordings taken in Estonia, Italy and Finland, "Gyre" is a superb electroacoustic work which marks the third joint collaboration of Nehil and Grznich (now based in the US and Estonia respectively), after the two 2002 releases, "Stria" (Erewhon) and "Confluence" (Intransitive). The 4-year span was well worth the wait, considering the quality of these three pieces. Knowing their inspiring collaborative and solo releases, and having seen a remarkable live performance by Nehil in Milan, my expectations were pretty high, and they surely weren't disappointed. "Cast" opens the album with a billowing low-end drone, reminding of López's or mnortham's absolute music; it's a fantastic piece, but somehow more predictable than the following two, "Weald" and "Glaze". The former is arguably the masterpiece of the whole disc, with sparse sounds (is it wood beating on wood, or dripping water?) creating an atmosphere of suspension and recollection; then, more layers of outdoor recordings are added, the piece gets more and more chaotic with the noises of branches and pebbles, the volume billows, then collapses in the last sequence of acoustic debris. It's an astonishing piece, with a great sense of composition, but most of all an uncommon evocative power. "Glaze" is an equally solemn soundscape, with subdued drones and unidentified metallic rattlings and thumps, with a subtle tension crawling in, as if waiting for an impending storm. Field recordings-based composition hardly gets any better than this.
> Eugenio Maggi, Chain DLK, 4.2007

Although John Jgrzinich lives in Southeast Estonia and Seth Nehil is currently based in Portland, Oregon the both of them present their co-operation on CD format. This time on Jason Kahn's Cut label. Their previous albums were Stria (released by Erewhon) and Confluence (Intransitive Recordings).
The two of them this time come up with three long tracks that are quite different from each other. The opening track is a long constant flow of dark organic substance in which tiny, crackling details and minimal changes in the sound colour make up for the variation. The second piece exists merely of percussion elements. It's like somebody is hitting in wood irregularly, or the recording of a sound installation, later changing in a dense recording of a birdhouse (?) and ending in a metallic bustle and cacophony.
The last composition combines the sounds of birds and various layers of mysterious peeps, crispy sounds and other obscure concrete sounds. Just like the other pieces the music or the sound palette develops unnoticeable, which gives these abstract and disassociateable sound explorations an intriguing character.
> Paul Bijlsma, Phosphor, 2.2007

Le label de Jason Kahn convie de façon régulière des artistes à exposer l’avancée de leurs travaux.
L’idée de collaboration a récemment émergé, ouvrant le spectre des possibles.
Le concept d’immanence et d’ubiquité étant acté par la révolution technologique, cet album s’est logiquement réalisé en divers lieux d’Europe. Qu’importe la distance, pourvu qu’on ait l’ivresse.
Pour autant, cette connivence à distance n’aurait pu se faire si les deux musiciens n’avaient collaboré par le passé durant plusieurs mois, entre Estonie, Finlande et Italie au fil de résidences, performances et workshops.
Ces multiples rencontres ont donné lieu à "Stria" en 2002 puis "Confluence" en 2005, respectivement sur Erewhon et Intransitive Rec.
Habitués des champs de l’expérimentation à tous crins, c’est logiquement qu’on retrouve JGRZINICH sur Staalplaat, Erewhon, Intransitive, Elevator Bath, Sirr, Cloud of Statics ou CMR ; Kaon, Uva ou Unbra pour le second.
Artiste à géométrie variable, protéiforme, JGRZINICH [soit John Grznich ou Moks, selon les formules] développe un goût certain pour les vibrations et les captations de drones, les lentes progressions d’ondes.
On retrouve évidemment des similitudes avec Popol Vuh, des labels comme Dorobo ou Extrême rec, mais aussi avec Francisco López, ou avec Tô dans cette profonde aptitude à capter la singularité et la frêle beauté des instants et des choses, de manière extrêmement poétique et introspective.
Cast, Weald et Glaze simulent une lente progression en terrain inconnu, une plongée, une variation microscopique sur le mode environnemental, milieu infra-organique d’un monde cellulaire où les éléments naturels (vent, eau, air) se conjuguent aux matériaux primaires (métal, pierre, glace).
Un dialogue dont la contiguïté paraît confondre ces deux trajectoires humaines en un seul et même monologue.
> Julien Jaffré, Revue & Corrigée, 11.2006

Third collaboration between John Grzinich and Seth Nehil is out on the Cut label, the imprint of celebrate composer and improviser Jason Kahn. Another diary of their accurate interaction in the field of creative exploration, exchange with sound sources and non-verbal impressions. They both are really profound collaborators, one can remember some great albums involving such soundartists as Michael Northam, Olivia Block and Rick Reed. "Gyre" means rotatory movement - I just imagine the survey on the location, somewhere in the primeval forest, when you see trees are besetting you in the close circle. As the liner notes says, the musicians were really going deep in the woods, recording the environmental sounds and occasional events by contact microphones, bringing them back into the studio after. These real sounds were transformed into abstract sounding collages, their textures were extended and multiplied. What we can hear is really close to naturalistic drone ambient, but if you will compare this music with some works of say Paul Bradley or Colin Potter, you will find a difference: here the sound is much more spiritualized, eventful and builds up the new world (not authentic but beautiful). "Gyre" is fascinating application of psychology, acoustics, geography and technology, the demonstration of endless inspiration and ghostly soundsculpturing.
> IEM Webzine, 12.2006
Terza uscita assecondando un'operatività della quale oramai ha piena padronanza il duo composto da Seth Nehil e Jgrzinich, abili sperimentatori multi-media provenienti rispettivamente dall'Oregon e dall' Estonia, che proprio nell'elaborazione di post-produzione di field recording, rilevate quasi sempre in ambienti naturali, vede il suo punto di forza. Sono tre le lunghe suite in scaletta: subito la prima 'Cast' c'introduce ad atmosfere cupe, piuttosto statiche anche se affascinanti, modulate dal rumore del vento, da suoni sottilmente metallici, da micro-riverberi ed echi. Altrettanto chiusa ma ipnotica nell'iterazione dei suoni, questa volta modulati da materiali legnosi (ci pare) e liquidi, con l'aggiunta d'ulteriori pattern, risonanze naturali ed alternanti emergenze auditive, la seconda traccia, 'Weald', un piccolo capolavoro d'accuratezza post-ambient, essenziale ma assai suggestiva. Si termina con 'Glaze', produzione maggiormente articolata delle precedenti nella sovrapposizione delle forme sonore che qui si fanno distinte. Il tutto è stato presentato originariamente come sonorizzazione su quattro canali al festival Correnti Sonore, tenutosi nel 2005 a Tarcento. Per ultimo, solo un cenno all'artwork, come sempre splendido, di Jason Kahn, un altro talento delle scene sonore performative che sa evidentemente distinguersi anche in ambito grafico.
> Aurelio Cianciotta, Neural.it, 11.2006

Seth Nehil and John Grzinich are two sound artists, both having worked with audio and video on various CD´s, performances and exhibitions. “Gyre” is their third collaborative release and was recorded in Finland, Estonia and Italy.
The facts sorted out, it´s time to write about their recordings, which were composed using location-based “sound actions” which were later shaped in the studio. On the first track, this sounds like a combination of processed field recordings and improvised playing on found, self-made or imported items whose sound could best be compared to rhythmic instruments like the Kalimba. A hollow and gusty drone forms the backbone, over which Nehil and Grzinich “play”, scratch and shake these items. The duo manages well to build a tense atmosphere and structure their elements in a way that keeps the listener attentive.
Track two is slower and more quiet arranging what sounds like water dripping from the ceiling with subtle birdsong and a broad range of other sounds. It creates a surreal soundscape because the first part of the track sounds like it was recorded far away from nature in a cellar or deep inside a deserted cave while the birds deliver the sounds from the outside world. In any way, Grzinich and Nehil´s recording is very direct and plastic. While listening to the CD you´re trying to picture the setting of the recordings which leads to slight confusion.
The third and final track is the most welcoming because it contains something resembling a melody. In that regard, it comes close to Loren Chasse´s solo recordings, as found on his recent “The Air in the Sand” CD. The played and the found sounds blend together into an organic mix making them indistinguishable at times.
> Stephan Bauer, Foxy Digitalis, 10.2006

Gyre von Seth Nehil und Jgrzinich kreist in seinen drei Anläufen um die gleichzeitig konkreten und abstrakten Manifestationen von Klangmaterialien und Klangorten. Holz, Glas, Luft, Metall werden einem nahe gebracht als elementare Emanationen oder als Klangspuren einsamer Landschaften oder einer leer stehenden Scheune. John Grzinich, 2003 mit einem MoKS-Stipendium in Estland aktiv, wurde dort von seinem nach wie vor in Portland, OR, ansässigen Partner besucht. Vor Ort und auf gemeinsamen Reisen durch Estland, Finland und Italien wurde überwiegend das Klangmaterial aufgesammelt und unterwegs noch gemixt und als work in progress gleich auch schon präsentiert. Dröhnminimalistische Tableaus wirken wie als Teile der Landschaft selbst in die Landschaft gestellt, als environmentales Ambiente, in dem sich winzige Klangereignisse wahrnehmen lassen. Granulares Rauschen, Knarren und Rascheln von Wind und Regen, Ästen und Blättern, insektoides Nagen und Knabbern an den Trommelfellen. Das klanglandschaftliche Panorama, das wie ein abstraktes Rollbild die Sinne umspinnt, erscheint, ausgeräumt von allen Indizien dafür, dass es einmal Menschen gab, als das ‚ganz Andere‘, als dritte ‚Natur‘, die den menschlichen Faktor ausgeschwitzt hat und nun wieder, sich selbst genügend, vor sich hin west (‚Cast‘). Die hölzernen Klopfgeräusche bei ‚Weald‘ wirken in ihrem aleatorischen ‚Getropfe‘ zu bedeutungslos, um diesen Eindruck zu widerlegen. Für faunisches Leben zeugen im weiteren schabenden und knispelig ‚lebendigen‘ Verlauf neben den wuseligen Vielbeinern nur Vögel. Flattrige Kleinstbewegung bestimmt auch den dritten Teil, ‚Glaze‘ (oder ‚Furl‘?), der, wieder mit Vogelgepiepse durchsetzt, einem anfangs die Halluzination von fernen Presslufthämmern oder metallischem Glocken(?)-Gebimmel, vom Wind von weither geweht, vorgaukelt. Der Hörraum wird dann allmählich enger, zu einem Interieur, erfüllt mit Gerappel wie von Geisterhand, wie man es immer wieder von Organum zu hören bekommen hat.
> Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy, 10.2006

Gyre was originally presented as a four-channel sound piece for Correnti Sonore 05, Tarcento Italy. Seth Nehil and John Grzinich recorded the source material in New York and Estonia through 2005, and the resulting three pieces all cleave fairly strongly to post-processed, gently dislocated field recording "composition." It’s not exactly an under-populated field, and at times Gyre struggles to distinguish itself from similarly-minded recordings. The duo are fascinated with resonance, tracing and testing the properties of spaces through "sound actions" and then building new architectures through juxtaposition and a cool editing hand. These recordings offer a kind of psychogeographic hauntology, the displacement caused by manipulation rendering the original spaces somehow absent, yet present: you’re constantly trailing an idea of an origin without recourse to any "real" referent. Nehil and Grzinich are smart composers, though they do often rely on wind-tunnel atmospherics as scaffolds for their compositions: not a bad thing, but they sometimes risk over-homogenising their creations.
> Jon Dale, Paris Transatlantic Weekly, 9.2006

Seith Nehil è un multi-artista che pianifica la sua carriera-ricerca attorno più territori espressivi, panorami musicali e prospettive visive che siano. Responsabile di operazioni piuttosto difformi: da azioni candidamente sonore, ad una catena d’installazioni multi-speaker, dalle performance-live, soliste e in compagnia di ensemble, ai progetti combinati di danza-teatro e multi-medialità.
Ha pubblicato lavori di elettro-acustica e/o ‘field recording style’, avvalendosi della compagnia di Olivia Block e – più di una volta - di Jgrzinich, pubblicando lavori conosciuti come 'Tracing the Skins of Clouds', 'Uva' e 'Umbra'. Residente a Portland, dopo vari giri tra Stati Uniti, Giappone ed Europa, Seth dedica buona parte del suo tempo curando la pubblicazione di FO A RM: magazine dedicata all’arte, con un occhio attento al fenomeno ‘moderno’ della – nuova – sound art.
Anche Jgrzinich non è un pivello per quanto concerne le materie elettro-acustiche evolute: artista mixed-media sulla cresta dell’onda dal 1994, ricercatore del ‘suono’ e delle molteplici personalità che lo abitano. Su Kathodik abbiamo parlato, proprio poco tempo fa, del suo bellissimo “Insular Regions”, disco solitario pubblicato grazie alla portoghese S.irr.
Ed anche in questo caso, con “Gyre”, abbiamo la possibilità - come allora - di assaporare registrazioni avvenute principalmente in Estonia, paese di cui John Grzinich è (orgogliosamente) originario. Difatti, anche nella precedente discussione, menzionavamo il rapporto intenso tra la cultura estone-balcanica e questo artista che, tra l’altro, collabora attivamente alla vita del circolo artistico MoSK, sito nella lontana cittadina di Mooste.
Due personaggi che hanno stretto, ormai, un sodalizio da tempo, diventando sempre più una sola entità… un unico pensare, agire e suonare.
La scissione di Cast, Weald e Furl (i tre brani del cd) dal contesto specifico in cui ondeggiano apparirebbe come una frammentazione assurda e imperdonabile. Si crea una congiunzione spirituale, un amalgama, oseremo dire, perfetto di rara simmetria, con l’anima satura di registrazioni di campo, trasfigurate in forme geometriche sfuggenti e misteriose. Materiali sonori che si spogliano dell’originario clima atavico per divenire, come per incanto, melodia vitale e indispensabile…
Il senso del concreto, il realismo del mondo, i diversi ‘canti’ che capita di captare distrattamente dalla quotidianità di tutti i giorni, sono materia organica principale, gli strumenti in senso tradizionale di “Gyre”e di tutti gli altri lavori firmati dalla coppia Nehil/Grzinich.
Il principio della prima traccia si riallaccia totalmente a registrazioni atmosferiche americane mentre, sia Weald che Furl, battono il loro cuore per la prima volta nella lontana e calda Estonia.
I tre capitoli inoltre, sono stati presentati come ‘four-channel sound piece’ all’interno della penultima edizione di Correnti Sonore, a Tarcento in Italia.
Un altro colpo secco della impeccabile Cut curata del grande Jason Kahn.
> Sergio Eletto, Kathodik, 10.2006

Seth Nehil and John Grzinich are two respected multimedia artist who specialize in sound installations, often developed in environmental settings. The source materials for these three enticing examples of their assembling expertise were captured in studio and on location in New York, Mooste and Saaropera (the latter are Estonian cities; Grzinich is currently coordinator of that country's MoKS - Center for Art and Social Practice). "Gyre" is an extended comparison between a certain event, or a series of aural occurrences, and its placement in a context of subliminal sounds and frequencies which function as a weightless catalyzer in a naturally tuned sonic mixture. As the authors write, "material origins of wood, glass, air and metal are transformed into abstraction"; yet, that very abstraction gives back its familiar character as the foundation of this music, which resonates spontaneously according to simple principles of contraction and expansion, urban murmurs and metallic rolls raising an enthralling involuntary harmony that is best highlighted in the final track "Furl" but, on a "drone-for-pleasure" scale, probably offers the most engrossing result in the greyish mist of "Cast". Either way, a must-have for lovers of the genre.
> Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, 9.2006

Seth Nehil y John Grzinich son dos músicos electroacústicos con vasta experiencia en presentaciones en vivo y en grabaciones y han trabajado juntos desde 1994 y han producido los álbumes "Stria" (Erewhon, 2002) y "Confluence" (Intransitive, 2002). También han formado Alial Straa junto a Olivia Block y M. Northam.
Seth Nehil es un artista audiovisual que reside en Portland, Oregon quien está involucrado en varias formas de arte. En tanto John Grzinich es un artista multimedial que nació Poughkeepsie, New York y que ahora vive y trabaja en la República de Estonia, ex Unión Soviética.
Este trabajo tiene una rica gama de percusiones con elementos de madera y metal y en cuyo fondo se aprecia un drone.
" Gyre" son tres temas de 41 minutos aproximadamente grabado en varias locaciones y cuyos sonidos obtenidos fueron procesados luego en el estudio. Se identifican registros de campo tomados en un campo, con sonidos de pájaros que se funden en ecos metálicos: una simbiosis entre la naturaleza y la manipulación electrónica.
Nehil y Grzinich se parecen a dos obreros que están trabajando en una fábrica donde están permanentemente moviendo grandes bidones de lata, que rasmillan el suelo produciendo texturas rugosas y chirriantes.
> Guillermo Escudero, Loop, 9.2006

Though Seth Nehil and John Griznich (who always appears under what could conceivably be his email handle) have been collaborating since 1994, the documentation of their work together is slim, consisting only of a pair of 2002 releases, Confluence and Stria. Gyre, their first recorded collaboration in four years, finds the artists working with site-specific recordings as their media, using effects, processing, and editing to mold new forms, field recordings of places that exist only in the superimposition of the studio.
Nehil and Griznich aren’t purists when it comes to their recordings. While some prefer to preserve a recording, especially a location-based one, as a document of the junction fo a particular time and place, Nehil and Griznich aren’t interested purely in presentation. Instead, they use these recordings as a basis for a new construction, building new environs and performances after the fact. They’re not adverse to the appearance of more easily identified sounds; Gyre contains plenty of telltale sonic detritus, but the final product is one of an original synthesis. “Cast,” which opens the album, finds its momentum in what sounds like the exaggerated ambience of room tone, “dead air” recordings built into a claustrophobic mass that, at proper volume, threatens to fill the head through an invasion of the ear canal. Slowly, a shift occurs, as a reedy resonance takes the foreground, with the sound of gently falling rain. “Weald” begins with what sounds like the striking of a wooden rod on a hard surface, the irregular percussive rhythm melding with or morphing into solitary drops of water. The sounds of wildlife begin to appear, and the track’s atmosphere becomes denser as the sound sources coalesce. The track ends with more incidental percussion, though in this case the instruments seem hollow, and the sounds of falling trees shade the music ominously. “Furl” is the first track to contain what sound unabashedly like synthesized effects; it’s the album’s most ambient selection, though it has its share of percussive elements, this time seeming to focus on metal rather than wood.
Gyre is highly textural music, almost palpable in the way it inspires visions in the mind’s eye. Like the dream world’s reconfiguration of familiar artifacts, Gyre spins a web of hallucinatory sound forms, and to the mind that’s willing to enter, the album’s ambience can be quite enveloping. Users of field recordings are sometimes said to play their environments, and for Nehil and jgriznich , this statement might be applicable. But what seems more appropriate is the idea that the duo are not just playing their surroundings, but redefining the context in which they’re heard. The duo don’t engage their recordings passively, and they’re in constant interaction with their environments, both during the recording process and in the studio. Luckily, the album is as immersive for the listener as it likely was for the artists.
> Adam Strohm, Fake Jazz, 8.2006

This is the third release by the duo made up of Nehil (out of Portland, Oregon) and Grzinich (by way of Estonia) though it’s the first to cross my ears. Wish I’d heard them sooner. Loosely speaking, they make field recordings and then process them to a greater or lesser extent in the studio, creating a set of music that ends up, not surprisingly, somewhere in between, the forceful surge of a designed arc tempered by the beautifully random sounds of the natural and manmade acoustic world.
There are three pieces with the initial one, “Cast”, possessing the most immediate dramatic impact. It begins with a wooly rumble, perhaps the sound of wind buffeting in a large, hollow enclosure. This is soon augmented by several other layers—a slightly more metallic, though still hollow-sounding drone and a soft static wash atop. You get the impression of some large but distant source that grows little by little, as if approached at walking speed from a mile or two out. As you near, more detail emerges—clicks, more sharply edged rustlings, raindrops—and the volume creeps up, that wind having acquired a deeper, darker character. Past the source, its massiveness decreasing as you walk away, you’re suddenly aware of an element that may have been there for a while, obscured by the density, something that almost sounds like a very low, loose mbira, on which note “Cast” ends.
“ Weald” is quite different in persona, concentrating on what seems to be pieces of wood (long, irregular dowels?) freely swinging, hitting other wooden objects that, to my ears, possess a spherical nature, all within a large space that supplies echoes and other, more sonically distant, ambient noises. It’s a little like hearing a very, very relaxed ping pong game. The clatter slowly loses density, transforming into dull “bongs” instead of sharp clacks as the surrounding soundscape envelops them. It’s a much more contemplative piece than “Cast”, more about observing a process than directly interacting with one. The final cut, “Glaze”, finds a hammered dulcimer effect along with various ratcheting and strumming sounds, eddying into a dreamy almost drunken swirl. It’s like groping along a back alley, arms outstretched feeling for the walls, the warped soundtrack from unseen bars, cafes, arcades or factories weaving around your cottony ears. Disorienting and effective.
“ Gyre” implies circling, an ambit of some kind. The best parts here orbit around the listener, never quite providing a steady handhold but always enticing one in deeper. A strong recording, well worth hearing.
> Brian Olewnick, Bagatellen, 8.2006

Thank god for the internet! Let’s forget about those cultural pessimists for a while, who see the free dissemmination and publication of art as a problem, not a blessing. But aside from the question, whether there can ever be too much music, the digital data highway has allowed for some collaboratons, which would never have seen the light of day only two decades ago. Such as with Seth Nehil and John Grzinich, who have kept their artistic bond intact, despite putting it to a strong geographical test. With Nehil residing in Portland, where, among other activities, he publishes the “FO A RM” magazine on sound art and Grzinich working at the center for art and social practice in Estonia, the distance between them on the map has never been bigger. Yet the homogenity of their joint work has increased accordingly.
“ Gyre”, in fact, never sounds like a collision or a battle, but more like the result of two different minds working on the same wavelenght, complementing one another and filling in the blanks. In three pieces of between ten and almost twenty minutes length, the duo totally encapsulates the listener with sound, building up a world, which label owner Jason Kahn accurately describes as “acoustic recordings (...) transformed into abstraction”. While the opening “Cast” still offers some harmonic guidance, with little drops of rain trickling into the picture and subaquatic murmurs moaning behind a transcendental drone, which breathes like a static choir, the remaining tracks enitirely turn to processed field recordings: Gentle knocks on wood, grinding stones, distant rumblings, metal being hit, birds chirping and objects drifting inside a liquid-filled basin in “Weald” and smouldering and crackling noises, as well as impressions of a lonely worker in a huge warehouse on “Furl”. And yet, “Gyre” is never satified with merely presenting all of these recordings and of using them as a showcase for the possibilities of technological treatment. In all cases, the source material has been moulded into a flowing piece of music with subtle changes, multiple layers.of aural events and a vast deepness. Behind the natural appearance of these compositions lurks a galaxy of infinite proportions, an endless pit of hollow structures, which lend them a majestic.aura. Just like one were stepping into a thousand year old cathedral, the mystery remains wordless and intangible. If the mooing of a cow can equal a chord change, if a drop of water can resonate like a melody and if an empty barn can take the place of an orchestra, then this is the point where sound art and traditional Western composition slowly converge.
It should be amply clear, that this kind of music takes up a space of its own and does not require for its actors to be in the same room at the same time. It therefore bears no surprise, that this album, despite its closeness, was mixed and remixed in three different countries. Still, as the air-line distance was increaing, Nehil and Grzinich could have easily lost sight of each other and have gone their seperate ways. The internet and regular mail prevented that and made “Gyre” possible. Again: Thank god for that.
> Tobias Fischer, Tokafi, 8.2006

Wieder eine geniale CD vom widerborstigen Schweizer Label cut: »Gyre« ist die dritte Release aus der Zusammenarbeit von John Grzinich und Seth Nehil, die sich seit über zehn Jahren in einem kreativen Dialog befinden. Als dessen Basis dienen Field Recordings, gemeinsame Auftritte, Workshops und Performances sowie nachträglicher Austausch der Ergebnisse und Bearbeitung im Studio – geographisch haben sich die Wege der beiden nämlich schon seit einiger Zeit getrennt. Musikalisch bewegt man sich im subtilen Segment elektro-akustischer Kompositionen, im ersten Stück »Cast« von einem wunderbar entrückten Transatlantik-Drone eingeleitet, der sich, von Haken schlagenden Subbassfiguren unterlegt, mittels einer langsam auftauenden Geräuschmelange aus Knarzen, Schaben und Plätschern zu extrem spannenden Klangtexturen verdichtet. Das folgende »Weald« widmet sich der rhythmischen Bearbeitung verschiedenster – wie schon zuvor zum Großteil nicht mehr identifizierbarer – Quellen; auch hier scheinen die monotonen, abwechselnd links und rechts im Hörfeld auftauchenden Klopfgeräusche anfangs weit entfernt und erfolgt über eine viertel Stunde Spieldauer ein stetiges, herrlich entspanntes aufaddieren verschiedenster Soundlayer zwischen Vogelgezwitscher und Hohlraumpochen. In ein eben solches entschlummern im abschließenden »Glaze« die zwischen fragilen ambienten Klangflächen auftauchenden mikroskopischen Knarzskelette, ein Stück, das ganz besonders gelungen die beiden Hauptthemen des Albums, die kontemplative, beinahe nicht greifbare Andeutung sowie eine – wenn auch mittels Dekonstruktion und Abstraktion entkontextualisierte – physische Direktheit, miteinander vernäht.
> Tobias Bolt, Quiet Noise, 8.2006

For more than a decade Seth Nehil and John Grzinich work together, playing highly processed acoustic recordings of them playing together. You can imagine them sitting together in the woods, in a cave or on the top of a hill with a small array of wood, glass or metal, and producing sounds with that. The natural acoustics also play a role: the acoustic space or the wind or the rain. Recordings of such pieces are combined together in the studio and formed into lengthy pieces of drone music. 'Gyre' is their third release, following 'Stria' (see Vital Weekly 360) and 'Confluence' (see Vital Weekly 353), which were companion releases. On 'Gyre' we find three of these pieces, in which the environment sinks into the playing of the musicians, such as in 'Cast', which has the rumbling of acoustic objects, gradually fading over into the sounds of wind and rain. The drone music of Nehil and Jgrzinich may not have changed since their first two releases, but it's quite still a highly captivating journey and a strong, personal view of drone music. That makes this most worthwhile.
> Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, 7.2006