Septs Vents is a work of distances. Lee Noris (aka Nacht Plank and also Metamatics when more upbeat) amplifies and manipulates common source materials such as gritty rocks, the splash of feet through mud, cluttered leaves and the breaking of branches, but abstracts from each sound its traditional connotations in order that one may direct oneís attention on the features ëobjectivelyí constituting the phenomenon. In his hands, heavy beads of water form an opaqueness akin to transparent milk, smearing the outline of background chirps and pings and distorting their silhouettes into weird grotesqueness.
There is a hermetic mood and sense of remoteness from the world drifting about each composition. The way the stammer of crickets and rattle of bushes is familiar yet foreign in its presentation. A seamless crackle and hum carry far off into the sky, fostering the impression that one could simply reach out and touch some far-off bell-like tone, flickering in the distance. Elsewhere, stochastic shards of radio static are coupled with the white hot effervesce of condensed energy in an abstracted waltz of broken drones and warm, diffused modulations. In such moments, Noris snuggles very high frequencies with those of the lower end and proves himself a deft sculptor of both, starting, stopping or cutting up the former while enabling the latter to diffuse into a gleaming haze. For all that, he doesn't venture so far away from his source materials as to become overtly calculated, allowing the ether the odd moment to sing without any composerly interference.
Max Schaefer
|
