Chris Herbert - Constants

[Tauhid]

 

 

UK-based artist Chris Herbert is a man of intermittent communications.

Over the past decade he has published a select oeuvre of crushingly lush and elegant records. Fittingly then, Constants, his new edition for Room40 is a transmission from an overtly private realm.

Working in a relative vacuum, beyond the reach of contemporary electronic music trends, Herbert has focussed his interest in intuitive composition. Drawing on a mixed musical palette and interweaving sounds sourced from field recordings and scavenged from domestic environments, Constants both refines and expands Herbert's idiosyncratic approach. Augmented by short-wave, degraded cassettes, processed guitar and cymbals, Constants blends the momentary blooming of rich structures with greyscale microclimates. A signature laminar fog pervades, partially glimpsed events and occasional implications of rhythm drift in and out of view.

Recorded in restless bursts between from 2007 and 2013, Constants was collated in early 2014. It adds a new dimension to his methods of process, and suggests an interiority rich with incidental depth and introspection.

"After certain life events,” Chris explains, “the windows, already scant, within which to make music were diminished to tiny slivers. Rather than feeling frustrated by this I realised the most radical thing I could do was to accept the limitation and exploit it as an asset. There simply wasn't time to investigate new approaches or technology. The best way forward was to use techniques I felt fluent in and be prepared to capture anything of value, regardless how small or seemingly inconsequential.”

 

Constants is a record of exploding depths. As you listen, as you are submerged, the record opens out again and again creating the effect of a fathomless realm.

 

http://emporium.room40.org/products/532246-chris-herbert-constants

 

I know some of you dig his material. The album is finally out, and it's pretty awesome. It was worth the wait for sure.

[Redruth]

o' thx. he is very gifted in the sounds he makes i think. mezzotint puts mǝ in the soft, sleepy, warm place

[Alcofribas]

definitely checking this out. mezzotints was well lush indeed.

[Guest chrisherbert]

Thanks, all of you - I've just registered to say thank you for listening and most of all for remembering my very haphazard releases. It might sound glib but it means a lot to know there's someone out there. Hats off for that.

 

I'm pleased with how Constants has come out, although I've lived with this material for the last few years it all hangs together nicely. I sincerely hope you like it. I'll try not to leave it as long next time.

 

[Alcofribas]

looks great Chris, thanks for posting!