Seth Nehil

Alial Straa is the live electro-acoustic ensemble that Nehil and John Grzinich formed in 1994, documented on Tunnels/Stairwell (Orogenetics, 1997 - Alluvial, 2000) that also featured Olivia Block. The two continued their experiments (in particular, letting a group of people make random percussive sounds by banging a variety of found objects) and eventually documented them on a couple of twin releases, Stria (Erewhon, 2002) and Confluence (Intransitive, 2002).
Stria (Erewhon, 2002) contains three droning pieces in slow motion. Tome Gather (composed by Nehil) is largely uneventful, except for the moment (towards the beginning) when it summons up ghostly voices from the center of the universe, but for the rest the exploration of sound fails to sustain interest. Ditto for the shorter Arboreal (again composed by Nehil), which is too busy admiring the source noises to actually try to do something with them. The Mirrored Corner (composed by John Grzinich) is the highlight here: the drones expand and contract like in a drug-induced hallucination, and the massive vibration sends powerful shockwaves to the cerebellum (the last eight minutes are redundant, though, or should have been a separate piece).
Confluence is the more intense of the two releases. Here, the duo's study of timbres, texture and dynamics reaches new heights of paroxysm, as if they achieved a hypnotic state with Stria and then let their imagination roam inside that state. Pneuma begins quietly, and for a while we are let to believe that this will be the usual "exploration of time and space" that is prevalent in this age of minimal digital music. But from the beginning we are enveloped in whirling drones, so that the overall feeling is one of an approaching storm whose clouds are tied to cans and pots. Suddenly, the piece climaxes with a chaotic crescendo of found percussions. That in turn leads into a section of ominous drones, as if the nasty clouds were receding. "Pneuma" means "breathing" in Greek, but, if that is the intended meaning, this is the slow-motion replay of the last gasp of a terminally-ill tuberculosis patient. Lohme, the other tour de force, begins with a clangor of percussions that immediately brings to mind Terry Riley' In C, but the main flow of discrete noises is altered by a underlying drone, that acts almost like a guiding signal. Soon, this refined vibration takes over and establishes a much less playful mood, as the entire universe seems to be shaking in unison inside this colossal mantra while drifting at the speed of light towards a black hole (whose deadly sountrack in fact occupies the last eight minutes). These sound scultures (both composed by John Grzinich) are vivid and poignant. The brief The Distant Edge gathers a great many buzzing voices and traffic noises. This could have bean a Hymnen (Stockhausen's classic collage of voices) for the 21st century. Unfortunately, the duo only toys with the idea but doesn't pursue it with the required expressionistic pathos.

Nehil's Umbra (2002) contains three pieces: Naos (13:11), Mira (9:23) and Situla (20:07).

Sunder Unite (Sedimental, 2004) is a collaboration with Olivia Block. Sources included (quote): "grass, beans, pebbles, small cassette players, blown bottles, flute, reeds, oboe, piano, bowed wires, metal objects, wood pieces, and recordings of crickets, frogs, crows, streets and temples in Tokyo and Kyoto, the botanical gardens in Paris, a wooden ladder".

Sillage (2007) was a collaboration with Brendan Murray.

Gyre (Cut, 2008), another collaboration with John Grzinich, manipulated field recordings from Eastern Europe.

Ecllipses (And/OAR, 2008) was a collaboration with Matt Marble.

Nehil's solo albums include Amnemonic Site (2007), Flock & Tumble (2009), which features several vocalists, Knives (2010), Furl (2010), Horizon Line/New Event, Lair (2013), Bounds (2014), Skew/ Flume (2019), which includes the seven-part Skew (2015),

(Eco)systems (2021) and The Memory of Things (2022) were collaborations with Bruno Duplant.