Seth Nehil/JGrzinich - Gyre

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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.

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