Environment/ Prostředí
premiered at the Ostrava Days festival 2021 by Ostrava New Orchestra

Conductors: Ondřej Vrabec, Jiří Rožeň

Lucie Vítková_Environment

Solo Guitar 2 was recorded by Bill Nace in 2008, in a good-sounding room in Bennington, Vermont. 

This year the record, originally released as a now (nearly) extinct cassette, is reissued without it’s mysterious and (maybe?) long-lost sibling Solo Guitar 1 (Like any good punk demo -- which, both aesthetically and energetically, Solo Guitar 2 is -- the thrill of discovery is made only sweeter by the potential of future discovery). 

The vinyl release comes a little less than a year after Bill’s first “official” solo record, BOTH, which was released by Drag City in May, 2020. The two records don’t necessarily stand in opposition, but they are at different points on the spectrum of production, tone, mood, time, place, age, career. Where BOTH is softened by the warmth and precision of a studio, there’s a wildness to Solo Guitar 2 which approaches the experience of witnessing Bill perform live. 

Made up of mostly brief pieces -- songs, practically -- Solo Guitar 2 winds tight, then unwinds, or sometimes snaps apart. Crackling, itchy static morphs into heavy, watery vibration, layered on metallic rattle. There are moments where that Bennington room sounds as sterile and lonely as a deserted art gallery. And then it becomes spacious and warm, like a cathedral filling with the hum of the universe. 

The bulk of Bill’s releases are collaborations with other artists, who are drawn to him (at least in part) because he’s an innovative player and a deep listener. Those qualities hold, and in certain ways intensify when he’s on his own. As he takes a series of unlikely tools across his prone guitar with the grace and urgency of someone at a loom or an aircraft control panel, there’s a sense of reaching inward. But where some might meander or navel-gaze, Bill’s playing is a process of constant dynamic construction. What unfurls can feel intensely personal, and often -- for reasons I don’t always understand -- very moving. Bill isn’t interested in micromanaging his listeners’ experiences, but he does make room for us. 

Composer Pauline Oliveros observed that when we listen deeply to the world around us, we sometimes notice very subtle and quiet differences in sounds that we thought were familiar. As a result, she writes, “the slightest difference may lead you to a new creative relationship.” 

Bill is, I think, tuned in to these subtle and quiet differences. But, in a truly punk fashion, he flips this for the listener, making unfamiliar and not-very-subtle noise into something akin to (but also distinct from) familiar sounds: traffic outside your window, the soft roar of a conch shell to your ear, static between radio stations.Solo Guitar 2, full as it is of shades and moods and life, offers a fresh way of hearing. 

Margaret Welsh

Philadelphia, PA 2021

OM069 - Bill Nace "Solo Guitar 2" [sample]

Environment, piece for symphonic orchestra with ensemble

Premiered at the Ostrava Days Festival 2021 by Ostrava New Orchestra (ONO)

Conductors: Jiří Rožeň, Ondřej Vrabec

Ensemble: Lucie Vítková - accordion, harmonica, voice and feedback, Jiří Havrlant - harpsichord, Daniel Skála - cimbalom, Daan Vandewalle, Alexandr Starý - piano, Kristýna Švihálková, Jan Nepodal - percussion

2. Lucie Vítková_Environment

blackcurrant

#9 of new works in collaboration with Sarah Saviet and Joseph Houston, created during Fall 2022

piano harmonically aligned with the open violin tuning

this is a piece that culminated after 9 studies, realized by Sarah and Joe

recording is taken from the live concert recording, December 2nd, 2022, KM28, Berlin

violin/piano study #9 for Sarah and Joe (by Catherine Lamb)

first and second studies in collaboration with Sarah Saviet and Joseph Houston, created during Fall 2022

piano harmonically aligned with the open violin tuning

realized by Sarah and Joe

recording is taken from the live concert recording, December 2nd, 2022, KM28, Berlin

violin/piano study 1 & 2 for Sarah and Joe (by Catherine Lamb)

TRACK TWO

TRACK ONE

One of my jobs is being a custodian at a stamping plant. Every day, I pass by their Haas VMC, and I always loved the way it sounded when they run it. Today, I brought a standard cassette recorder to the plant with me to record this machine in action. This is an excerpt from a thirty minute recording, to give you an idea  what this machine sounds like. The other sounds you'll hear in the background are from other things in the plant, as well as the workers themselves.

ATD Haas VMC

06.10.2018
Live performance from Église Saint-Salvi, ALBI, France

Viola Torros Project (Albi, Augmentations III - excerpt 1 - Introduction)

From the upcoming album "A Visible Length of Light" out on 4/16/21. Available at https://leabertucci.bandcamp.com/

ATD Haas VMC

Rob Galo

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