Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst were recently commissioned by the British clothing company Cottweiler to compose the piece “Recruit“, for the release of the company’s Autumn/Winter 2014 Line. The two artists have been collaborating for awhile, and Dryhurst’s interest in net concrète, a term he coined for a style of music which aims to blend the disparate realms of our internet browsing into an audio experience, can be heard on Herndon’s 2014 12″ release “Chorus“. Using the “patch” Dryhurst built in Max/MSP, Herndon “smashed” together various samples from her on-line life, using this self-surveillance as a technique to generate her work.
“Recruit” seems to follow a similar peripatetic logic, with it’s sense for drift continually subjected to dislocating jump cuts. Collisions and strange slippages in time occur throughout the piece, as a dream-like jumble of voices, beats, and other sonic detritus are reconfigured into surreal, sonic artifacts. In a statement about the new work, Dryhurst explains:
“Recruit is a transition between environments. We answer a call, and travel to a dusty landscape where alarms, cicadas and voices swarm ominously in the wind. Improvised machinery recoils and reassembles. Wires emerge from the earth. What intelligence brought us here? What did we sign up for?”
Holly Herndon will play a few select live dates this coming spring. Don’t miss this amazing artist if you have a chance to see her perform live…
March 06 Paris, France Le Centquatre
March 27 Knoxville, TN Big Ears Festival
March 27 Athens, GA Slingshot Festival
April 16 Minneapolis, MN Walker Art Center
June 18 Barcelona, Spain Sonar Festival (w/ Autechre, Lee Gamble, and many more)