Experimental electronic master Matthew Herbert has mostly been looking back of late, most recently compiling an enormous anthology of releases. Now, however, he'll follow it up with a proper new album.
The new release is called The End of Silence and is decidedly political. After albums where he used a nightclub and the life cycle of a pig as source material, Herbert has turned to the conflict in Libya.
In 2011, photographer Sebastian Mayer was gaining accolades for his jarring war photography in Afghanistan. When he went to Libya, he decided to take his documentation one step further, recording sounds with a Samson H4 recorder. One day, he came within yards of a bomb dropped from a pro-Gaddafi plane.
The resulting 10 seconds of sound is the source material for Herbert's entire new album. As he explains in a press release, "I want to freeze history, press pause, wander around inside the sound. [I'm] trying to understand its component parts, wondering why it was so scary when I had never actually heard any bomb firsthand."
The album was improvised by Herbert and his band, composed of electronic musicians Yann Seznec, Tom Skinner and Sam Beste. Working in a barn in Wales, they also recording neighbouring animal sounds during their process.
The End of Silence will be available on June 24 via Accidental. You can hear "Part One," a 24-minute track from the release, below.
The End of Silence:
1. Part One
2. Part Two
3. Part Three
The new release is called The End of Silence and is decidedly political. After albums where he used a nightclub and the life cycle of a pig as source material, Herbert has turned to the conflict in Libya.
In 2011, photographer Sebastian Mayer was gaining accolades for his jarring war photography in Afghanistan. When he went to Libya, he decided to take his documentation one step further, recording sounds with a Samson H4 recorder. One day, he came within yards of a bomb dropped from a pro-Gaddafi plane.
The resulting 10 seconds of sound is the source material for Herbert's entire new album. As he explains in a press release, "I want to freeze history, press pause, wander around inside the sound. [I'm] trying to understand its component parts, wondering why it was so scary when I had never actually heard any bomb firsthand."
The album was improvised by Herbert and his band, composed of electronic musicians Yann Seznec, Tom Skinner and Sam Beste. Working in a barn in Wales, they also recording neighbouring animal sounds during their process.
The End of Silence will be available on June 24 via Accidental. You can hear "Part One," a 24-minute track from the release, below.
The End of Silence:
1. Part One
2. Part Two
3. Part Three
