Matthew Herbert

British electronic composer Matthew Herbert's latest work is a three-song suite based on a five-second clip of a bomb being dropped by Gaddafi's forces on a rebel meeting point in Libya, as recorded by war photographer Sebastian Meyer. "Part 1" starts with the unadulterated sound clip before launching into the tense, cinematic soundscape that is The End of Silence. The clip was broken apart into samples and played on instruments, including those designed by collaborator and band member Yann Seznec, who's known for his instruments made from hacked Gametrak controllers. The atomised samples were then played in an improvisational band context and the results stitched together to form these three pieces. Recorded over three days in a hillside barn near Hay-on-Wye in Wales, the only sounds not derived from the five-second clip are the subtle use of field recordings from mics set up outside the makeshift studio during recording. Herbert calls these "witness mics," intended as a timestamp on the recording session, and their pastoral content creates a contrast to the tension inherent in the piece. Slow-moving, improvisational and difficult (both emotionally and musically), The End of Silence is a forward-thinking suite of instrumentals employing cutting-edge technologies that challenges what we know about electronic music.