Film

Nemeth

Thrill Jockey

2008-03-10

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Stefan Nemeth is a member of both Radian and Lokai and the co-founder of Mosz Records and Film is his first solo record. As its title makes references though it is not a straight ‘solo album’ but contains tracks culled and cut-up from, and embellishing, the variety of work that the Austrian musician has composed for different experimental film and video pieces over the last four or five years. Musically the offerings here are of a minimalist feel and texture; soundscapes with no real sharp edges or intense angles. Referencing electronica, modern composition and experimental post-rock or jazz the pieces work independently of the visuals that caused their inception and previously existed symbiotically with.

Some pieces, such as “Luukkaannkangas” and “Soprus” (both taking on the name of the film which they are taken from) are only minimally changed from their original forms, though here cut down from their previous accompaniment length/repetition. The former track is one of the most minimal and down-tempo pieces on the record — sustained synths are partnered by higher organ snippets and the pulsing wash is clipped with glitches which sound like they are stretching and rippling the fabric encasing your speakers, a sound which works as a minimal electronic piece working with frameworks of bands like Tortoise or with the Kranky stable like Loscil or Chris Herbert but must also have worked impressively to soundtrack the shots taken from the Finnish Road Administration’s webcams — as makes up the film of the same name.

“Field” works with more rumble, white noise and glitch

The feel of “Luukkaannkangas” is very similar to that of the majority of the rest of the record, though pared down and with less rythmic intervention. Opening track “Via L4-Norte”, which actually is the ‘soundtrack’ to an as yet unmade and untitled film directed by Nemeth himself, uses a percussive base of shuffling glitches and cymbals with light, bouncy, echoing off-beats accompanying held synth chords and a full rhythmic collage including bells, alternative synth work and effected guitar stabs and delays. Stretching this mood out a little, the following track “Field” works with more rumble, white noise and glitch creating a more minimal electronica mood, though with some samples added into the piece as it progresses the atmosphere effects a music concrete style. “Field” is perhaps the most embellished of all the pieces, with work layered on top of the original film score (to Lotte Schreiber’s architectural piece Domino) by Nemeth and fellow Radian buddy Martin Brandlmayr.

Both “Transitions” and “Ortem Ende” were developed for the film Ortem, and the latter closes the record here as it did the film, however the former didn’t actually get used at all, instead being replaced by something more abstract. Accordingly, although the piece does contain a fair amount of abstract percussion, whirls and white noise it is actually the most mainstream or at least openly inviting piece on the record with a much more forceful beat running through it. The penultimate track on Film, “Soprus”, also offers something more distinctly different, repeating a top-end piano riff throughout which echoes with an Arvo Part-esque sound of spirituality, offering cooling resonance over the deeper accompanying lines and sustained tones.

Film’s music stands up as work in its own right and displays its own narratives, though remaining a subtle work which is not likely to engage those who don’t already take an interest in this kind of fair. But with its blend of analogue and digital and its passion for rhythm alongside the collage of drones and tones it will definitely appeal to the finely tuned ears of fans or Kranky, Warp, Constellation, Mosz, Mego and the like.