Definitely one of the essentials re-listening adventures should include one of my favourite artists, Liz Harris aka Grouper and until recently under the name Nivhek. The first well-known releases of Grouper were in Type records and Kranky, and also her latest release as Alien Observer, 'Dream Loss' is also at this label.
About her latest project, compared to her releases under the Grouper name, the cover of the album has a lot of similarities, but with a difference that the 2LP the one is black and the other is white. The title of the album is 'After its own death/ Walking in a spiral' and it was initially a collaboration with visual artist Marcel Weber for an installation. My initial thoughts are related to ambient music, and since the advent of ambient music and the ambiguity of defining a musical composition as ambient music I've thought that there are many artists who have offered great works around ambient, such as Tim Hecker, Sarah Davachi, and Saaad to name a few. The release of the Nivhek project is definitely a different ambient release. Liz Harris is using her voice and her vocals more as an instrument and rather as a particular meaning that is attempted to be conveyed. Apart from the bell sounds echoing in the second composition, following the first part of the album, there are other instruments, which can be imagined as recorded sounds in a type of a frozen setting. In general, initially, I was a bit sceptical about this album whether I like it or not, but listening to it again and listening more carefully it is a great release and it definitely requires some deep listening and perhaps we need to forget a lot of the things we know about ambient music. Moreover, the instruments are also different, and she isn't using only her guitar, piano, and her airy vocals, but there are sounds, such as bell chimes, gongs echoing, and drones menacing somewhere in the space with different vibrations disrupting the silence just before it is about to settle.
After all these years of being a very big fan of Liz Harris and buying almost every release, it was until recently that I watched a performance of hers, and according to the schedule it was under Nivhek. This was part of the 'Deep Minimalism' festival at Southbank Centre, and as the advertisement mentions, it was a weekend dedicated to meditative listening and it was funded by the Arts Council. The main reason I went to the festival was to see Liz Harris, but there were some very good performances from Laura Cannell and the London Contemporary Orchestra with Malibu...however, I didn't feel anything meditative, and most of the artists were playing their latest releases. I'd say, especially in the case of Liz Harris I felt that her performance was using a lot of drone noises and her vocals, without any use of instruments, and the general feeling was far from meditative.
Now for the re-listening experience of 'Dragging Up a Dead Deer Up A Hill', some info that it was released on Type records in 2008, which is label focusing a lot on experimental and contemporary releases but compared to a big part of its catalogue, this release is comparatively different.
This re-listening experience doesn't change much my initial impression, which was very positive and very hard again to think of a genre for Grouper, except for the general dream pop, ambient that many journalists use. The most important are the feelings that were created by listening to her music. As most of Grouper's songs with lyrics, it is always hard to understand or make any meaning from her murmuring voice. However, the insights and projections differ, although this is more likely to happen in an instrumental track or composition. In the opening track, 'Disengaged', her voice is more prominent and clear, but as the track goes on a recorded drone sound is more intense.
The next track, 'Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping' is more melodic with her guitar and her voice giving more rhythm compared to the frosty and breathtaking opening. What is common in the tracks and sometimes hard to put into words is that all her compositions sound like they are coming from the background, and this is not due to the record production. Some times it feels like mourning, some others like narrating, and in many cases a great companion to her music, as a background sound whose purpose isn't to say something or make meaning but allows the listener to create its own interpretations.
If I could make a comparison with her latest project and her first releases, there is definitely much more use of the voice as Grouper, and also there are fewer music effects and her guitar or piano, which is the only instrument that she was trained at. Also, in the earlier years, there is more melody and the duration of the tracks is not very long and well distributed in the whole album. I'm happily surprised that the times I was enthusiastic about her work are far more than the very few disappointments, and will be always looking forward to her next release, which makes me happy to follow such a prolific artist.
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