NNY: -0º
Broqn

Recorded between late 2008 and early 2009, -0º presents four untitled tracks by NNY, the recording alias of Jerome Faria, a media artist from Madeira, Portugal who's currently based in Switzerland. Characterizing his sound as “experimental, minimal, ambient, and electronic,” Faria usually performs audio-visual concerts featuring sound-reactive visuals, and, after listening to the thirty-eight minutes of material on -0º , the listener may find it easy to picture the kind of amorphous and abstract patterns Faria might generate to accompany the audio content.

Out of a micro-textured haze of crackle, the first piece quietly asserts itself, its warm, glistening tones melting into one another as they coalesce into a state of peaceful drift. Expanding the sonic scope of the recording, faint voices and radio noise, originating from samples or field recordings, surface within the mix in track two. Faria shapes the material into a dense yet calming field of granular textures, industrial noise, and soft, organ-like melodies, after which track three slowly strips the sound back to its minimal essence. The volume and activity naturally increases in the final setting, with gamelan-like patterns fluttering over a gently glimmering base, though it too eventually fades into silence. Think of NNY as a vehicle for 12k-styled micro-sound dissection and of the recording as a solid document of Faria's approach. Perhaps the optimal way to experience -0º is to hear it as an in-concert set sans visuals.

May 2009