the release

high up – 900m above sea level - in the jura mountains of eastern france, the winters can be bitterly cold, and the snow lies on the forested slopes for months at a time. in an arrondissement that boasts a population density of 50 people per square km (remember, this is central europe), one imagines it is also very often very quiet. or put more accurately, the ‘silence’ reveals a wealth of sound that elsewhere would otherwise be masked by human activity. welcome to neve’s world. 

centigrade is an appropriate title for neve’s debut mini-album on [ parvoart ], as (low) temperature is something that permeates throughout this release, which incidentally this time isn’t restricted to the audio realm: although the visual element of [ parvoart ] has always been as important as the aural one - with the cover art playing an important supporting role to the music contained therein - with parvo 011, we have taken this to a new level by starting the release not with an audio track but a flash gallery. 2°C, conceived by the artist provides an appropriate visual companion to the music.

neve describes centigrade as “sweet, moving sine tones, hazy sound waves, discreet music surrounding you... simultaneously inside and outside, close and far away, both accurate and blurry, like the sound of walking in the snow or the feeling you have while watching at the sun through the branches of a tree.“ as far as centigrade is concerned, this translates into a richly detailed ambient excursion that reveals something new with each listen, not unlike the more restrained moments of pan sonic’s aaltopiiri. release. when the artist refers to these pieces as “micro sound sculptures”, the immediate association is with the ice variety. hushed drones form a bed upon which various textures and half melodies – some from identifiable instruments, many not – float by, immersing and beguiling the listener: to quote the artist again “it is as much a time / space experience as a sonic experience as while playing i want to make the listener surrounded by sound, in a place where the time as no meaning.“ indeed although several tracks are of only short duration (2 minutes) deep listening certainly makes this release seem longer than the timer on your cd player says it is.

as such, centigrade is in good company with previous [ parvoart ] releases from duncan ó ceallaigh and stephen spera or the [ parvo ] art compilation. a further slice of neve appears on the second [ parvoart ] compilation advent released concurrently with centigrade.

neve also records under the name sink with a more upfront IDM sound and releases on the arbouse, bee rec and fueradeserie labels. for further information, check neve’s website at www.nevemusic.net

the reaction

to follow