Asher Thal Nir: Sourdine presents variations on "Graceful Degradations"
Asher Thal-Nir has announced the first release of his fledgling label Sourdine. “Graceful Degradation: Variations” is a conceptual compilation, combining reinterpretations or complete redesigns of piano scetches by Asher, first featured on his own (free to download) “Graceful Degradation” album from 2006. Part of the delay in bringing the record to shops was its intricate packaging, with the heavy cardboard digipack coming inside a transparent envelope, not dissimilar to Asher’s simultaneously published work on The Land Of, “Intervals”. The line-up of “Graceful Degradation: Variations” involves some of the artists Asher has been associated with most often over the last two years for various reasons, including Heribert Friedl (whose Nonvisual Objects label has a similar outlook as Sourdine), Kenneth Kirschner (who has displayed a similar love for the piano as a sound source), Ubeboet (whom Asher has previously collaborated with and on whose mastering skills he has relied several times) and Jason Kahn (whom he is about to work with in the very near future). All in all, it has turned out a noteworthy debut for a label which is set to further strengthen a scene which keeps growing around a steady and yet flexible core of acts.
The outcome of these sessions was eventually released on Con-V, but the music never stopped playing in Asher’s head: “I went back and continued working”, he confesses “it is the material from this second period of work which has been used by the artists featured on this release.”
As to their own contribution, there was absolute freedom for the composers involved in the project, a feat mirrored by the stylistic differences between the tracks. For anyone with a deeper interest in the details of the album, the source material is still available for free download from the Sourdine website.
Homepage: Asher
Homepage: Sourdine
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