Henry House by Nate Wooley
We normally perceive certain artists through their previous releases and collaborations as well as through a certain profile they have built upon those and live performances. But how about the situation when the person we know as an artist - not only strays away from what we already know about her/him but also removes herself/himself from the whole equation as a performer. That is a huge and a bold step which Nate Wooley has done on his newest album released by Sun (o))) fame Stephen O'Malley's label Ideologic Organ.
And what an epic release that is...
First and foremost: the text as the spoken word and voice are one of the main protagonists of this album. It is drawn from such works as: The Dream Songs by John Berryman, Kafka: The Decisive Years by Reiner Stach, The Bottom of the Harbor by Joseph Mitchell, and The Long-Legged House by Wendell Berry. Along with the intricate choir work, Nate has used lots of compositional techniques that are somewhat different from we already know - there is a lot of field recording and tape being used here. He invited a variety of musicians which performed his compositions - working closely together and in an acute sense of discipline created a tight soundscape that has so many different aspects - it just begs to re-listen and open those little boxes hidden in the corners.
It shows Wooley as a sure hand composer who can work and collaborate with others, not losing the sense of his own direction and compositional style, function and structure.
It's obviously impossible to predict the value of the upcoming albums this year but I would think that ''Henry House'' is probably one of the surest shots for the album of the year 2025!
Credits
Recorded July 30, 2022, and October 30-31, 2023, at Oktaven Studios, Mt. Vernon, NY. Engineered by Ryan Streber. Mixed & Edited December 5, 2023, by Randall Dunn at Circular Ruin, Brooklyn, NY.
Cover images from the short film, Henry House, directed by Jen Mesch with her kind permission.
The texts were made through a combination of two processes. Two cento poems were created as collages of sentences from four sources. These texts were then committed to processes of change and erasure, being rewritten and restructured over the course of time in hopes of finding a different story hidden within the collection of disparate phrases. Once these main texts were finalized (found in tracks one and two), they were rewritten for each concurrent piece (tracks three, four, and five) in order to further the depth of the stories.
The text draws from: The Dream Songs by John Berryman, Kafka: The Decisive Years by Reiner Stach, The Bottom of the Harbor by Joseph Mitchell, and The Long-Legged House by Wendell Berry.
Many thanks to Megan, Mat, Russell, Matt, Peter, Mattie, Weston, Dan, Cory, and Laura for their commitment to the recording, their sensitivity in negotiating the structure and specific intonation of the scores, and their strength in tracking the multiple passes necessary to create the illusion of massed forces.
Thanks to Ryan and Randall for their different and complementary perspectives on this piece. Without their incredible skill and ears, the dance of the overtones would have never been heard.
A huge thanks to Stephen O’Malley for taking a chance on a project, my first large piece in which I’ve removed myself
as a performer.
And as always, thank you to the Shifting Foundation and especially David Breskin and Chelsea Hadley for their help in making this wild hair into a reality. It’s what they do best.
1. Acacia, Burnt Myrrh (19:40)
Russell Greenberg & Matt Moran – Vibraphones
Mat Maneri – Speaking Voice
2. Stump The World (11:10)
Megan Schubert – Singing & Speaking Voice
3. Clipped Prose of Juncos (17:42)
Peter Evans – Trumpet
Mattie Barbier & Weston Olencki – Trombones
Dan Peck – Tuba
Mat Maneri – Speaking Voice
4. Stump The World (11:22)
Megan Schubert – Singing & Speaking Voice
5. Aleatory Half Sentences (18:38)
Laura Barger & Cory Smythe – Piano & Quarter-Tone Piano
Mat Maneri – Speaking Voice
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