NONEXISTENT is the three-waters-meet of exceptional leftfield talents Astrud Steehouder, otherwise of Opal X and Paper Dollhouse; Alex Tucker, whose work as MICROCORPS and Grumbling Fur we’ve had occasion to be beguiled by elsewhere in these pages; and Mancunian-in-London Luke J Murray, known for his work as and with Grimescapes, Iceman Junglist Kru and Stonecirclesampler.
They’ve come into existence inverted, as it were, erased from the record while in their very presence, as NONEXISTENT; and they’re intent on infecting you with the visuals for their dark ambient confection, “UNTITLED 3 (AUBURN VACUUM)”, the video for which waits to entrap you in its dark currents just below.
Old friends Alex and Astrud have been toying with a collaborative project for a good long while, but it was only last year that a creative and chronological space became available in which that could take seed; the aesthetic they chose to pursue was that of longform drones which, as the project budded and Luke was invited to pitch in, developed a post-grime rhythmic edge and a dark vocal ambience, featuring Astrud’s Prophet 8 improvisations, Alex’s cello after modular processing; voice, tapes and Luke’s sampled electronics.
Alex says: “We had this idea of discovering a hard drive or device that was rusted and rotted but still functioning, the information within it containing corrupted or scrambled audio that had rearranged itself into new forms.”
Like the work of fellow traveller Gazelle Twin, the trio’s soundscaping is a fractured reflection of the deep roots of the decidedly unmerrie England it’s our collective penance to endure.
The trio, all residents of North East London, draw upon an inky gallimaufry of the edgelands’ urban sprawl, reservoirs, woodlands and industrial history in order to imbue NONEXISTENT’s self-titled debut, put together in their respective corners of Walthamstow.
Wish to travel further, deeper, be subsumed like the unwitting and bloated foodstuff humans in Under The Skin? Here’s an additional draught, “UNTITLED 9. (COLD WALLS)”
NONEXISTENT’S NONEXISTENT is out now digitally and on vinyl from Downwards Records; you can enter into sonic contract with it here, from Boomkat, or here, from Bandcamp.
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