Yann Novak - Presence

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 13 Oct, 2011.

If you're a fan of minimal music then you're in the right place. If you're not familiar with Yann Novak he runs the Dragon's Eye label who specialise in music of the most minimal nature. I've not heard any of Yann's music myself 'til now but I wasn't expecting a busy sounding album. And I was right! Released on the Hibernate label you get one 48 minute track where really not very much happens. Minimal electronics and drone are the order here with microscopic changes happening regularly making what I thought would be a reasonably uneasy listen actually quite enjoyable. It's the tiny changes that make this album and it's amazing when you find out they're all manipulated mobile phone sounds. It's occasionally glacial and other times it's got an industrial vibe but generally it's an isolating listen which won't appeal to everyone but certainly anyone who enjoys minimal drone should check this out!

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Yann Novak is a sound, video and installation artist living and working in Los Angeles. His work utilizes different forms of digital documentation as a point of departure. Through the digital manipulation of these sound and image files, his works serve as a translation from documents of personal experiences into an open ended autobiographical narrative. By choosing subject matter that is also relatable to the audience, Novak’s work creates a hybrid state, balancing between his own personal history and that of the audience. Yann has had previous works released on Line, Infrequency, White Line Editions. In addtion Yann manages the label Dragon's eye which has seen numerous works by the artist released.

Presence originated as a sound performance at an event curated by VOLUME at the Torrance Art Museum (June 2010). The original sound performance used a mixture of recordings taken with a cell phone of sounds that altered ones perception. These recordings were then digitally enhanced there unique characteristics.

During the original performance, multiple artists also performed and interacted with the space. There unexpected interventions influenced the outcome and this unexpected interaction has become central to the pieces development.

Presence explores the trajectory from uneasy to breakthrough that can happen when unknown variables are combined. Through the use of digitally enhanced recordings, all chosen for there ability to altered ones perception, Presence moves smoothly through the a number of emotional and physical states. Evenly paced passages drift slowly from one into another, beginning in dissonance and slowly shifting into complimentary over the duration of the piece.

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