JAEGER, KASSEL - A Rift In the Horizon's Wall

"Sedimental presents the newest work, A Rift In the Horizon's Wall (ARITHW), from Paris-based electronic musician and sound artist Kassel Jaeger (François Bonnet), realized during a week-long artist residency at Epsilon Spires in Brattleboro, Vermont in June of 2023. In addition to creating and performing ARITHW he also performed Eliane Radigue's "L'île resonante," bookending the week. ARITHW was developed during an artist residency at the Epsilon Spires art center based in Brattelboro, VT, USA. During this residency, François J. Bonnet appropriated the space to create original music. Using their 1906 Estey 3-Manual Organ Pipe as his primary source, Bonnet then set about exploring secondary instrumental sources, such as the in house grand piano, but also, and perhaps more importantly, the acoustics of the three-tiered sanctuary of the former historic church (built 1889) that is now Epsilon Spires. ARITHW unfolds like an interstice, a gap between two frames on a flat surface generated by the organ, a surface that shatters to reveal an unclear, ghostly, and elusive space. In this work, Bonnet focuses on more instrumental material, only to subvert it and dilute it further before melting it into an uncertain acoustic space that evokes reminiscences of Erik Satie, Walter Marchetti, or even Eliane Radigue, as well as his own previous music and the liminal electroacoustic climates that have been his trademark for many years. A profound work of subtle complexity and suspended tension. ARITHW also refers to the vernacular literary mythology of New England, a land, at the same time, still attached to Europe and torn from it. The album artwork consists of works by Bonnet, with the first edition accompanied by a limited edition of 70 unique engravings produced by the artist at Brattleboro-based First Proof Press. The residency and project were made possible by a Jazz & New Music Creation Grant from FACE Foundation, Supporting French-American Cultural Exchange in Education and the Arts. François J. Bonnet is a Franco-Swiss composer and electroacoustic musician based in Paris. He is a writer and theoretician: his books The Order of Sounds: A Sonorous Archipelago, The Infra-World, and After Death are published in English by Urbanomic. He is also the co-editor of the SPECTRES series of publications. As a musician, Bonnet often works under the project name Kassel Jaeger. He has collaborated with artists such as Oren Ambarchi, Giuseppe Ielasi, Stephan Mathieu, Stephen O'Malley, Jim O'Rourke, Akira Rabelais, James Rushford and Gisèle Vienne."