While minimalist improvisation is sometimes renowned in the work of composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass and The Kronos Quartet, The Furniture are breaking new grounds with a vast source of rhythmic simplicity and ravening brevity.
Composed of Michael Kuhl and Matthew Pierce, The Furniture celebrates free form spontaneity, yet arrives from a deep-routed understanding of one another. The Furniture is the pair’s debut album, being released through Cigarettes After Sex’s refreshed label Spanish Prayers on 1/28/22 and is a meditative trip through amorphous drones, rolling drums and haunting atmospheres. Although it came together in just one two-hour session together, the genesis has a great story, having played together in various touring bands both in Baltimore and abroad. While the pair point to 1970’s German experimental music such as Cluster, and the pioneering minimalist composer Moondog as touchstones; fans of Brian Eno’s most ambient works will find The Furniture’s musical offerings cinematically enthralling. Glide is premiering the hypnotic and reflective Strum” (below) that displays the duo’s rich experimental tendencies.
The Furniture is their first album as a duo and the chance for them to distill their respective playing styles away from their other projects. The record has been taken entirely from a single live performance recorded in theReverb club in Baltimore. Frequent collaborator producer Steve Wright brought a mobile studio and some mics down to the small live room and its even smaller stage. From there he let the pair subconsciously weave years of mutual understanding into the free form eight tracks that make up the album.
“Making a record free form can be a little risky. It’s not guaranteed that the creative forces that are summoned will show up,” say the duo. “But when they do, it can be one of the most fulfilling aspects of recording, in the way that each time you go back and listen, it can take you to a place or an emotion yet to be discovered.”
Photo by Ebru Yildiz
