NXO25 – The Audible Architecture of Torso

The Nexialist Organization, founded in 2000, was intended as a transdisciplinary platform connecting architecture, music, and visual design through shared creative methods and theoretical inquiry. One of its key projects of the early years was Torso. I recorded and produced material extensively for this project. This blogpost deals with one set of recordings in particular:

An experimental study in sonic architecture, Generating Space transformed digitally processed sound into an exploration of imaginary spatial perception.

Generating Space is an experimental audio–spatial study in which generated and processed sonic environments serve as perceptive catalysts for the creation of imaginary architectural spaces. The process reverses conventional creation: imagined structures become the origin of the sounds, forming the tectonic substrate that defines the audible phenomena.
The compositions employ a minimal, industrial, and digital ambient aesthetic — clicks, noise, and spatial resonance — to evoke artificial environments that feel tangible in the mind’s ear. Listeners are cautioned regarding volume levels, as the project’s physical intensity can challenge perception.
Originally released as a 16-track audio CD limited to 100 copies, the album featured a red-tinted CD-R with red on-disc print, packaged in a transparent Plastpak case with a red-on-silver sticker reading:
“Artificial and impossible spaces are made possible through Torso’s processing of spatial audio phenomena. Ethereal noise and digital density create explorations into sonic architecture.”
Torso was a Nexialist project designed to reveal the audible phenomena of space — a reverse-engineered study in sonic structure. The album’s tactile presentation mirrored its conceptual focus on materialized sound.

 

What did reviewers have to say? 

Dead Angel Zine: 

“Minimalism is the key here: the efx themselves are used in minimalist fashion, although at times there are several going on at once and it gets pretty dense. The noise generated by such experimental sound processing, especially with the use of distortion and delay, is often gritty and booming, the sound of disturbed things happening in vast open rooms. It's the sound of machinery left to run in empty rooms, a cold and formless sound that implies the absence of humans to control the vibrations. There are moments when the rumble nearly drowns out the rest of the sounds, but then it recedes to reveal much that was previously hidden - a practice of playing hide 'n seek with great shapes of sound. There's a heavy drone quotient at work in places. Interesting work of a loud and dark ambient nature.”

Digicore Far East:

“The musician is doing an extension of avant-garde classical music especially of Pierre Schaeffer, Stockhausen and ambience music from Brian Eno. What's interesting about this CD is that the musician approached musique concrete from a different approach to Pierre Schaeffer in late 1940s. Pierre Schaeffer recorded live sound recordings and then manipulates such live sounds electronically using tapes. The musician here did the reverse. He used electronic instruments to imitate live sounds recordings. I could hear the sound of tanks battles, chilling sound in dark tunnel, TV set when all channels closed down, but all these with a sense of roughness in sound.”

IBOL magazine:

“What an evil trick! Someone took an unsuspecting minimalist, plugged him into a Marshall stack and recorded it on their hard-drive. Or at least that is what Torso makes me think of. There are almost no discernible "source sounds" in this recording, only (apparently) digital manipulation. An extremely crisp, distilled and singular vision of music, these 16 tracks are layed out in 3 larger groupings, for a total of 67 minutes of noise. Most of the textures are fairly harsh, but the presentation is more ambient (ubiquitous, surrounding).”

This is a special NXO25 – 25th Anniversary of the Nexialist Organization post.