Split by Hermione Johnson

In 2020 on the pipe organ at the MacLauren Chapel at Auckland University, Hermione Johnson undertook the recordings which are assembled here for this release.

In focused explorations of tone and rhythm, she drew from the instrument broad malleable drones, rich pulses of sonic interference: tonal interactions in which two or more pitches – stable in their own right – are experienced in swells of varying speeds, beating in manners dependent on the combinations of frequencies at play.

Of the session, Johnson recalls affording special attention to the revolutions of faster or slower rhythms arising from varying combinations of notes arriving at different stops. As if describing a sort of arcane puzzle, she recalls “sitting with the more dissonant chords for a while before finding ways out.”

Split across two sides of tape, we welcome listeners to lose and find themselves once again during the course of this release.

mf/mp is an Aotearoa – New Zealand based imprint dedicated to producers of marginal, peripheral, or otherwise unconventional music.

The releases on mf/mp are produced and distributed by independent artists.

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