Steven Hess (percussion, electronics)
Sylvain Chauveau (prepared guitar)
+ Helge Sten for "Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night" (2004/09)
+ Pierre-Yves Macé for "Second Souffle" (2007)
+ Christian Fennesz & Stephen Fiehn for "Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not" (2010)
On began in July 2003 with the meeting of Chicago-based Steven Hess playing percussion and french musician Sylvain Chauveau performing prepared guitar.
Their first album, "Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night" was recorded by Jeremy Lemos (member of White/Light), and mixed by Helge Sten (aka Deathprod) and originally released in 2004 by the french label Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier (DSA), and reissued on Type Records in 2009.
Some words about On and "Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night", from the Type Records website:
On is the unique collaboration between French composer/producer Sylvain Chauveau and Chicago-based percussionist Steven Hess (Haptic, Pan American). I say unique because the band has a rather strange way of presenting its work – the concept is simple, to record a record in the studio, and then place it in the hands of a third party. The resulting work is then ‘remixed’ (for want of a better word) and the album is complete. Maybe we will never know what ‘Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night’ would have sounded like in the hands of a different musician, or even totally unprocessed, but that would be defeating the point of On.
This time around the three hours of delicate source material was handled by none other than the Norwegian master of dark ambient Helge Sten aka Deathprod. Sten’s characteristic smudged ambience is evident as he submerges Chauveau and Hess’s compositions beneath a swamp of cavernous reverb and synthesized smoke. Hess’s patented percussive drones are filtered into the distant buzz of an insect’s wings, and Chauveau’s prepared guitar becomes a tectonic rumble from another continent. At times it is difficult to discern where On stops and Deathprod begins, such is the mastery of Sten’s production and the appropriateness of Chauveau and Hess’s recordings.
"Second Souffle", their second album was built with material taken from the same recording session (but different tracks), and was edited and mixed by french composer Pierre-Yves Macé (Sub Rosa, Tzadik, Orkhestra). This record is out on Brocoli (brocoli.org).
Material for our third release ("Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not") was recorded in Chicago by Salvator Dellaria in 2007. Guest musician for that session was Stephen Fiehn (guitar/electronics).
Mixing/Processing took place Fall 2009 by Christian Fennesz.
More info soon.
On has played live in the USA, France, Italy, Austria and Germany. They have performed as a trio - with Fennesz - at the 2004 Musique Action festival in France.
Discography :
"Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night" CD (DSA, 2004) - OOP
"Second Souffle" CD (Brocoli, 2007).
"Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night" Re-issue 2xLP/CD/mp3 (Type, 2009)
Forthcoming:
On - "Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not" CD/LP (Type, 2010)
Dites que vous pensez tous les 3 faire une suite à Second Souffle ? Heins dites ?? Heins ?? Hein ??
Bon en tous cas ça serait cool de voir ON comme un véritable trio . Un peu comme SAP(e) d'Aurélien Besnard et Guillaume Contré . Vous êtes en quelques sortes un ensemble de 3 compositeurs talentueux
xxx
