Michael Speers Xtr'ctn

Michael Speers impresses with a debut LP of absorbing “synthetic listening environments” for C.A.N.V.A.S.; the London-based co-op behind Elvin Brandi’s cracking ‘Shelf Life’ EP and the group-show ‘Cipher’ comp starring Flora Yin-Wong and Object Blue. Stemming from Speers’ background as a percussionist, his first LP ‘xtr’ctn’ pairs software processed, nanoscopic recordings of electronic equipment’s internal behaviours with samples of the natural world and feedback from no-input mixers to yield a visceral and inventively personalised view on sound phenomena and resonant spaces that lay beyond the threshold of human perception. In the process he effectively amplifies and renders the infrasonic world as tangible yet abstract, meticulously arranging his unique palette of field recordings, SFX library and YouTube samples, and original instrumentation by Olan Monk and Flora Yin-Wong, into non-linear, non-narrative structures that invite the listener to immerse in a form of sonic fiction which highlights the fine line between referential, objective reality and pareidolic subjectivity.