Since first emerging during the mid 2000s, Kassel Jaeger - the once mysterious musical moniker of François Bonnet, the prolific writer and artistic director of the legendary Parisian collective and studio Groupe de Recherches Musicales - has become an unmistakable force in the French experimental and electroacoustic scene. Deeply invested in the potential of sound as an elemental form, he has carefully built a body of subtle, thoughtful, and meticulously constructed recordings that push at the boundaries of his chosen field. Following on from last year’s beautiful “Shifted In Dreams”, issued by Shelter Press, Bonnet’s guise of Kassel Jaeger now returns with “ARITHW (A Rift in the Horizon's Wall)”, his first release with the American imprint Sedimental. Encountering the artists forwarding acoustic qualities of his sound sources, the haunting beauty of this beautifully produced, limited edition transparent vinyl LP, might just be his most captivating release to date.

Over the last decade, Kassel Jaeger / François Bonnet - has sculpted a body of multidisciplinary work that rests at the forefront of contemporary electronic and electroacoustic practice. Rigorously experimental without sacrificing the intimacies of self, his efforts as a composer and musician extend across live contexts and numerous critically heralded solo releases, as well as collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Stephan Mathieu, Akira Rabelais, Oren Ambarchi, and James Rushford, among others. His work across numerous fields - be it in text, action, or sound - presents of a crucial bridge between the optimistic, philosophical origins of electronic and electroacoustic musics, their present, and where they have yet to delve.

Kassel Jaeger’s latest, “ARITHW (A Rift in the Horizon's Wall)”, was created during a week long artist residency at Epsilon Spires in Brattleboro, Vermont, in June 2023. During this period, the artist set about to harness multiple attributes of sonic possibility presented by the historic, 19th Century church within which Epsilon Spires makes it home, setting to work on 1906 Estey 3-Manual Organ Pipe as his primary sound source, as well their grand piano, and the acoustics of the space itself. The album’s title - referring to conceptual underpinnings and moods - nods toward the vernacular mythology of New England: “a place that carries the ancient myths and mysteries of the Old-World.. where a new 'sense of nature' seems to have emerged, a sense never entirely free of ancient, reminiscent nightmares.”

While acoustic sounds sources have almost always been present within Kassel Jaeger’s compositions, “ARITHW (A Rift in the Horizon's Wall)” feels fairly unique within his output to date, allowing the sonorities of his instruments to retain a clearer and more tangible sense of identity in an unprocessed form. Sprawling across the LP’s two sides, the piece begins with nearly six minutes of stunning organ drones threaded by subtle textures and secondary harmonics, before slowly becoming subsumed by electronic interventions and hints of activity that imbue Jaeger’s tones with a ghost like quality for the majority of the first side’s duration, ebbing and flowing like mists over water, before relinquishing at the behest of dirge like organ pulses. The second part begins with the clear ring of piano, cloaked in a reverberance and spacial ambiences that continues to unfurl as hunting murk, before being slowly penetrated by a growing organ drone that returns nearly full circle to where the piece began.

Beautifully balanced across a broader and more organic feeling sound palette than we’ve encountered from Kassel Jaeger in the past, “ARITHW (A Rift in the Horizon's Wall)” is a stunning gesture of contemporary electroacoustic practice, drawing upon history and the metaphysical depths of the environment within which it was made. Unquestionably among our favourite releases to date, “ARITHW” is issued by Sedimental as a beautifully produced, limited edition transparent vinyl LP, featuring album artwork by Bonnet, including unique engravings produced by the artist at Brattleboro-based First Proof Press. Engrossing and not to be missed.