Holly Herndon

Holly Herndon
Background information
Origin Johnson City, Tennessee, United States
Genres Alternative, experimental, electronic
Occupation(s) Composer, artist, musician, producer
Instruments Vocals, DAW, Max/MSP
Years active 2009-present
Labels 4AD, RVNG Intl
Associated acts Reza Negarestani, Mathew Dryhurst
Website www.hollyherndon.com
Notable instruments
Digital audio workstation

Holly Herndon (born Tennessee, 1980s) is an American composer, musician, and sound artist[1] based in San Francisco, California.[2] She has released two albums on the record label RVNG Intl.[3] She often uses the visual programming language Max/MSP to create custom instruments and vocal processes,[3] and has collaborated with artists such as Reza Negarestani. Her 2014 single "Chorus" was named as a Best New Track by Pitchfork,[4] who stated "few artists have managed to meld the dark thump of techno with the intricate constructions of post-minimalist new music quite like Holly Herndon."[5]

Biography

Early life

Holly Herndon was born in the 1980s and raised in Johnson City, Tennessee.[6] She left Tennessee as a teenager[3] and spent several years living in Berlin, absorbed in the city's dance[1] and techno scene.[3] When Herndon returned to the United States she began studying electronic music at Mills College in Oakland, California.[3] She studied under John Bischoff, James Fei, Maggi Payne, and Fred Frith, receiving her MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media.[2] While at Mills she composed the vocal-generated piece 195, which won her the Elizabeth Mills Crothers award for best composer in 2010.[2] At school she focused on laptop performance,[1] and she currently does most of her composing via laptop.[7] In 2011 she released Car, an independent, near hour-long track on cassette.[6]

Movement (2012)

While attending Mills she began developing her debut album Movement.[3] Movement was released in November 2012 through RVNG Intl, a record label[2] based in Brooklyn.[5] For the album she used the visual programming language Max/MSP to create custom instruments and vocal processes.[3]

Movement received a score of 8.1 on Pitchfork, who stated that Herndon "uses her crystalline voice as a chief input for her laptop, ultimately arriving at a poignant nexus of electronic accessibility and experimentation that owes as much to her academic forebears as her club contemporaries. It's a record with the rare capacity to turn cynics who might scoff at the idea of laptops-as-intimate-instruments into believers."[8]

According to The Quietus, "Movement's sound certainly has its forebears and contemporaries - it's possible to detect traces of everyone from Coil and Aphex Twin to Ellen Allien and Laurel Halo in the mix - but equally it contains elements, both sonic and thematic, that are quite unlike any other electronic music currently out there."[1] Also, "Herndon's music reflects the ambiguous nature of our interactions with these technologies. It's by turns sensual, blissful and disturbing, and often hints towards all three states at once."[1]

Touring, exhibitions

She toured internationally after the release, also taking part in a number of artistic collaborations[2] such as projects with Iranian writer Reza Negarestani, Chicago producer Jlin, and Hieroglyphic Being.[1][3] Her collaboration with Conrad Shawcross was exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.[9] She played the CTM Festival[5] on January 31, 2013 in Berlin.[10] As of late 2012 she is a doctoral candidate in composition at Stanford University.[6] At Stanford she continues to use coding software such as Max/MSP to program many of her own electronic instruments and patches.[1]

Chorus (2014)

Her single "Chorus" was released on January 24, 2014,[3] with a music video created by Akihiko Taniguchi.[5] "Chorus" was named Best New Track by Pitchfork.[4] For sounds to build the song, Herndon sampled her browsing experience on the internet, incorporating sources such as YouTube and Skype.[3] The video focuses explicitly on the personal nature of modern computing. According to Herndon, "The more comfortable we get with these devices, the more vulnerable we are. We are learning more and more about the NSA revelations; I think it is really interesting that we have never been more intimate with these machines, and at the same time have never had such cause to be suspicious of them. We wanted to capture both of those sides."[11]

The full Chorus EP was also released in January on both vinyl and digitally, and it received an 8.0 and positive review in Pitchfork.[12] According to Create Digital Music, few artists have managed to meld the dark thump of techno with the intricate constructions of post-minimalist new music quite like Holly Herndon. Her rapid-punctuated, ethereal vocals are float above complex, dance music-inspired machinery, producing an effect that is arrestingly gorgeous and frightening all at once."[5]

Home (2014)

Herndon released the single "Home" on September 16, 2014,[13] with a video directed by Dutch design studio Metahaven. According to Herndon, it continues "Chorus"'s theme of surveillance: "It is a love song for prying eyes (an agent / a critic), and also a break up song with the devices with which I shared a naive relationship."[13]

Discography

Studio albums

Album title Release details
Car
  • Released: 2011
  • Label: Independent
  • Format: Cassette, digital
Movement
  • Released: November 13, 2012
  • Label: RVNG Intl.
  • Format: 12" vinyl, Digital
Chorus EP

Singles

Title Release details Album
"Dilato"
  • Released: November 13, 2012
  • Format: Digital, score
 Movement
"Chorus"
  • Released: January 24, 2014
  • Format: 12" vinyl, digital
 Chorus EP
"Home"
  • Released: September 16, 2014
  • Format: Digital

Compositions

Collaborations, other

Further reading

Interviews

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Gibb, Rory (December 17, 2012). "It's A Body Thing: An Interview With Holly Herndon". The Quietus. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "About". HollyHerndon.com. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 "Artists: Holly Herndon". RVNG Intl. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Beta, Andy (January 21, 2014). "Holly Herndon - "Chorus": Best New Track". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Kirn, Peter (January 23, 2014). "Holly Herndon, Ethereal and Heavy-Hitting, Creates Video World as Deliciously Surreal as Auditory One". Create Digital Music. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Kretowicz, Steph (November 14, 2012). "Computer Love: An Interview With Holly Herndon". Red Bull Music Academy. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  7. ↑ Baynham, Mark (November 15, 2012). "Speaking in Code: Holly Herndon Explains Why the Laptop is the Most Personal Instrument the World Has Ever Known". Fact Magazine. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  8. ↑ Currin, Grayson (November 20, 2012). "Holly Herndon - Movement". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  9. ↑ "Monographic Exhibition". Palais de Tokyo. 21/06/2013 - 08/09/2013. Retrieved 2014-03-24. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ↑ "Littlebig welcomes Holly Herdon, CTM Festival announced". LittleBig. December 3, 2012. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  11. ↑ "Cluttered workspaces are digitally re-created in Holly Herndon's Chorus music video". De Zeen Magazine. March 15, 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Richardson, Mark (February 7, 2014). "Holly Herndon - Chorus EP". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Holly Herndon - Home (RVNG Intl)". RVNG. Retrieved 27 October 2014.

External links