ENDLESS PATH OF MEMORY (ALBUM, 2024)
Nexcyia’s inaugural project delicately explores the realm of sound design, eschewing the over-visited constraints of a tempo grid. Upon immersing yourself, the immediate departure from conventional song structures becomes apparent. Instead, it feels as though the artist fills the silence with disruptive yet evocative sonic experimentation. The compositions appear to surrender to the ebb and flow of textures, revealing a musical journey driven by spontaneity rather than a predetermined destination. The musical endeavor of the London-based sound artist revolves around the essence of sound itself, transcending the pursuit of memorable melodies. It invites listeners into a realm of moods and atmospheres that both surprise and elicit a deeper connection to one’s inner realities.
Given Adam Dove’s background in sound art practices, it’s no surprise that his inaugural full-length release is a rich soundscape, weaving through the realm of harsh sampling and gentle synthesis. Requiring the listener to explore with him the boundaries between reality and illusion, he neatly manipulates granular synthesis, and interweaves a library from his own archived audio, while pondering the very essence of our universal desire to belong.
“Endless Path of Memory” delves into themes of otherness, skilfully arranging a tapestry of reflections and existential exploration, his use of samples mirrors a forest stream winding through a lush environment, blending field recordings, creating a sonic world where grains pan circularly, engulfing you. Some compositions echo the universal tones of despair, while others emphasize bliss, encapsulating elements of memory with innovative recording techniques.
A track featuring Racine emerges as a poignant commentary on modern anxiety, challenging the very ontological questions that define our human limits, in its essence, it invites listeners to embark on a journey into the intricacies of the human experience.
The full-length extends a sonic embrace to those who have experienced the weight of otherness, confronting haunting memories while simultaneously crafting a narrative that foretells the sonic contours of the future.
Mastered by Anne Taegert
Artwork by Adam Dove & Woody S-Gravemade https://nexcyia.bandcamp.com/album/endless-path-of-memoryreleases March 8, 2024
https://www.factmag.com/2023/01/23/nexcyia-fact-mix/
An intimate ambient soundtrack to the ups and downs of 2022 from the perspective of experimental producer and sound artist Nexcyia.
Nexcyia is the musical alias of Adam Dove, an African-American/French sound artist and ambient musician who splits his time between London and Paris. His artistic practice, which encompasses sculpture, installation, painting and moving image as well as sound art, explores notions of alienation and otherness in the African-American experience. “We never really speak about the sonification of race and the racialisation of listening,” Dove told The Wire in 2022, discussing his 2021 installation INTER(FEAR)ENCE. Inspired by the Black sociologist and civil rights activist WEB Du Bois’ idea of a “transparent wall”, he placed a speaker underneath the glass of a car door playing a muffled recording of the late Sandra Bland, a Black victim of US stop and search policies. “Black and white people can only see each other, today, they can’t hear each other,” Dove said.
The notion of otherness is something that he explored in his stunning 2020 debut EP, Crawl, released on London’s Alien Jams label. Across its six deeply layered compositions, Dove combined manipulated found sounds with granular synthesis to create intimate expressions of his inner experience through vast ambient vistas peppered with delicate textures. On his follow-up, the Origin EP released on Cafe OTO’s in-house label Takuroku, Dove crafted a broader meditation on place, time and being.
When recording his Fact Mix, Dove opted to approach it in a personal a fashion, as he would when creating one of his own records. “I started recording the mix on laptop back at my family’s house in the suburbs of Paris,” Dove says. “The mix conveys different moods throughout 2022 – I see it as a soundtrack and wanted to keep a memory of how the past year has been so crazy for me. The energy intentionally changes throughout the mix almost reflecting the ups and downs of that time, dealing with mental health, chronic illness, losing my grandfather Clyde Vernel Dove, moving house three times because of shitty situations.”
“It’s also the longest mix I’ve recorded so I wanted to compile something special with all my favourite artists,” Dove says of the mix, which includes music from Racine, Stone, crimeboys, Florian T M Zeisig (as spool), Igor Dyachenko, mu tate and arad acid (as dj bathtime). “The mix starts off and ends with Barcelona based artist Nueen – I first heard the track ‘Link IV’ on a mini UK tour I did with him November last year in Glasgow and Manchester. The tour was organized by the lovely Conna Haraway & Deep Softy who run INDEX:Records – we also had the amazing Slowfoam on tour with us.”
Nexcyia will be touring in February and March 2023, playing several dates in London, as well as shows in Florence and Madrid – find more info at his website. Follow Nexcyia on Instagram and SoundCloud.
The London based producer and installation artist pieces together an exclusive mix of tracks by ambient affiliates, inspired by Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Here, Dove shares a brand new mix featuring tracks by several of his musical acquaintances, and others. “This mix was inspired by a quote from the book Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison,” says Nexcyia over email, “I now can see the darkness of lightness. And I love light. Perhaps you’ll think it strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form.”
“I wanted to sonify the idea that the darkness of lightness can confirm presence,” he continues, “some of the tracks by Racine evoke these feelings, as well as, feelings of otherness and loneliness – I wanted to compile tracks that evoke meditative temple-like atmospheres.”
Tracklist:
Racine “Trois Cent Trente-Trois Lettres Imparfaites”
Racine “Ibiza”
Racine “Grosso”
Xphresh “One Kiss”
Ben Bondy “Spring”
Ben Bondy “Dream Bleed”
TIBSLC “Hypertranslucent”
Mistareez “Skate 2”
mu tate “Human Occupied Spaces”
mu tate “Allowing To Exist”
Nexcyia “Apex (Extended)”
Keru Not Ever “Mon Dos Contre Ta Mezzanine (Après Monk Feldman)”
Read The Wire’s full interview with Nexcyia in The Wire 461.
Nexcyia will perform as part of The Wire’s 40th anniversary celebrations at The Wire 40 × Below The Radar alongside Venus Ex Machina and Malvern Brume at London Spanners on 9 July. Advanced tickets available here.
www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/wire-mix-nexcyia“As a kid I could never fall asleep without my headphones,” reveals Adam Dove aka Nexcyia, speaking to Rob Turner. “I remember falling asleep listening to Jay-Z and Kid Cudi: it became ambient to me.” London based artist Dove aims to create sonic experiences akin to an augmented reality through sound collages, installations and manipulated video work. In his interview in The Wire 461, Dove discusses Afro-surrealism, the sonification of race, his own introduction to ambient music whilst being hospitalised, and more.
