The Hem of His Garment
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Bio
The Hem of His Garment is a loosely-defined heavy-drone collective functioning in Chapel Hill and the greater Triangle area of North Carolina. The Hem has continued to expand in flux, performing in ensembles ranging from three to as many as fourteen contributing musicians.
The Hem's compositions most often involve some direct manipulation of phase (or frequency) cancellation, which at high volumes creates phantom-like, unharnessed rhythmic effects. Ideally, listeners will be able to react physically to the sound waves: to this end, The Hem usually employs slowly modulating bass and sub-bass tones which can be felt as well as heard.
About
Additionally, The Hem is interested in exploring performance spaces and the effect that a room's dimensions will inevitably have on an established sound. The size of a particular room -- as well as its material content and its reflective surfaces -- therefore plays a pivotal role in differentiating each of our live compositions; in this sense, as far as we are concerned, the room "plays" with us as an additional instrument (or performer).
In order to achieve our goals in a live setting, The Hem sets up in an arc (or semi-circle) around the listening audience. The relative positioning of amplifiers allows sound waves of similar frequencies to meet and clash and the middle of the arc, thereby establishing the dynamic rhythmic patterns crucial to the ensemble's identity.
While its members find the performance of this music fresh and exciting, The Hem wants to humbly acknowledge its antecedents, as there are many. Listeners might correctly identify similarities to Earth's and later, SUNNO)))'s heavy-drone/psych metal sound. Equally as important, however, are the experiments of specific modern composers and musicologists, many active in New York in the 1960's. The recorded (and theoretical) work of LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, and John Cale's project The Theater of Eternal Music/The Dream Syndicate and the deep listening approach of Pauline Oliveros, for examples, have been a crucial touchstone as we develop our own musical agenda. Lastly, the harsh noise genre (which has finally gained some prominence in popular musical discourse, thanks to Important Records, Load Records and the like) has proved to be a lingering influence. Ideally, The Hem academically (if not actually) reconciles these disparate subgenres, exploring their convergence in that place where music is visceral, immediate, and "real" in a nearly tangible sense. But really, we're just out to have fun ...
The Hem of His Garment has been Aaron Smithers, David Harper, Jenkins Miller, Lincoln Sward, Crowmeat Bob, Wendy Spitzer, Jay Cartwright, Ethan Clauset, Dave Cantwell, Kerry Cantwell, Grayson Currin, Scott Endres, Heather McEntire, Rich Ivey, Chuck Johnson, Brad Cook, Joe Westerlund, Drew Robertson, Evan Williams, Robert Biggers, Ryan Cooke, Nick Williams, Eric Teshudi, Jon Morgan, and many others.
Musicians we have been very lucky to play with:
Rhys Chatham Essentialist, Mike Tamburo, R. Keenan Lawler, Jack Rose, Yellow Swans, Mouthus, Gowns, pulsoptional, Kolyma, phon, Bryce Eiman, BoyZone, and more
