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"Olivia Block's Heave To is her fourth full release under her own name (her first two are on Sedimental, the most recent on Jason Kahn's Cut label) and marks both a new maturity in her compositional prowess and also a new confidence. Heave To, a composition in three movements, is an investigation into the deep structures of maelstroms. A roiling mixture of crashing waves and wind, jagged strings, clanging metal, complex electronic textures, and clusters of chamber instruments. In our opinion, this is her strongest work since her debut, Pure Gaze. Olivia Block is a contemporary composer and sound artist who combines field recordings, scored segments for acoustic instruments, and electronically generated sound. Her recorded work seeks to introduce, set at play, and ultimately reconcile nature with artifice in the realms of music and sound. In the process, 'organic' sound becomes subtly processed, digitized and abstracted; 'inorganic' sound becomes self-replicating and animate; and 'musical' elements such as chamber instruments are defamiliarized from their traditional associations, freeing them to participate in the larger aesthetic possibilities of sound."
