Nelson Beer shares new tracks ‘Orlando’ + ‘In Defense of the Unheard’

Leftfield electronic musician / composer Nelson Beer has released a brand new double A-side single ‘Orlando / In Defense of the Unheard’ which out now via [PIAS] Recordings. Lifted from his forthcoming EP ‘Orlando’ due this Spring, Beer once again delivers a spaced out slice of blissful electronica. Watch the video clips for Orlando and In Defense of the Unheard via YouTube below.

The EP ‘Orlando’ is a disarmingly, exquisite composition, delving into the darker, more abstract realms of electronic music. Beer explains: “Orlando marks the continuity of my research around the question of identity politics. Here the role of the composer and the performer in the contemporary socio-cultural context is questioned. I am looking for an artistic manoeuvre that, without excluding it, is critical of the global industry and suggests that it endangers human rights in its persistence. Orlando – the sound and the character – as in Virginia Woolf’s eponymous work, becomes a piece of evidence to the chaotic world order.”

He goes on to add: “Orlando was composed with the idea of using sound as a means of archiving the present and as a fluid archive of history. I have been inspired by different Western European traditions in the use of the diatonic and pentatonic major scale (folk), thirds (country) and recording techniques such as field recording and binoral microphones (musique concrète, electro-acoustic music). I have also been influenced by classical music from South Asia where the space between notes is often more important than the notes themselves, such as the khali in Indian tala which is a specific notation for ghost notes.”

Nelson Beer is a Swiss composer based between Paris and Geneva. His productions resonate with club music, noise, ambient, musique concrète (Cci , Ways of Listening) and pop (Oblique I & II, Modern Love).

In 2013, in collaboration with several producers from around the world, Nelson set up ON LAND collective, which creates a fabric of experimentation and exchange between several styles of music and cultures. In 2015, he performed for Christian Marclay at White Cube Bermondsey. In 2016, he worked alongside Susan Hiller and Ajmet Ogut to create an experimental Jukebox.

In 2017 Nelson collaborated as a sound designer with Marguerite Humeau for her exhibition RIDDLES at the Schinkel Pavilion in Berlin and with George Henry Longly for the DAIMYO exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo.

After graduating in Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, and following the release of his film Atmofutures: No One Left in The City (2018), Nelson continues to experiment with sound, video and performance, weaving a link between geopolitics and art.