FIS[NZ]

New Zealand-born Berlin resident Olly Peryman or FIS constructs visceral, detail-oriented glacial sound masses and has reflected thoughtfully on music-making as a practice. He has released on the likes of Tri Angle, Loopy, Samurai Music, and Subtext.

Fis’s unique take on bass music stems back to his involvement in New Zealand’s soundsystem culture, through which he was exposed to jungle and dubstep. His particular sound began to receive attention in 2011, fracturing drum and bass into a looser, abstract realm, as heard in releases such as 2012’s The Commons, which was put out via drum & bass label Exit. His 2013 Tri Angle EP, Preparations, put him on the map as a forward and backward-thinking architect of living and breathing audial organisms of multifarious provenance.

Peryman’s work as a producer grew alongside an academic background in education studies and teaching, and it's very much shaped by his relationship with nature. Although he is careful to say that his music doesn’t claim a depth of connection to his native New Zealand, the ecological character of his compositions reflects an openness to the idea of music as bound to place and landscape. In any case, as one who views sound as a “bone marrow of the universe”, he specifies, “if an artist is ever going to carve out a new territory, their work needs to be different at the seed level, different before the start”.

From Patterns to Details, his Subtext release with Maori sound healer Rob Thorne, was inspired by his work as a permaculture designer, and is built on ideas around balance and order in the world. His most recent venture takes its form as a new label called Saplings, where physical releases will not be in the form of vinyls, cassettes nor CDs, but rather through the planting of trees; for each individual sale, at least 40 trees will be planted. Of the project, Peryman says, “Are there more trees in the ground or not because of us?… It’s either yes or no, and I’d rather it’s yes… Hope belongs everywhere” (FACT).

Meeting Grounds

Kunstquartier Studio 1, Thu 04.02.2016, 16:30

Talk with Fis & Rob Thorne. Host: Emily Bick

Coordinates VI

HAU2, Sat 06.02.2016, 19:00

Native Instrument, Fis & Rob Thorne