[Law-Rah] Collective * ‘t Geruis

THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE – INTROSPECTION   

From the 24 releases of the [Law-Rah] Collective back catalog, 13 were created as a duo featuring Bauke van der Wal and Martijn Pieck. Every one of these albums sounds different in its own way because van der Wal and Pieck change their method of creation every time – ‘to keep things interesting for ourselves’ (ánd for the audience, I may add).
For Introspection, Martijn did all the sound design ( ‘with just a global indication for the composition’), while Bauke did all the arranging, rearranging, and post-production.

Introspection started to materialize during the worldwide pandemic, and this may very well be the reason it is indeed very … eh … introspective.

‘The lockdowns and limitations that were forced upon us have been confrontational in many ways. the freedom we took for granted became a luxury we felt we didn’t have any longer. so we started to explore and research who we were, what we knew, what we did and had, what we could and couldn’t do any longer.’

The compositional process is reflected in the titles: Research, Reflect, and Revalidate. These three 20+-minute soundscapes are also rather dark in nature, but that can of course be expected from a collective whose website is named darkambient.net. It is not the ‘scary’ kind of dark, however, but adventurous and at times even (somewhat) meditative.

‘An intense amalgamation of drone, modern classical, analog, and electroacoustic sounds and ideas. It’s the collective’s exploration within themselves that led to this. They might guide you into a journey of self-reflection’.

‘T GERUIS – TERRE, POUSSIÈRE

With only a few releases in two years (on renowned labels such as Lost Tribe Sound, LAAPS, Line, and now on the new Quiet Details) ‘t Geruis (best translated as ‘murmur’, but not to be confused with ‘noise’) has defined a unique, recognizable, and personal sound. It is still not clear who is the Daniel behind this alias, but he definitely has created his own niche of sound.

It is a weird sonic world ‘t Geruis creates: it is subtle but at the same time saturated almost up to distortion. Filled with minimalist loops that sound like a close-up of a mushroom forest. This association may not be as funny as it sounds, by the way: Terre, Poussière translates as ‘Earth, Dust’.

By treating sounds as if you could observe them through a looking glass, ‘t Geruis manages to focus on ‘the things that make your day special, the things that make a person beautiful, or the things that make a place feel like home. The little events that create big stories, the momentary instants that only later make
the impression that flew away so quickly.’