nick kuepfer

Released on small Canadian based imprint Standard Form and limited to 150 physical 3” pieces, Rural Route No. 7 is the latest release from Montreal native Nick Kuepfer. Recorded while quietly tucked away in the northern Ontario woods, each one of these 6 tracks drift from faded thoughts of a long distant vacation, to mild skittering psychedelic benders. Carefully blending exceptional guitar skills with several field recordings of goats, wolves, and church choirs, Kuepfer manages to craft a very interesting, albeit brief set of sonic postcards, from memories you can’t quite clearly remember.

‘A River’ allows the gentle twittering of birdsong and unsteady wobbling tones to open the tracklist. There’s something slightly spooky about this choice of opening piece, almost like walking into a fog, wherein you can hear your surroundings, but everything is hazy and out of focus. That cloud lifts quickly as ‘A Leg’ kicks in (sorry, couldn’t help it). An angular guitar riff carries the pace until it’s joined by other very nervous instrumentation, all apparently recorded on what sounds like a tape machine which was last heard working properly in the late 1940’s. Upon it’s abrupt conclusion we’re swiftly transported to a farmyard surrounded by both cows and goats on ‘A Wave’, before moving through an open door into a church choir rehearsal, only for human voices to be replaced by that of wolves howling, juxtaposing mother nature’s choir against our own. A sunny guitar loop pulls us from the cries of the pack, however we soon drift back under the full moon as the wolves reappear to close the piece. ‘A Tunnel’ is all quick moving piano and static drones, the latter gradually attempting to drown out the keys, but is never given time to do so. A fleeting guitar arpeggio greets us as snippets of harmonized vocals call back and forth on ‘A Thought’, this albums’ Animal Collective moment. The track’s slightly off balance atmosphere (courtesy of the untrustworthy tape machine making a reappearance) offsets it’s bright disposition very effectively, in the process making this a highlight of the set, however brief it’s length. ‘A Pursuit’ blows a cloud of smoke in it’s predecessor’s face, seemingly coming from nowhere as tripped out whammy guitar meets several percussionists who don’t sound like they’re paying attention to anything, let alone each other. It’s stoner tendencies are certainly a left-field appearance, but somehow fit right in, and close the album cosily before it hits 20 minutes.

Kuepfer has produced 6 individually reflective, brief and minimal moments on what gels together as faded sonic Polaroids from a forgotten holiday album. There are moments here which may recall Boards Of Canada, with all the wobbly tape recordings and faded memories. But without B.o.C’s produced beats or lulling basslines, this strips the memories back to their bones, in the process letting the simple thought of location sonically paint it’s own pictures. Lovely stuff.

Nick Giles - Nick Giles

Nick Kuepfer utilizes droning elements (some washes of guitar others hypnotizing, fast-moving samples) that bring to mind the vast, haunting wilderness in a cerebral way. Perhaps the desolation and sense of the outdoors apparent on Rural Route No. 7 can be attributed to the album having been recorded in a secluded house in the woods of Northern Ontario as well as a cabin in the Gatineau Region of Quebec.

Each track is something new, using different styles and samples. While the guitar in “A River” washes over the soundscape like a gentle wave on other tracks the guitar repetitiously and frantically meanders through forests in a lost desperation. “A Pursuit” is driven primarily by percussion accompanied by bows on strings and acoustic bass and ends the album off on an eerie note if there ever was one.

This release certainly gives Kuepfer the chance to flex his sound-making muscles. Unrelated sounds (like mountain goats, a choir, wolves and plucked guitar) are mixed well into “A Wave” to give a more exotic element to the record while the other tracks mentioned earlier exert the same ability to transport you to another place and time. Given a longer album I’m sure Kuepfer could craft an entire wild journey to take the listener smoothly from the loneliness of the wild, the fears of being alone and everything else that he must of felt while in the cabin in Ontario. - Kahnt

Number 7 in the series is here and if you're not familiar, the previous releases have been by Damien Valles, Machinefabriek, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Gentlemen Losers and more folks! Lovely little things they are as well and they include download codes which is good for you mac loving types who struggle with 3" CD's. The series has largely been drone based and this one starts off that way before it lunges into a groovy mangled sounding electronic 60's beat track. Then there's some weird folk with lots of nice twangy guitar. I reckon fans of David Grubbs and other such guitar noodles will like this. It's pretty playful though at the same time with strange vocal choruses, sheep's bleating and some distorted sounding dolphin noises chucked in for good measure. A thoroughly interesting release but that's what you'd expect from someone who was in Aids wolf and now plays in Hrsta. - Norman Records

..... Nick Kuepfer's 15 short tracks on Avestruz -- which translates as "ostrich," though it can also imply "idiot" -- read like the sketches of an outsider artist intent on capturing the nuance and idiosyncrasies of the places and people he observes. The pieces typically begin with acoustic guitar riffs that loop and layer, rinse and repeat, occasionally adding hand-percussion (pots, pans and kettles), bowed strings, and field recordings, many put to 4-track or mini-disc while Kuepfer travelled through Argentina in 2007-2008. In fact, the record reads like a slideshow of his voyage, some shots memorable, some funny, others forgettable. The music tilts Buenos Aires urban ("Red Sand Market," whose looped guitar figure recalls the Books), pampas gaucho ("Blue Pig"), and some sounds like rust-bucket buses navigating poorly paved roads ("Sapos de Tandil"). There's a palpable meandering spirit throughout, in other words. But while it may fit the nature of the journey and some of these sketches, the repetitive nature of some - "Vampryro" and "Tail Still Moves" being the most egregious examples - captures nothing so much as the monotony that travel can also consist of. - Blurt

The somewhat omnipresent Nick Kuepfer plays with a variety of Montreal’s avant-folk bands, lending his beautifully skewed vision to numerous recordings. Avestruz is an enchanting collection of musical sketches, many of which were recorded during Kuepfer’s travels throughout Argentina. Almost acting like a diary, the predominantly short pieces give a snapshot of a place or object; as on ‘Kettle’, comprised entirely from sounds made with said kettle, or ‘Red Sand Market’ which conveys a colourful sense of the hustle and bustle of a busy market place. There is an overwhelming sense of joy within these pieces, the listener truly capturing a sense of the excitement of visiting an unfamiliar place. Even a humble bus journey is given a new lease of life with ‘Bus Windows’ with its layers of rhythmic bowed strings against a jangly guitar line, interspersed with incidental found sounds. From these joyous melodies to the disjointed rhythms of tracks such as ‘Tail Still Moves’ this is a fascinating musical traveler’s journal, better than any postcard. - fluid radio

Nick Kuepfer has been a fixture of Montreal’s avant/folk/improv underground since moving to the city a few years back. Alongside running the Daygristle screenprinting studio and hosting wonderfully claustrophobic shows at his Rap Machines space, Kuepfer has done service in a pile of music groups past and present, including L’Embuscade, Echoes Still Singing Limbs (ESSL), Aids Wolf and One Candle Power; he also recently joined Hrsta. Kuepfer initially circulated some CD-Rs of this record around town, screenprinted with the ESSL name, but the Echoes project soon evolved into a larger band and a very different beast; Nick agreed that Avestruz should carry a different moniker, ultimately and bashfully accepting to put his actual name on it!

Avestruz is a charming and humble sketchbook of sorts, a volume of mostly short pieces that usually start with acoustic guitar riffs that loop and layer, sometimes with the addition of hand-percussion (pots, pans and kettles), the occasional bowed string, and various field recordings. Self-recorded on a variety of lo-fi sources (mostly 4-track cassette and mini-disc) and primarily “in the field” while Nick was traveling through Argentina in 2007-2008, the album has a beguiling vagabond spirit and palpably conveys the sense of a solitary wandering through unfamiliar land, documenting its musical impressions. There is a sense of real immediacy and site specificity (cultural and geographic) on this collection of recordings, even as most of the pieces have been worked up with multi-tracked and/or looped patterns and polyrhythms. We also hear a paean to mystical nature, channeled by the calm but wide-eyed euphoria and attention that so often accompanies rough unsanitised travel. Avestruz is like a sonic slideshow of Keupfer’s journey, with the musical snapshots taken at various ‘magic hours’ where the light makes everything hum and glow from within. - sound colour vibration

Nick Kuepfer's Avestrutz contains three times as many songs as Khôra's album, and can be viewed as a series of vignettes, each with their own idiosyncratic charm. Because many of these tracks revolve around a central repeating riff, it's a good idea to keep them short. While Khôra's sound implies that of the forest, Kuepfer's implies that of the farm: rustic, pantry-oriented, and fun. His pots and pans seem to have been grabbed impulsively during a creative fit. One can imagine a crowd around Kuepfer's breakfast table, dining on fresh bacon and eggs while the artist entertains them on the cutlery. Not to downgrade the importance of the guitar - it's just that the other sounds lend the album its washboard tone.

The album's variety is both its strength and its weakness. Some songs woo listeners with percussion, some with guitar, some with strings and rumbles. Some establish a pattern and stick to it; others develop over the course of a few minutes. Listening is like opening a variety pack of cereal boxes: not every box is equally liked. A different track listing might have helped to alleviate the sense of the haphazard. On future recordings, Kuepfer might do well to investigate the long form by stitching together some of his patterns.

-Richard Allen - http://www.thesilentballet.com/

Vintage, lo-fi, mystic, folk, acoustic, natural, field-recording, unclassified, beautiful and exotic are just a few things that describe the meaning, purpose and aura that surronds ”Avestruz”, the last part in the new Constellation Records box set Musique Fragile. Avestruz was recorded and self released previously in small numbers by Montreal musician, screenprinter and DIY venue owner Nick Kuepfer. There is a charm to this record that made it very easy yet at certain intervals difficult to write about it’s contents. Moment of thoughts would shift into the wind as each sound revealed itself the closer I looked in.

The record starts off with a kaleidoscope of sounds akin to Anguise McLise, loops and layers build up in a transient fixated cross pattern of shape shifting sound waves. Expanding outward into the mix it falls into the sunken layer of darkness as fast as it got there. Melodic, surreal and natural with tribal percussive under pinning, a dissonant yet composed road travelled. A rarity in experimental music these days. Meditative and translucent psychedelic acoustic folk music touches every canvas created in the 15 songs on the record. You hear dashes of John Fahey finger picking and the sonic textures of Tangerine Dream all coming together in his own distinct way.

Monumnetal ground shifting placement of glistening tones wraps itself around every song, when the vocals on the piece “Tierra Santa Con Montan~a Rusa” rise over the acoustic guitar loops, you really feel how deep this album goes. With influences and directions predating classical music, it’s a very raw and natural ride, one that doesn’t need elongated technical forays into note after note but focuses on a particular setting and lets the mind free to explore that area of sound. Imagery is one thing in music that I am fond of attaching to sounds mentally and this album takes me to horizons unfolding over ancient trees, heavenly oranges and purples cascading across shadows and unlimited shapes the terrain provides. For every siren and soft moment, this record has the opposite, sirens blaring forth as the rattling of the earth foreshadows the trouble that is on its way towards you. Field recordings juxtapose these sounds and shoot you into surreal and mystifying realities of possible but unlikely realities. Accordion, guitar, kettles, pots, pans, violin, cello and other folk instruments are found all over the place and the mixture from track to track really makes for a diverse sonic pallet, a true sense of realizing all emotions through sound.

Music this experimental in nature and inclusive to so many different types of instruments can always be hard to classify or even at times digest. We recommend you give this album a listen in the comforts of a nice stereo system/headphones and an open mind and in solitude. There is so much detail put into this record that to put it on outside of this state would compromise the full spectrum of sound that is really here.

From SCV member Cameron Puleo, “Layers rippling like muscles under the skin, building, moving steadily forward, only to drop off, peeling back, revealing its undergrowth, its sinew, then assuredly casting out tendrils, folding back over itself, dressing its delicacy as if anticipating an unfortunate change of weather; despite this, it is always semi-transparent, yet masking what’s beneath its skin in controlled cacophony until it sees fit to reveal itself, layer by layer, shedding, yet without loss, just opening, revealing, beckoning all those who heed, stratums flared, its open space permeating and in contrast plating each wisp of sound with gold; all its parts remain infinitely desirable, its shedding therefore bittersweet, and each subtle change is heavily laced with anticipation; a steady rumble forward, rhythmic meandering steps, victorious against emptiness without struggle, like a rush of water, imposing like thunder, closing in, then thunder giving way to cloud breaks, and the clear sky headlines billowing cumulus, reaching out, joining together, then kicked through like a locked door by sunlight; it is a release, a gasp of fresh untainted air, or a drink of cold water through parched lips. It is – as a whole – an auditory conquest and attainment, a bringer of emphasis to the beauty and gracefulness of struggle, and an aural voyage to places afar.”

~ Erik Otis and Cameron Puleo - Erik Otis and Cameron Puleo

Similarly instrumental, though stylistically quite different, Nick Kuepfer’s ‘Avestruz’ echoes only the faint eastern structures of ‘Brûlez’ and ‘Silent’, but takes this further into a more direct engagement with exotica akin to the Bishop brothers (“Tierra Santa Con Montana Rusa “, “Blue Pig”) or a more practical-joking, yet equally-driven Porest (“Corpse in the Wildflowers”, “Avestruz”). Either way it’s a massive set of 15 tracks weaned on Sublime Frequencies and an learned ear, where Arabic, pre-Colombian, and Chinese musics appear as almost a lingua franca from so many years of smuggled infusions via Outsider music. For their austerity, “Kettle” and “Public Transit” serve as two underscores to this point, the former’s polyrhythmic/monotonic percolations spelling out a new-ancient musical grid in the bluest of inks, the latter’s single guitar lather gathering like a permanent revolution all the folk musics of the world, equally resonating with all the indie-foundational sobriety which made screen-printed hovels like Montreal, Chapel Hill, San Diego glow. Clashing-spectacularly, “Vampyro” is an abandoned soundtrack of striking bows and a deep meter like some modern dance cycle better heard than seen, and without a care the disc cuts deeply left to “Red Sand Market”, a good-natured exhibition of just four or five of the teens of timbres Kuepfer manages on the disc, as well as a modestly-disguised demo of the vast structural diversity which overwhelms these two sides.
- http://animalpsi.com/

Nick Kuepfer: Rural Route No. 7
Standard Form

The seventh installment in Standard Form's Rural Route series clearly lives up to the name, with current Montreal resident Nick Kuepfer, armed with guitars (nylon string and electric) and looping and sampling gear, recording the material during a secluded week in a house deep in the Northern Ontario woods as well as at a cabin in Quebec's Gatineau region. Kuepfer squeezes in a generous range of styles and ideas into the three-inch disc's twenty-minute runing time: “A River” would register as a rumbling space drone of stark, cavernous warble were it not for the presence of bird calls and ambient hiss that lend the track its nature-based character, while “A Leg” flirts with a more conventional indie-styled approach by pairing an insistent guitar rhythm with makeshift beats. “A Thought” spotlights his rapid-fire acoustic picking, whereas “A Pursuit” plays like some experimental jam for drummer, acoustic bassist, and guitarist of the kind one might hear as part of a Constellation release. The most elaborate setting is “A Wave,” a collage that follows the sounds of goats (recorded in Switzerland), choir singing (featuring Kuepfer's parents) with a light-hearted acoustic guitar episode and wolf howls (recorded at the Aspden Valley Wildlife Sanctuary near Rousseau, Ontario).

It's hard to get a clear read on Kuepfer's style based on the work collected here, though one would be similarly challenged by any recording that presents a mere twenty minutes of material. Lessening even more the likelihood of that picture coming into clearer focus is the EP's stylistic diversity, with each piece offering a different sketch or side of the creator's personality. Such a result isn't out of keeping with the concept driving the Rural Route series, however, as to some degree it's designed to be an explorative forum that allows the artist free rein. For a more complete picture of Kuepfer's approach, one might also consider sampling the full-length solo record the current member of Hrsta and No Nature recently issued as part of Constellation Records' Musique Fragile series.

April 2011
- Textura

* ”Your disc is fantastic - i've just been loving it. congratulations, and thanks for forwarding a copy to me. heavy rotation on the home stereo, i can assure you, and it just gets better with every listen (though it also grabbed me from the first play).”

Ian Ilavsky,
Co-owner of Constellation Records and musician with A Silver Mount Zion
http://www.cstrecords.com/
http://www.tra-la-la-band.com/


* “You're cd is blowing my mind, superior sonics - this is the best thing that has hit my desk since the beginning of the year. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it kind of is, I mean of the 500 cd's I get in a week...you do the math, there isn't usually all that much that gets my ears a-vibrating. felicidades!”

Andrea-Jane Cornell,
Music Resources Coordinator, CKUT 90.3fm
http://www.ckut.ca


* “Very original and interesting muzzzzz! Keep on loopin' “

Cynthia Bellemare,
SOPREF - Census 2008 and Barometre Television
http://www.sopref.org/
http://www.canalvox.com/barometre/



* “love this record & i'm really proud to have this at VVN… its really a wonderful varied recording, congradulations g!”

Brendan Reed,
Administrator for Villa Villa Nola and formerly of The Arcade Fire
http://www.villavillanola.com
- un-published