Minit profile picture

Minit

"..understated through a minimalism of means, but immense in its effected catharsis..."

About Me

.."MINIT is the duo of Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly. Over a period of almost 10 years Minit have been making records, exhibiting sound installations and performing live, developing works of varied scope based on the use of processed acoustic, electronic, and found sound sources. Their releases to date convey a unique meeting of improvised abstract electronics and stripped back minimalist design, yet reveal in almost every case a penchant for the unexpected, either as a melodic twist into song or as a sudden implosion into chaotic spectral noise.
The music of Minit transforms incrementally over time in subtle and hallucinatory ways. From fragile harmonic and melodic intonations to towering, ecstatic drones bordering at times on rock music forms.Their release 'Now Right Here' on Germany's Staubgold label was a masterpiece collection of spectral drone music, capturing a balance between noise and harmony, excitation and calmness, distance and intimacy - drawing you into a hypnotic, psychedelic sound-world that is like no other.
Recent concerts have seen Minit using guitars, drums and vocals to conjure actual songs (both originals and cover versions) from within densely textured layers of shimmering electronics.
Minit was formed in 1997 in Sydney, Australia. Both Jasmine Guffond and Torben Tilly currrently reside in Berlin, Germany.
DISCOGRAPHY:
'II/IV' 8". Snawklor Records, 1998
'Music', CD, Sigma Editions, 1999
'Bootleg/Four' 7", Tonschacht, 1999
'cc/bb', LP, Sigma Editions, 2000
'Now Right Here', CD/LP, Staubgold, 2004
SELECTED PRESS EXCERPTS:
"This duo has the golden touch, honestly....[their] music is like escaping gas, except its been wrapped in a big, hazy, gauzy ball of cotton wool, then steeped in liquid codeine." - Jon Dale. http://worldsofpossibility.blogspot.com/2003_09_01_worldsofp ossibility_archive.html
"....densely textured, drone-based music structured generally around traditonal Minimalist ideas of simple and understated melody. Latticed field captures, robust organic loops, and stacked synthetic vibrations combine to create immersive environments of certain constancy, but within which textural breakthroughs do occur. Like most works with a tendency towards explicit Minimalism, a part-for-the-whole aesthetic is available here...and has potential to reveal a small, shimmering world of harmonic variations and sliding, evaporating tones. To contradictory effect, the music also seems to move towards specific melodic ascensions, approaching, at several places, throbbing arabesques fit for a full orchestra. These betrayals of subtlety, these breaks in the level planes created by so much textural detailing, create the unique paradox that helps Minit stand out in a glut of like-minded musicians."
- Andrew Culler, http://www.brainwashed.com/brain/brainv07i34.html
"Perfect combination of ecstatic rock ("Ecstacy Symphony") and textural drone."
- Neptune Records. http://www.neptunerecords.com
"...a spectacularly well-controlled teasing out of the slightest of melodic interventions into an arching bell-curve of haunting sonorities, punctuated, once only, but dramatically, by the introduction of a chthonic bass-line that blooms with the secretive glory of a night-flowering orchid, and then begins to decay again into a twitchy, melancholy largo, concluding, finally, with a funereal, bell-like tolling into silence."
- Paul Rowlands, http://www.noripcord.com/reviews/M/minitalbum.html
"Think Fennesz - no beat, melody or instruments but the hook remains.
- Flux, UK
"Now Right Here is a complex, yet extremely powerful and utterly enjoyable journey through the world of sound relationships. Truly Minit's masterpiece, it's one of the best albums of the year so far, hands down. Most highly recommended."
- Thor
http://www.twoblock.net/review.php?id=76

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/21/2006
Band Website: sigmaeditions.com/sigma_minit.html
Band Members: JASMINE GUFFOND (b.1972, Sydney, Australia) / TORBEN TILLY (b.1972 Wellington, New Zealand).Using field recordings, sampling, electronics, guitars, percussion, vox & other mixed-media. Live concerts on occasion include a drummer: TONY BUCK, ANTHONY PIERETTI.
Influences: Oval, Microstoria, Pan Sonic, Sähko Recordings, Rosy Parlane, Parmentier, Vladislav Delay, Spacemen 3, Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, Arnold Dreyblatt, The Necks, David Haines, Joyce Hinterding, Ihlan Mimaroglu, Bernard Parmegiani, The Garbage & The Flowers, Dress, Entlang, Surface Of The Earth, Anri Tist K, Tongue, Gate, Dead C, Bailter Space, The Clean, Snapper, Brothers Gorgonzola, Skullflower, Flying Saucer Attack, Suicide, The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, New Order, Fennesz, Oren Ambarchi, Chris Smith, Snawklor, David Maranha, G.I.Gurdjieff, Steve Reich, Alvin Lucier, Jean Marc Foussat's 'Abattage', Tristan Murail, Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music', Iannis Xennakis, Radian, Fripp & Eno, Acid Mothers Temple, Rafael Toral, Pita, Errorsmith, Grain, Supersilent, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Mt Eerie/The Microphones, Bela Bartok, J.S.Bach, Franz Liszt, Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, The Art Ensemle Of Chicago, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Keiji Haino, Autechre, Sun City Girls, Circle, Pharoah Overlord, Fonal Records, Disco Doom, Faust, Neu!, The Stooges, The Kinks, The Monks, Love, Leonard Cohen, Animal Collective, Can, Popul Vuh, John Cale, Nico, Harmonia, Nick Drake, John Fahey, The New Heat/Obscured By Light, Luftkluster/Luftfluks, Andrei Tarkovsky....and so on....
Sounds Like:

Still images from the audio-visual installation 'Voodoo Music' © Minit 2006.
[5 x DVD/6 channel audio/12min repeater]
Record Label: Staubgold, Sigma Editions, Tonschacht
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

ORGAN EYE (Minit + David Maranha & Patricia Machás)

Minit's Jasmine Guffond & Torben Tilly join forces with Osso Exotico members David Maranha & Patricia Machás from Portugal, forming the group ORGAN EYE.Their debut self-titled album will be released o...
Posted by Minit on Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:58:00 PST

New audio-visual work 'VOODOO MUSIC' for exhibition at Artspace, Sydney.

MINIT were invited by curator/gallerist Scott Donovan to contribute a work for the exhibition 'Tomorrow, again' at Artspace in Sydney opening on the 26th October 2006.The title of the work is 'Voodoo...
Posted by Minit on Tue, 03 Oct 2006 03:20:00 PST