aaGoo

Smoke is a selection of new work by the artist and composer Nickolas Mohanna. The instrumental work could be seen as more of a departure from more digitally rendered compositions, and takes its form from acoustically derived tools. Mohanna builds a new shape in Smoke, to translate his ideas via a longing to find a more tactile physicality in composing; digging the fingers deep into the strings of the instrument, rough hewn arpeggios and angular note bends sit within a weight of dissonance that carry the pieces into shifting musical topographies. In these tracks, percussive elements intersect with acoustic strings that are used as both neutral sound sources and examinations of melodic contour; to produce timbres and tones inside a mélange of noise fields that trigger more exploratory harmonic forms and polyphonic impressions. Limited art edition of 100 copies, which also includes a poster and book. Recorded and mixed at ZIG Systems, Bronx, NY. Mastered and cut by Josh Bonati at Bonati Mastering, Brooklyn NY. Design by Amsterdam-based graphic designer Bas Mantel.

Nickolas Mohanna is an American artist and composer based in New York. His interdisciplinary practice employs a variety of media to explore and blur the borders between music, sound art, video and drawing. With this feeling in mind, many works are produced with little or no hardware but instead are extracted from environmental sounds, the portals of the Internet or simply a guitar. Mohanna has released numerous experimental records; on labels such as the Berlin imprint Karlrecords, Preservation (AU) and Low Point (UK) to name a few. And has performed at art venues in the US and Europe. He is also the founder and director of Run/Off, an interdisciplinary publishing project, in which he has collaborated with many visual artists, composers and writers; planned events and produced limited edition artist books that are designed and created in close collaboration with each respective artist.