Emotional exploration through sound can become so indulgent that it
overshadows the journey. JH1.FS3 eschews mining the human condition as
mediation, opting for nuanced analysis rather than vanity. Using the
seeds of improvisation as their root construct, the duo work without
code, vocabulary or genre. Instead, they systematically work as
individuals in tandem, using disparate and varied sounds and sources to
create gauzy collages of ideas, sound and visceral sense reaction.
Comprised of Frederikke Hoffmeier (Puce Mary) and Jesse Sanes
(Hoax, Liebestod), JH1.FS3 delineates a more subtle “cinema of the
ear”, and a cold approach to reflecting on experience without leveraging
tropes or familiarity.
“We try to reconcile these emotionally massive things in a way that
is sincere and measured, but without being sappily diaristic or
confessional,” they explain. “A cinematic quality develops really
quickly and our attempts to traffic in generalizations, unbiased
observers of ‘relationships’ gets turned on its head. We find these sets
of unique errors that feel more like Super-8 (film) home footage.”
This transference allows cracks and fissured to be filled in new
ways, where error is championed—highlighted as intention rather than
happenstance. Throughout Trials and Tribulations, their debut
LP for Dais records, the reconnection of idea and experience conducted
with surgical diligence becomes a mode to deconstruct familiarity
through shade and accident.
With each exposition on
Trials and Tribulations, the duo
ornately explores the relationship between space and time by
reconfiguring the tendrils and fissures that bind them. Percussive
oscillations, descant vocals, and deconstructed patterns create fields
that vibrate, plunge, and drone. Sequentially, each track contributes a
lucid vignette to the larger account, engaging the listener to query
where, when, and how they’re being driven. The contrast of the lead
single “Aleppo In Headlines,” with its thrusting syncopation to the
cautious beauty of “At the Bottom of the Night” compounds and depth and
disquisition of the duo’s process.