Annie Aries
Brian House
Marcel Zaes

While Zoom and other online streaming platforms let us appear together online, the vast network infrastructure between us inevitably introduces delays, skips, and other temporal distortions. We usually try our best to ignore these shortcomings when we connect virtually, but Network Friction harnesses them to create unique rhythms.

The work originated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when three sound artists on three different continents attempted to share beats with one another online. Realizing that the “failures” of the network that connected them were themselves aesthetically interesting, Aries, House, and Zaes conceived of an installation for a virtual exhibition, streaming looping beats from custom lathe-cut records to a virtual listening space where they combined in unexpected ways.

Now, the artists reimagined the installation as a recorded performance. Like with the installation, the artists utilized their virtual connection as a temporal device to alter their pre-produced rhythm loops, but this time they followed a score that choreographed each performer’s precise actions—controlling tone arms, switches, and other functions of the turntable—resulting in a faster, musicalized, and rigorously structured performance. The album materializes the conceptual rhythm work while it shows sonic-sensual depth.