Listen to Baltimore duo The Furniture’s moody debut single “The Sloth”
The Furniture is the collaborative duo of Baltimore musicians Michael Kuhl and Matthew Pierce. Both were members of Lake Trout offshoot Big in Japan, and played in Arboretum; Pierce was a touring member of UNKLE and also played with Coil Sea (Thrill Jockey) and Mt Royal (Bella Union). Kuhl, meanwhile, brought his background in jazz percussion to collaborations with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and others.
As The Furniture, Kuhl and Pierce make dark, moody instrumental works, heavy on cinematic atmosphere. They've signed to Cigarettes After Sex's Spanish Prayers label and are currently finishing up work on their debut album, which was recorded at a single live performance at the Reverb club in Baltimore. “Making a record free form can be a little risky. It’s not guaranteed that the creative forces that are summoned will show up” say the duo. “But when they do it can be one of the most fulfilling aspects of recording, in the way that each time you go back and listen it can take you to a place or an emotion yet to be discovered.”
While details of the album haven't been announced yet, The Furniture have released their throbbing debut single, "The Sloth." It's droney but compelling thanks in no small part of Kuhl's propulsive, hypnotic drumming. "It was about surrendering to the moment” the pair say. “We came into this album with open minds. We relied on our history of working together to create spontaneous compositions.”
"The Sloth" video was directed by Philippe Leonard, who says, "The Furniture’s music has this particular, carefully crafted, enveloping sound signature that inspired me to work exclusively with analog tools to craft these images. Exploring light pulsations of cathode rays and macro textures of trees, leaves and skin, echoing that distinctive grain. I processed these images using an array of CRT surveillance monitors and old CCTV cameras to generate feedback and signal degradation. The video has been treated pretty much like sound; an electric signal manipulated through voltage variations and filtered through many stages, looped, retimed, and transformed into this hybrid visual matter."
Watch the video, which premieres in this post below.