Everything up to now is just a prologue.

A gallery just out of the shadow of the High Line. Pictures from Michael Zenreich’s LIFESTILL series line the walls. Initially unclear until studied correctly, each one seems to contain processed photographs of fruit overlaid with resolute grid lines.

Against a backdrop of old video footage of preserved childhood memories, onewayness (Adam Holquist) offers a dreamy suite of delicate piano motifs offset by occasional fleeting sonic interventions, each successive element quietly interfacing with the melodies. It is a subtle evocation of the passing of time, every isolated note feeling like a grain of sand being drawn inexorably to the bottom half of a glass timer.

Robert Pepper‘s solo Pas Musique set occupied a noisier, more abrasive ambient zone. We hear looped sounds that become inadvertent rhythms, interspersed with brief vocal sounds that blur rapidly into Pepper’s rich soundscape. There are moments where what sounds like a Tibetan singing bowl is subjected to heavy dub processing until it reaches a point of total unrecognisability. A video shows an inchoate image of either rapidly swirling water or a medical camera making a journey through a body, creating an unsettling, unswerving visual presence that mirrors Pepper’s continually oscillating, restless, discordant tapestries.

There is a palpable tension here. Rhythms try to assert themselves only to be suppressed. A TV announcers words are jumbled into nonsense. Sweet sounds rapidly become nightmarish.

That ongoing tension across Pepper’s thirty-minute set mirrors Zenreich’s pictures and their uncomfortable relationship between organic objects and the authoritarian, domineering power of the grid.

Pas Musique will release 8 Phases on April 24 2026. With thanks to John.

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2026 Further.