"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.

Produced and exhibited by Swissnex San Francisco, the virtual work later incorporated physical listening spaces, and it appeared at the 27th Geneva International Film Festival's Geneva Digital Market in 2021, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF) in 2022, and Musikfestival Bern in 2024.

Following these exhibitions, 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.

In close collaboration with Editions Verde in New York and mixing/mastering engineer Benoit Piccand in Bern, the sonically rich rhythm piece made of locked vinyl grooves and temporal network artifacts is now released as EV017. It will be sold digitally and in a limited edition of 300 vinyl copies, emphasizing the sonic contrasts between analog media and digital distortions.

The visual artwork was created by Bern-based graphic designer Sandra Schmid (schmiderei.com). The line structures were originally drawn by hand using analog techniques and subsequently processed through xeroxing, transforming them into layered, rhythmic compositions that echo the musical dynamism of quasi-synchronous beats."-Editions Verde