naw
naw

Montreal ex-pat naw (Neil Wiernik) who currently calls Toronto his home, began composing electronic music in 1988 with explorations in audio art and experimental music. Neil's interest in sound and technology has lead him to a continued questioning and refinement of audio tools and modes of production resulting in experimentation with altered instruments, modified devices, and custom software environments. Neil's music could be described as warm, atmospheric, and cinematic electronic music. The sound design of naw is firmly grounded in the rich traditions of dub studio culture but can also be weighed alongside formal contemporary composition. His music was described in The Wire as having "...the kind of sharpness and clarity usually lost amid the murk and decay of clicks and cuts and digital delays." Neil has released music on various labels including noise factory records and on elevation recordings for his most recent project whisper room.

In addition to his recording career Neil is an accomplished curator and digital media artist, he has shown work in a variety of traditional and non-traditional spaces since the late 1980's. His projects have included works in video, radio, print, and internet diffusion as well as other non-gallery spaces including derelict buildings, billboards, pirate airwaves, and public space. Neil has presented projects at the Finland Contemporary Museum, ISEA, Subtle Technologies Conference, La SAT, The Medusa Complex, Mutek Festival and The Music Gallery. When Neil is not occupied with audio/visual musings he steps into his co-managing editor role on vagueterrain.net an online digital arts quarterly and is a member of the board of directors for MusicWorks magazine.

Selected Reviews: 

"Noise Factory City Saturate seems clichéd when half-listened to, but you can't appreciate great sound design by half-listening any more than you can observe the precision in a photorealist painting in a quick glance. Most of the minimal 4/4 records hyped these days strip dance's hooks down to bedroom size; there are no hooks on local producer Neil Wiernik's fourth album, unless you count Tomas Jirku's remix of “5 am west bound” at the end of the disc, the only track with something resembling a bassline. But stop looking for melodies and you'll notice the hypnotic fingernail-scratching underneath “city saturate pt. 3” or the clicks and pops skittering over the four-on-the-floor pulse of “sustained viaduct passages,” reminders of a brief era where producers eschewed the demands of the dancefloor and made albums that revealed rich new details with every listen. Whatever passing resemblance it might bear to modern tech-house, City Saturate is really a 90s-style headphone classic." - Dave Morris, EYE WEEKLY

"Based in Montreal, Neil Weirnik has been customising equipment and tweaking software for some years now, taking minimal techno to deeper levels and bringing new complexities to dub and post-house production values. Mastered by Twerk in San Francisco, Wiernik's sound has the kind of sharpness and clarity usually lost amid the murk and decay of clicks and cuts and digital delays. "Railroading After Dark" opens with a bold interplay of frequencies, stacking repeated incidents on top of each other without losing overall coherence. "Penny sifting North On Bay" keeps its measures discreet without disappearing entirely. It's what his tracks won't do that becomes more interesting." - The Wire, July 2005

"This album seems to have escaped everyone’s attention, and maybe it has something to do with Naw’s geographical location. Based in the US rather than Berlin, techno’s hub, ‘Green Nights’ takes influence from the German capital’s most famous label, Basic Channel, to deliver ten tracks of static, dubby late night grooves. Less visceral than the sound that BC unwittingly spawned and, incorporating the deep, haunting aesthetic pioneered closer to home, in Detroit, this release has a timeless quality that is often forgotten about in the rush to remain part of the cutting edge." 8/10 - Richard Brophy, Hot Press

Selected Discography: 

Still Breathing - 2007 (Vague Terrain)
City Saturate - 2007 (Noise Factory Records)
Terrain Vague - 2006 (Rivers of Recordings)
Green Nights Orange Days - 2004 (Noise Factory Records)
The Resound of a Foggy Autum Dawn - 2002 (Noise Factory Records)
Gibberish - 2002 (Piehead Records)
Re/Sound/Live - 1999 (A/S Systems)

Single / EP
Cracked Lines & Broken Signals EP - 2007 (Sentient Sound)
Binary Route EP - 2007 (Noise Factory)
Anagram - 2005 (Clevermusic)
SiL/Ent/Mu/Te - 1998 (Orange records/Tone)
Low Level Breathing - 1996 (Mutant Cactus Recordings)