Ex Nihilo by John Roebuck

ex ni·​hi·​lo | \ (ˌ)eks-ˈnē-(h)ə-ˌlō : from or out of nothing


All sounds on this album derive from a short recording of a broken guitar being scratched with a broken violin bow. A guitar obtained for free off Craigslist, I played it to death when I was younger. The neck is held together by screws and glue, the strings rusted and untuned, the bow missing most of it's hair. I wanted to give them a second life.

The intent was to take these harsh and broken sounds and digitally bend them into something beautiful.

It is an exercise in extreme sonic manipulation and extreme sentimentality. I wanted to make my old guitar sing again.

Something from nothing. Ex Nihilo.


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…And the clouds will weather away…

To the dawn stars
over dawn starlings

…The first-light
over the first-born

…And all is laid to rest beneath Antares….


What brought you here?


…to cross upon Mojave…

…passing northwards into tundra

…to lend your frozen breath
to the frozen air…

…there is an end. But it never comes…

…And there’ll be no more to do
and no more to be done …

Burn like diamonds in the glass sky