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Artist
Big Empty Field
12+ albums
acousticinstrumentalchillpostrockRichard Baluyut
about
Big Empty Field formed on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1999. Originally conceived as a trio of two guitarists and a drummer, founding members Kiyoshi Najita and Kanoa Withington brought a wealth of both shared and contrasting musical influences together. Both sought to create an instrumental group with an emphasis on minimal, highly structured composition. A founding member of New York's legendary Flower and Chicago's Anatomy of Hope, Najita heard the first recordings by Tortoise and the emerging post-rock scene. After years of writing lyric & vocal based rock songs, Najita felt drawn to instrumental music. Withington, a long time student of Indonesian classical gamelan and a former member of the infamous Survival Research Laboratories, was ironically seeking a more accessible venue for his music. Early rehearsals and recordings featured regular contributions from drummer and percussionist Greg Timmel, but his departure from the island resulted in a movement towards electronic, sampled and other unorthodox drum sources that the group continues to employ today. The spare, clean texture of 2003's debut Line Over Bridge was in keeping with the possibility of recreating this sound live. However, with 2006's lofila, the potential of the studio environment became integral to the band's sound. The album features greatly expanded instrumentation and arrangement, as well as the band's first guest artist, Richard Baluyut, of the critically acclaimed Versus. Big Empty Field also enlarg
