‘Electric Scribbles On The Grid’ by NMxZG is an exercise in expansive restraint, a dialogue between two deeply attuned musicians, Nick Millevoi on a constellation of guitars and Zach Goldstein as producer and sonic architect. From the opening arpeggios of “Video Visions,” the listener is immediately immersed in a space where the guitar is both source and chameleon, simultaneously familiar and unmoored. Millevoi’s playing, drawn from six-string, 12-string, baritone, and lap-steel guitars, is subjected to Goldstein’s meticulous process, resulting in timbres that drift between shimmer and resonance, clarity and abstraction.
“Iridescence” exemplifies this duality, shimmering with glancing harmonics that suggest sunlight on water while layered processing elongates each note into a slow, breathing organism. The track’s slow evolution rewards careful listening, revealing subtle contrapuntal gestures that would be easily missed in a casual pass. “Fluorescent Fields” condenses this same approach into a tighter frame: the guitar is deconstructed into pulses and echoes, evoking the feeling of wandering through a digital landscape painted with organic light.
“Open Window” balances spaciousness with immediacy, the sense of air moving across stringed instruments almost palpable. Millevoi’s lap-steel work floats above the foundational textures, creating a horizon line that Goldstein accentuates with subtle delay and reverb, making the silence between notes as expressive as the tones themselves. In “Geodesix,” the duo leans further into abstraction, with pitch bending, harmonic overtones, and carefully layered loops conjuring crystalline formations that feel at once geological and digital.
The centerpiece, “Electric Scribbles On The Grid,” extends over seven minutes and serves as the album’s conceptual fulcrum. Here, every motif, whether a flickering harmonic, a softly strummed chord, or a shimmering loop, interacts with space and timing in a manner that challenges conventional notions of guitar music. Each gesture seems both planned and accidental, echoing influences from German experimentalists Cluster and Neu while retaining the warmth of American minimalism. Millevoi’s playing, once recognizable as guitar, is filtered through Goldstein’s production into something approaching a synesthetic vision, where texture, rhythm, and melody are inseparable.
Recorded over several years at Kawari Sound in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, this collaboration demonstrates a remarkable patience, a willingness to explore the transformative potential of sound without haste. Goldstein’s production and engineering, informed by his work with Low Cut Connie, Irreversible Entanglements, and Moor Jewelry, ensures that each layer maintains clarity while contributing to a rich, immersive whole.
‘Electric Scribbles On The Grid’ ultimately rewards undivided engagement. It asks the listener to reconsider the guitar’s role as a vehicle for both melody and pure sonic architecture, merging past inspirations from Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Manuel Göttsching with a rigorously contemporary sensibility. The album is contemplative yet alive, deliberate yet elusive, a modernist exploration where every note is a universe and every silence a horizon.
Learn more by visiting Nick Millevoi | Bandcamp | Island House Recordings.
