For over a decade, trombonist/composers Mattie Barbier and Weston Olencki have consistently pushed the outer limits of what brass instruments are capable of. Working in the spaces between contemporary composition, drone, noise, and electroacoustics, RAGE has sought to emulate the electronic with acoustic means, transforming their trombones from orchestral accompaniment into a high density wall of resonance. Tilth soil marks a new direction from their previous work. Instead of merely playing the horn with unconventional techniques, the duo physically uses the instruments (and a bevy of microphones) in order to extend the horns’ vibrational spectrum. They shift the trombone away from its place as a clarion call into a stethoscopic ear, listening from where an instrument normally speaks. Buoy sounds from microphones placed inside two horns while they float in the harbor of Bergen, Norway. The lamps are going out uses room resonance captured at the Museum of Jurassic Technology to house overlain, multilayered excerpts of JUZ (A Yodel Cry) by Wolfgang von Schweinitz, the work acting as a tribute to Barbier’s mentor and predecessor at the California Institute of the Arts. 

By digging deep into the physical processes of their instruments, RAGE seeks to uncover a wide field of sonic possibilities, blurring the boundaries between human breath and air-powered sound. Tilth soil presents this new material in a visceral, dimensionally-sculpted relief.

Release Date: December 9, 2025

Catalog #: MFLP B

Art: Mareike Yin-Yee Lee

Finalized and produced by Al Jones (Laminal Audio)

Side A

Two Bells in 7 Hours

Buoy

Side B

The lamps are going out

lossless .wav files may be found here.

Weston Olencki is an artist and musician from South Carolina, living now in Berlin.

Their projects position musical instruments as sites of cultural inscription, working fluidly between experimental sound, traditional musics, and their various space/time(s).

Weston has previously performed at the Borealis Festival, Counterflows, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Lampo, Musica Nova (as a soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic), Märzmusik, Black Mountain College, philharmonie luxembourg, HKW, Festival Musica, the American Academy in Rome, Roulette Intermedium, Jalopy Theatre, Fylkingen, Pioneer Works, and more. They have held guest residencies at the University of Huddersfield, Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, Northwestern, and have been a visiting artist at CalArts (2018), Stoveworks (2023), suddenlyLISTEN (2024), and EMS Stockholm (2025). 

Their solo discography includes Verd Mont (SUPERPANG, 2021), Old Time Music (Tripticks Tapes, 2022), pearls ground down to powder (Full Spectrum, 2024),  I went to the dance (Longform Editions, 2024) and Broadsides (Outside Time, 2025), with other recording projects released by PAGANS, Dinzu Artefacts, Lobby Art, Astral Spirits, Out of Your Head, Sound American, HatHut, and Astral Spirits. They are an active member of RAGE THORMBONES and APPARAT, and perform in many contexts on low brass instruments, winds, banjo, and electronics.

RAGE Thormbones is a low frequency duo comprised of Mattie Barbier and Weston Olencki. With mainly trombones, they produce sculpted masses of high-density sound, carving metallic resonance and subcutaneous tones to make rooms feel really heavy. They’ve presented work everywhere from Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Darmstadt Summer Courses, Borealis Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, ISSUE Project Room and more recently, as soloists with the Helsinki Philharmonic and SWR Symphonieorchester. 

Past collaborators include Ellen Arkbro, Kevin Drumm, Sarah Davachi, Clara Iannotta, George Lewis, Scott Walker, & many more.

Mattie Barbier is an LA based musician and sonic researcher focused on experimental intonation, latent acoustic worlds, and the physical processes of their instrument. Their playing has been described by the LA Times as being "of intense, brilliant, virtuosic growling that gave the striking impression that Barbier was dismantling the instrument while playing it," by the Wire as “exploring the nooks of instrumental tone far beyond the reach of most mortals,” and by the New Yorker as being a "diabolically inventive trombonist-composer."Mattie engages in collaborative relationships with a range of musicians including Weston Olencki, Ellen Arkbro, Clara Iannotta, Sarah Davachi, Michelle Lou,  Wolfgang von Schweinitz,  Jacob Kirkegaard, and Katherine Young. As an interpreter they have given premieres by and collaborated with a broad spectrum of sonic practitioners including George Lewis, Catherine Lamb, Liza Lim, Lester St. Louis, Kevin Drumm, Kaori Suzuki, Raven Chacon, Chaya Czernowin, Nate Wooley, and British pop maverick, Scott Walker. Additionally, they have performed as an orchestral soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester, and WildUp.Mattie is a member of RAGE Thormbones, wildUp, echoi, Diapason, and is an active soloist and improviser on low brass instruments and bagpipes. They teach at CalArts.Mattie has presented and created work with and for the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Getty Center and Villa, Monday Evening Concerts, Lampo, San Francisco Exploratorium, Indexical, Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, Bemis Center's LOW END, Roulette Intermedium, NyMusikk, RedCat, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Apparat, Factory Seconds Brass Trio, and Issue Project Room as well as in collaboration with holographer Tristan Duke.  They have made a wide array festival appearances including: Borealis (NO), IMD Darmstadt (DE), Donaueschinger (DE), Musica Nova Helsinki (FI),  Maerzmusik (DE), Bludenz Tage zeitgemäßer (AT), Spor (DK), Chicago’s Frequency Festival, Dartington International Summer School (UK),  Kalv Festival (SE), JAMA (SK), Minu (DK),  and the Ojai Music Festival. Mattie has held  guest residencies at a broad spectrum of institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, UCSD, and the University of Chicago. Various recording projects as a soloist and ensemble member have been released on Sofa Music, Dinzu Artifacts, Carrier, Tripticks, Populist, Mode, Hat Hut, Innova, Late Music, Faux Amis, Ideologic Organ, New Focus, Domino, New Amsterdam, and Kairos Records.