Loren Nerell has been creating rich, complex, and subtle sonic atmospheres for more than 30 years. In addition to his solo work, he’s collaborated with numerous artists, worked as an educator, completed an MA at UCLA in Ethnomusicology, and is a long-time member of the Cal Arts based Balinese Gamelan ensemble, Burat Wangi. The music of Bali plays a huge role in his compositions, and the blend of metal gongs, hammered instruments, and drums are juxtaposed against environmental and electronic sounds.
On Saturday, October 17th, Nerell will be presenting his first live solo performance as part of The Immersion Festival, a free concert that features Loren’s long-time friend and musical collaborator, Steve Roach. Rounding out the show is the prog/ambient band Djam Karet. The festival is taking place in Pomona, at the Da Center for the Arts, and runs from 4 PM until midnight. Admission is free, and attendees are encouraged to bring their own comfortable seating.
Loren took a few moments away from his preparations to talk about what he’s been up to.
Sander: Let’s start with what you’ve been up to recently. What was your last released project?
Loren: That would be the album I did in collaboration with Steve Roach called Terraform, which came out in 2006 and was just re-released on the Projekt label.
Sander: You and Steve have had a long professional working relationship. How did that start?
Loren: That started way back in 1982 when I saw him performing live at a place called The Comeback Inn. After that show I started using his studio and started helping him at his various shows doing roadie type work, and recording his concerts. 
Sander: Steve has always been interested in live performance, but you really haven’t embraced that very much. Why is that?
Loren: Well actually I perform all the time, usually just not solo. I play with a Balinese Gamelan group here in LA and we do several shows a year. The solo thing just hasn’t really happened until now, I’ve been talking about it for years but I haven’t really made it a priority until this festival came up.
Sander: Tell me about the festival.
Loren: To quote the website, it is “an eight hour interactive melding of musical tribes in celebration of sound and music, art and visuals.” It’s basically an excuse for a bunch of old friends to get together and make some music, if you ask me. [laughs] But it’s in a cool space, in an art gallery in a 100-year old building in downtown Pomona.
Sander: What was the deciding factor that compelled you to participate?
Loren: I was asked. [laughs] It doesn’t take much. Actually it was the whole event, the space, how it will be presented. It’s a little different than how most festival are run in that the sets will kind of run into each other. Most times each group has their own space, then there is a break, and then the next group performs. We will be sort of handing off to each other. And in the second half of the evening we will be interacting even more in each others’ sets.
Sander: Do you think that advancements in technology have made it easier for you to more fully realize your compositions in a live performance?
Loren: Yes and no. The electronic aspect is smaller, easier to transport, but the acoustic instruments I will use haven’t really changed.
Sander: Let’s talk about your acoustic instruments. What will you be bringing?
Loren: A lot of instruments that may seem unusual to most people. I’ll be bringing mostly instruments that I have collected from Indonesia: Gongs of various sizes, and metallaphones.
Sander: Why not simply sample the sounds, and leave them at home?
Loren: Good question. I will actually be doing both. Some instruments will be sampled, but I want to add a visual element to my peformance, and playing a laptop just doesn’t seem to fulfill the same visual element. Plus we will be doing live sampling/looping during the show.
Sander: Let’s go back to Terraform, if you don’t mind. You’ve actually collaborated with a number of artists over the years. Is there a set process for this, or do you discover new ways of working with each new project?
Loren: Each project is a discovery. I can work with the same artist on different projects and discover new ways of working. Our comfort levels determine how we like to work. Steve is all about being in the now, so we worked together to do the project. Some people don’t mind doing things by mail, working in a less personal way. I like the interaction, but I can work in a less personal way as well.
Sander: What was the process you and Steve used in working on Terraform?
Loren: We each started with a palet of sounds we’d made at our own studios. I then went out to Tucson to his studio were we started to form the different sounds into a basic shape. We actually started with making a bed of sounds, new sounds that we created in the studio using his various synths and stuff. After that we listened and started adding the sounds we had previously made for the session, and we were mixing, editing, refining, and adding effects as we went. By the end, most of the sounds had transformed to an extent from their origin.
Sander: Can you talk a bit about the process of creating the sounds you brought with you?
Loren: Sure. Most of the sounds I brought were field recordings I had made in Indonesia, of various things, everything from musical performances to insect sounds. Instead of bringing them in their original state, I transformed them with various programs I have in my computer to something completely different then their original raw form, to the point where they were not recognizable anymore.
Sander: What have you been working on since Terraform?
Loren: Quite a bit. Three different albums in total. Two solo, one in collaboration with the ambient artist A Produce. I also just finished doing the music/sound for an art installation with dancers called Compromised Interpretation at the 825 gallery, for the artist YaYa Chou and dancers Shyamala Moorty and Cynthia Lee from the Post Natyam Collective. YaYa wanted to have some dancers perform within her art at the installation for the opening. She got in touch with my friends Shyamala Moorty and Cynthia Lee from the Post Natyam Collective, who got in touch with me about doing the music.
Sander: And how did that go?
Loren: It went really well. All the artists were great to work with. They had lots of great ideas and were very open to trying things. The gallery was packed, and it was well received. They asked us to come back again so we did a second performance on the final night of the installation. 
Sander: In addition to your work with Steve, you’ve also been involved in a number of projects with Djam Karet, also going back a vast number of years. Can you talk about that relationship?
Loren: I’ve known the drummer in DK (Chuck Oken) for almost as long as I have known Steve. Chuck is one of the owners of Rhino Records out in Claremont. I use to drive out there to buy records. One day he told me of this band he just started, and invited me out to see them play live. I really enjoyed them. They were very different then the typical 1980s stuff going on at the time. I started doing sound for some of their live gigs, then helped record their first few albums, and even performed with them on one occasion. I’ve used most of the band members on some of my recordings, and I even have showed up on a couple of their CDs as well. I haven’t done much with them in a while now, so it will be nice to do something with them again this weekend.
The Da Center for the Arts is located at 252-D South Main Street in Pomona. Call 909.622.4556 for information.
Listen to Loren’s composition, The Venerable Dark Cloud.
Listen to Steve’s composition, Westwind.
Listen to Djam Karet’s composition, The Hanging Tree.