The New York label Human Pitch explores electronic sounds that sit in the cracks between more codified genres. In contrast to many NYC imprints, Human Pitch’s mission has less to do with capturing a local scene and more to do with chasing an elusive sonic feeling. It’s an impulse that led founders Tristan Arp (Erin Rioux) and Simisea (Brandon Sanchez) to assemble an international roster of artists, many of whom make music that could exist in ambient, dance, or experimental music contexts.
Human Pitch’s mix for Nina is an hour of ambiguous body music. It features music from all eight years of the label, and it keeps moving on and off of the dancefloor. In our interview, Tristan Arp speaks of a “creaturely quality” to the music Human Pitch pushes—the label is interested in “songs that sound like living things.” A lot of the music here does have a kind of biomorphic, sculptural presence, one that can only be achieved when the conventions of genre are thrown out of the window.