Steve Von Till

The early-'90s arrival of guitarist and vocalist Steve Von Till in the Bay Area hardcore unit Neurosis aligned with the ensemble's departure from its initial brutal thrash-punk identity, whose debut album Pain of Mind from 1987 had originally carried a news photograph of Pennsylvania Attorney General Robert "Budd" Dwyer taking his own life during a televised press conference. Beginning with Souls at Zero in 1992, the group wove together psychedelic stoner metal, doomy goth rock, and nearly medieval folk material. Von Till also proved central to the Neurosis satellite project Tribes of Neurot, which partners with external players to generate improvisational neo-tribal soundscapes. Among its releases, the conceptual Adaptation and Survival: The Insect Project presented an album-length sequence of electronically processed insect sounds, first issued in 1998 as three vinyl discs of differing dimensions designed for simultaneous playback at varying speeds; Tribes of Neurot likewise issued a series of EPs timed to the lunar equinoxes and solstices between 1999 and 2001.

The short-lived ambient-noise supergroup Culper Ring came next, uniting Von Till with Amber Asylum's Kris Force (whose ensemble occasionally includes Von Till) and SubArachnoid Space's Mason Jones for the 2001 album 355, whose style evoked Nurse with Wound. Under the Harvestman moniker, Von Till issued Lashing the Rye in 2005, merging traditional British folk pieces such as "Scarborough Fair" with 1970s-style European progressive rock. Parallel to these activities, he launched a solo career with the one-man acoustic recording As the Crow Flies in 2000. Its 2002 follow-up, If I Should Fall to the Field, expanded the folk and country directions of his solo output through the addition of fiddle, pedal steel, and banjo alongside restrained vocals and folk-rooted guitar. The 2008 album A Grave Is a Grim Horse sustained this trajectory, incorporating renditions of an obscure Nick Drake composition as well as songs by country artists Lyle Lovett, Mickey Newbury, and Townes Van Zandt.