Seth Nehil (b. 1973) is an american visual, performance and sound artist. He started to work with sound around 1990 using found objects and instruments, old records, reel-to-reel machines, discarded magnetic tape and other detritus. Then, Alial Straa was formed in 1994 by John Grzinich and Seth Nehil as a studio project involving Grzinich's handmade amplified piano wire instruments and Nehil's analogue tape treatments and instruments. The heart of Straa music is the topographical contour of an immense plain — a 'balanced field'. He also worked with N D magazine from 1995-2000 as a writer and artistic contributor. He received a BA in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998 and now resides in Portland, Oregon where he works as a teacher's assistant in a Montessori elementary classroom. He currently continues collaborations with John Grzinich, Olivia Block and Michael Northam in sound, performance and organization.