Fibreforms formed in Michigan as a trio of sound artists (Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison And Clark Rehberg) performing post-rock instrumental music. Treedrums (Earth Tone, 1996) opens with the mysterious sound of Mothergraysky. Soaring indulges in ten minutes of soulful prog-rock, bridging Can and Godspeed You Black Emperor, with echoes of Pink Floyd and a coda of solo drumming over a miasmatic radiation. The pieces run the gamut from the guitar-driven vignette Blood to the cryptic electronic poem of Marinebell, from the hypnotic loops of Ore Corymb, from the romantic new-age guitar melody of Untitled Bright Format to the glitchy exotic serenade Amorosa. The trio explores the border of free-jazz, acid-rock and ambient music in the brief Ecru and especially in the longer Thermals and Cincture.
The "revamped" digital edition of 2013 is inferior to the original, or at least more conventional and fashionable by the standards of 2013. It includes two leftovers: the somnolent John Fahey-esque guitar fantasia Corianna and the percussive fever with stormy distortion of Kineis but omits the two main compositions: the 15-minute Thermals and the seven-minute Cincture.

The sound of an African wind instrument dominates the EP Stone (Roomtone, 1997), adorning the jazz-rock of Gryphons and the tribal drumming of Stone. In standout Kohinoor it becomes a ceremonial rumbling that accompanies cavernous drones.

In the meantime, the same collective released Panchroma (Alley Sweeper, 1997) under the moniker Waterwheel.

Then the trio changed name to Kiln, but continued to produce atmospheric instrumental music. The first release was the seven-song EP The Kiln (Roomtone, 1997), containing the terrifying pulsating distortion of Neuron.

Kiln's album Holo (Thalassa, 1998) builds upon the ambient world-music of Stone and the haunting post-rock of Fibreforms. The technique of manipulated/treated percussion and guitar mixed with found sounds has become more sophisticated and the sound is more "digital" (a mixed blessing), but the fundamental inspiration remains the same, just cast into new elegant bodies: haunting direction-less jamming (Breezeplate), psychedelic world-music (Toypieceplate),, African-inspired drumming spoiled by glitchy effects (Squarewave Colorwheel), space country music (Sienna), noisy soundsculpting (Sunsculpture.one), surrealistic jazz-rock (Kekker), a stately cosmic excursion (Continentsunderclouds), etc. The sudden electric shock of Billionwatt ends too soon. The influence of texture-oriented projects like Main and Seefeel now prevails over the deviant prog-rock of Can. In fact, despite the generally austere and even academic tone, these brief vignettes are closer to new-age music than to post-rock.

Kiln's second album Ampday (Thalassa, 2000) is still anchored to the short song format but generally more upbeat and much closer to rock music than ambient music. Rayed is emblematic of how they bridge the new rock emphasis with their post-rock DNA (Jody Harris did something similar but in much more ambitious terms). Supersonic Kid is not quite supersonic but certainly noisy. The guitar riffs of Blackberry Soldiers could be on a Mike Oldfield album. The brilliant folkish dance Tinsunshine even evokes Leo Kottke. The minimalist repetition wed to bluesy phrasing of Pinwheel could lead to more interesting solutions but ends too soon.

The mini-album Sunbox (Ghostly Intl, 2004) seemed to explore rhythm instead of texture.

Kiln later released the five-song mini-album Sunbox (Ghostly International, 2004), embracing the "clicks'n'cuts" aesthetics in Ghost and indulging in the eight-minute electro-funk jam Hong, the brief four-song EP Vaporbend (Ghostly International, 2007), with the glitchy dub nightmare of Bombswamp, and the album Dusker (Ghostly International, 2007), now firmly in the territory of electronic dance-music (notably the eight-minute Tigertail).

Kiln returned with Meadow:watt (Ghostly International, 2013), a zoo of strange musical creatures, mostly dense and shapeless like KopperKosmo, glitchy ectoplasms like Acre, moribund dance jams like WillowBrux.

After another long hiatus, they released Astral Welder (Ghostly International, 2020), a set of eleven varied vignettes that is perhaps their most elegant work (notably the spastic synth-pop of Mud Dauber and the convoluted techno of Beachglass). the six-song EP Tungsten (2021), and the album Lemon Borealis (2025).