Cosmic Continuum begins
without ceremony, an oriental horn snakes atonally around and
deep, deep bass pulses within its first five seconds. The first
thing you’ll think of with respect to lineage is the Taj
Mahal Travellers, and then, when the manic, crazed singing/keening
starts Christina Carter comes to mind, especially circa Bastard
Wing, which to me signifies an impending harrowing and hypnogogic
listen. And hypnosis indeed is the raison d’etre of Elektronavn.
The two tracks, one on each side of the lp, around twenty minutes
apiece, are loosely broken up into tracks but the beginnings and
endings don’t really matter. The recording acknowledges
the primacy of the present.
And the music: If it were a drug it would
be a deliriant, which is rare, even for drone music which tends
to be more narcotic or hallucinogenic. This means it’s sort
of hard to remember, after listening you have distinct and strong
impressions of what you heard, but lucid descriptions are elusive.
It also means the tracks are physically and psychically disorienting.
When track one shifts for the second time following brief fades
(implying concatenation of discrete jams) the stereo field starts
being fucked with savagely. The panning is furious, sheets of
buzzing, reverberating, shimmer start flying around unpredictably
and it feels like being spun like a top, it induces the physical
sensation of moving. The percussion keeps time but individual
measures stretch and contract according to a separate rhythm.
The broad palette of electrified string instruments (which sound
like they are mostly played with bows) is like an auditory house
of mirrors. Swells reflect and bounce off each other. Tones slowly,
sinuously split and separate and then re-converge. Listening is
like continuously zooming closer and closer in on a fractal, an
endless cycle of perceiving, first the general contours of the
music and then perceiving more and more detail as sounds bleed
together and apart.
It
is worth noting that deliriants are not popular recreational drugs.
This obviously has limited appeal to the ruck, really just for
the cosmetic reason that the songs are long and unstructured,
but even hardened dronophiles will find this a harrowing listen.
As in the wonderful new Maninkari double album, the dominance
of violin-like sounds is very unsettling at first and takes time
to penetrate. Side two is the easier side to listen to. The aesthetic
is more tribal and tidal, albeit no less fried and wild. Sweet,
ghostly melodies are sung through some heavy signal processing,
they become distorted and eroded, saturated with electronic gauze.
Twelve-tone saxophone fills out the upper register and the keening
becomes a blissful mantra as a gently oscillating lower register
drone purrs. Very nice. (WMD)
For
fans of: Taj Mahal Travellers, Christina Carter, Maninkari, Ashtray
Navigation, Area C, Peter Brotzmann
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