Reaching back into my memory banks, the details are fuzzy as
to the first Taiga Remains music that I experienced, and I’m lost as to the
first Students of Decay artifact that I acquired. But it’s safe to say that Alex Cobb’s music
and curation have carved out a great deal of my attention and appreciation over
the past ten-plus years. It was probably
around the time that I started writing for Foxy Digitalis (RIP) that Cobb’s dronescapes
first penetrated my cerebral cortex, the thick tendrils of tone wrapping themselves
around my fragile consciousness. Over
time Cobb’s sound has evolved and the Students of Decay catalog has evolved
with it. The format of the releases has
matured: from CD-Rs through to cassettes and LPs; the curation has also become
more varied stylistically, with artists as diverse as Caroline No, Anne
Guthrie, Kyle Bobby Dunn, and Ekin Fil being represented. Cobb’s sensibilities are finely-tuned toward
music that is both intriguing and engaging.
Hui Terra marks a
few new beginnings for Cobb. It’s his
debut LP as Etelin, a project that sees his focus veer away from straight drone
work. It’s the first release on his new
Soda Gong label, which aims to transcend genre and explore a sense of
playfulness and naiveté in modern experimental music. It was also recorded in the months after Cobb
became a new father, in fits and starts as opportunities presented themselves –
often at all hours. Crafted using a pared
down setup of digital synths and a sampler, the album sits squarely at the crossroads
of musique concrète and effervescent ambience.
“Vixen and Kits” presents Cobb’s new modus operandi in its
nearly eight minutes of drawn out bell tones, spatters of ringing chimes, and thunderous
rain drop roaring. The series of sonic
vignettes plays like a slide show of percussive elements that veers from the
delicate to the outright vigorous. “Hour
Here Hour There” is named after the intermittent snatches of time in which Cobb
could record – in between tending to a new infant’s needs – and picks up where
its predecessor left off, adding digital filigree and a healthy coating of
ambient sound dust. The processed coos
of a newborn baby morph into alien synth tones on “Little Rig” before a melodic
pattern appears and gracefully concludes the piece. Closing track “Been Really Good Today”
features subtly warped bells played over a muffled sample of what could be the goings
on in Cobb’s domicile in a subtle, perhaps unintentional, nod to folks such as
Graham Lambkin or Luc Ferrari.
Hui Terra is not to
be missed, both for long-tenured fans of Cobb’s work and for those who
appreciate early electronic music and/or modern electroacoustic composition. Dive headfirst into its dreamlike, cascading
narratives by pointing your browser to the Soda Gong Bandcamp. For a physical manifestation of Cobb’s transcendent
imagery, visit Forced Exposure.
