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Projecto
CD Album 2003 | Silber 025 10 tracks, 62 minutes $12 ($18 international, $5 download (256 kbps, ~113 megs)) : More info Track Listing: looking down over the waves a hundred feet below, it was often enough simply to pursue doubt, it had been there all night, he shot me a chilling of recognition, just in time he turned and ran blindly back, however this feeling can be cultivated, he turns to welcome me stretches out his hand, marked time with his feet or moved his fingers, we were surprised by the quantity and quality, riding her trainer bike in obsessive circles |
The best release yet on Silber Records (Raleigh, North
Carolina's most obtuse and esoteric music label). Kobi is Kai Mikalsen...who
is also a member of Origami Arktika, Sketch, and KA. Mikalsen is assisted
on this project by various electronic pioneers of the Norwegian underground.
The music is sweeping, ethereal, majestic, and mentally absorbing. Mikalsen
approaches music from a unique angle...and the results of mind blowing.
Despite the fact that the instruments are electronic...the compositions
on this album are amazingly uplifting emotionally and very intense in a
restrained manner. One of the most beautiful electronic masterpieces we
have heard in years. Wendy Carlos would be proud. This is a MUST HAVE.
(Rating: 6 out of 6)
~ Babysue
Kobi is a musical project which is a virtual never-ending
“who’s who list” of Norwegian experimental artists. People from various
Origami monikers, Del, Slowburn, Arm, Salvatore, & Jazzkammer are just
a few of the names that should already be known to many of you. According
to the liner notes, the whole idea with Kobi is that it’s “neither a solo
project nor a fixed band, but a place where we try out ideas with different
participants.” In terms of music, the revolving door policy leaves
us with a quietly dynamic droning sound that weaves in & out of the
psyche like an illusion or a dream that keeps coming back time after time.
I’m not entirely sure what instruments are employed throughout, & it’s
probably beside the point, as the decidedly ominous & emotional dronescapes
are more about creating shades of reality & a general feel than instrumental
craftsmanship. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some seriously talented
musicians involved here, but what I’m saying is they’re not here to show
off, rather to explore the millions of notes that can be found in-between
the Western scale of twelve notes. The inclusion of a wide range
of different experimental artists prevents the album from becoming boring,
even though the different tracks seem to aim for a similarly hypnotic sonic
vista. Recommended to fans of scary drone affairs & Norwegian
experimentalism.
~ Mats Gustafson, The Broken Face
A virtual who's who of the Norwegian underground have
gathered together for an album of ambient, wyrdfolk atmospherics that was
so similar to If Thousands' Lullaby disk (which I also reviewed
this issue), that I was already on the second track before I relealized
the disks had changed! Feelings of "Waiting for Godot" or the other shoe
to drop are invoked throughout, rattling this Western-trained mind of mine
that expects a linear progression of sound as a "song" moves from beginning
to end. The compositions here have no such structure.
In "Watching the Wheels," John Lennon said, "life is
what happens when you're busy making other plans." To paraphrase the master
somewhat, Projecto is what happens when you take the music that doesn't
get you from point A to point B and release it. A truly awe-inspiring,
all-encompassing ambient work that, for once, actually captures the ambience,
i.e., the peripheral sound in the room, the bits between the bits, and
further evidence that the best, most exciting and intriguing independent
music today is emanating from our friends in the Northern circle.
Fans of found sounds, field recordings, and spooky atmospherics
will find much to enjoy. In fact, "However, This Feeling Can Be Cultivated"
(all of the titles read like sentences from a novel) is the perfect track
to scare the neighborhood brats off the front porch on Halloween and would
have fit perfectly on the "Blair Witch Project" soundtrack. Not an album
that you will listen to often, but perfect for when the mood strikes you
to listen to horror movie soundtracks.
One codicil, however, patience will wear thin and tempers
may flare by the time you reach "He Turnes [sic] To Welcome Me, Stretches
Out His Hand" and "Marked Time With His Feet Or Moved His Fingers," particularly
the latter, which is simply a loop of noises and found sounds that can
best be described as the aural equivalent of Chinese water torture. "We
Were Surprised At The Quantity and Quality" consists of a recording of
a rainstorm combined with what sounds like someone peeing in a toilet (and
you, too, will be surprised at the quantity!), and water also plays a prominent
part in "Riding Her Trainer Bike In Obsessive Circles," which sounds like
it could have been recorded on the shore of the North Sea.
In sum, like a wet dream that turns into a nightmare,
Projecto begins like a bath in meringue and ends like a loop-de-loop roller
coaster ride through your local sewer treatment plant. Harsh, challenging,
and for the strong of stomach, ultimately rewarding.
~ Jeff Penczak, fakejazz.com
My sophomore year in college was one of the most important
times in my life as far as music is concerned. It was during this time
that I really began to delve into the world of the experimental and avant-garde.
Artists like the Hafler Trio and Nurse With Wound graced my stereo, and
every month, I'd hungrily peruse the new Soleilmoon catalog, looking for
something to satisfy my hunger for new and unusual music. At the same time,
I also began to listen to ambient music, specifically dark-ambient and
ambient/industrial artists such as Lustmord, Controlled Bleeding, Raison
d'Être, and the rest of the Cold Meat roster.
It was an important time in my life as a lover of music,
perhaps the most important time. That was when the ability of music to
transport and alter a listener's perceptions first became apparent to me.
I mention this because as I started listening to Projecto, I had
the same sensation that I got back then. Namely, that I was listening to
something truly captivating, to music that, for all of its abstractions
and even sheer un-musicality, was something very unique and intriguing.
Projecto offers a dense, challenging maze of sounds
to navigate, and it's not really for the faint of heart. Many of the soundscapes
here are frankly quite alien and bizarre, even frightening at times. But
at the same time, they're often quite subtle, playing on the very edge
of your hearing. The experience can be quite disconcerting at times, as
if you're standing in a dark room and feeling something unexpectedly brush
by you. At least, you think you did, but the sensation was too intangible
to be sure.
I realize that this all makes the album sound rather
unpleasant, but on the contrary, I found it completely captivating that
a recording this abstract are capable of being this affecting. You'll find
nothing remotely close to a definable melody or rhythm in any of the album's
62 minutes. Instead, the group (for lack of a better term, since Kobi is
really more akin to a loose recording collective) makes it clear that they're
more interested in playing with space and atmosphere than anything else,
and in relying on intuition rather than composition to create their music.
The album opens up the aptly titled "Looking Down Over
The Waves A Hundred Feet Below". The sensation you get is of slowly inching
up to the edge of a barren cliff and peering into the abyss far, far below.
You can make out all manner of sounds roiling and surging below, the sound
of an angry, grey sea crashing against the rockface. Slowly littered throughout
this dense wall of sounds, guitar drones and distant radio transmissions
pine away, like lonely seabirds buffeted by the winds. The music (as always
with this album, I use the term loosely) makes it clear that it's a fascinating
view from up here, but also a terrifying one fraught with vertigo.
A softly rumbling wave of sound fades into view on "It
Was Often Enough Simply To Pursue Doubt", developing upon the ideas put
forth on the previous track. The mood is as dark as always, but this time,
you're no longer looking down from above. This time, you're right in the
thick of things, surrounded by a thick mist of drones. Occasionally, the
mist begins to shift and move, again hinting at something brushing past
you in the mirk.
"It Had Been There All Night" moves the setting to something
more akin to abandoned factories and mills. A faint rumbling can be heard
off in the distant, as if the ghosts of the machinery lying in ruins around
you are still hard at work. In the foreground, metallic drones slowly filter
in, growing thicker and more insistent as the piece progresses. They grow
so slowly that you don't even know what's going on until they're right
on top of you.
"He Shot Me A Chilling Glance Of Recognition" again opens
with a simple drone, but this one is anchored with the faintest of rhythms,
a bare pulse that feels more like an afterthought than anything else. Again,
a host of sounds, ranging from squeaks to metallic rattlings slowly filter
in through the thick haze. Due to the faint rhythmic elements, there's
an almost processional quality at work here, but one that's very alien
in origin.
Unfortunately, and this is a very big "unfortunately"
considering the album's effectiveness up until now, Kobi seems to start
running out of ideas heading into the album's second half. Things start
to get bumpy during moments of "However, This Feeling Can Be Cultivated".
Up until now, Kobi's atmospheres were dark and eerie, but what made them
work was that the group wasn't blatant about it. On the other hand, "However..."
goes out of its way to create a creepy atmosphere, with muffled voices
and metallic screams set in amongst the already unsettling ambience. While
listening to it on headphones, I found it distracting more than anything
else.
While I'd like to say that track was just a fluke, it
becomes clear that's not the case as the album continues. Compared to the
dense, enthralling sound collages that make up the album's first half,
"He Turns To Welcome Me, Stretches Out His Hand" never seems to make an
impact. The piece's background consists of an annoying racket, like someone
playing the worst possible guitar solo ever, cutting and splicing the recording,
and broadcasting it over a crappy AM radio. The elements in the foreground
don't help things out too much either, sounding more like someone rearranging
their room or plunking away at a cheap toy piano.
However, both "Marked Time With His Feet Or Moved His
Fingers" and "We Were Surprised At The Quantity And Quality" really take
the cake. Again, compared to the amazing first half, these pieces just
sound lazy. Rather than create a cast soundscape ripe for exploring, "Marked
Time With..." creates a stunning vista of... leaky pipework and mediocre
glitch. "We Were Surprised...", at over 7 minutes, only lives up to part
of its title. And it's a looooong 7 minutes, consisting of a rainstorm
given the AM radio treatment, various splashes and other aquatic sounds,
and someone randomly tapping a microphone of sorts (or that's the impression
I get of the origins of these sounds). While I'm a sucker for a good rainstorm
and personally believe that the sound of rain can enhance almost any recorded
piece, this is one exception.
Despite a disappointing conclusion, it's obvious that
Kobi accomplishes something rather special and unique during "Projecto"'s
first half. Compared to some collective projects I've heard, Kobi can actually
create pieces of stunning focus and intensity, especially given the unstructured
approach behind their construction. At the same time, Projecto also
provides examples of what happens when the same approach takes a wrong
turn.
I don't quite agree with Silber's statement that this
might be the most exciting thing they've put out to date (I contend that
honor belongs to Aarktica's No Solace In Sleep). But even with its
notable flaws, Projecto does contain material that's stunning and
inspired enough to merit it a solid recommendation.
It's also worth noting that Kobi features input from
several members of Origami Arktika, whose album, also on Silber, is worth
checking out. Though not quite as substantial and fulfilling as Projecto,
it offers yet another example of the intriguing electro-acoustic experiments
that seem to be emanating from the Norwegian underground these days.
~ Jason Morehead, Opuszine
Slo-core fighter Silber meets glitchy Norwegian ambient,
and the result is unsurprisingly an album of barely moving soundscapes
and detailed variation you'll struggle to register. Origami Arktika's Kim
Mikalsen is the main man behind Kobi, a project that teams him up with
different partner for each new track. Many of these are friends from the
several Origami outfits (Arktika, Replika, Synergika, etc), while others
come from different corners of the rather inbred Norwegian electronica
scene.
Not all of this is equally successful, and the album's
first half seems to be little more than a series of casual, overdone drones
and tired repetition. However, Projecto gains in impact as it goes
along, and really gets into gear by the five or six last tracks, on which
the quietly unsettling tones start to jar and to explore or destroy the
textures and parameters established by the first half of the album.
Noisemaker John Hegre joins in to create a subtle, unnerving
piece on "he turns to welcome me, stretches out his hand," while Alexander
Rishaug contributes the busy, yet barely present hustle of "marked time
with his feet or moved his fingers." Tore Honoré Bøe ushers
in with a soaking wet "we were surprised at the quantity and the quality,"
and Jazzkammer's Lasse Marhaug brings everything to a sparkling and sweeping
conclusion on "riding her trainer bike on obsessive circles." Fine ambient
post-electronica with some truly outstanding moments.
~ Stein Haukland, Ink 19
Another offering catered by Silber records is from the
group Kobi. Their debut is simply titled Projecto. Consisting of 10 tracks,
they all pretty much sound like one long track. The basis of each one is
this haunting wind, well up until track 9 when you are relieved with the
sound of rain. A few twists of tweaking noises merge to the surface here
and there to break things up such as distant effects in "It Had Been There
All Night." All the titles are rather long. For example; "Looking Down
Over the Waves a Hundred Feet Below," "It Was Often Enough Simply to Pursue
Doubt," or "He Turns to Welcome Me, Stretches Out His Hand." There actually
the most creative part of Projecto.
I can sum this up by saying these strange ambient pieces
could fit into a horror, sci-fi, or maybe any form of a dark movie as background
noises or a special soundtrack. So if there are any of you independent
movie makers looking for that needed touch to fulfill the suspense, this
might be what you've been looking for. For the rest, it's not one I suggest
rushing out to purchase, but I believe this type of creativeness has its
audience.
~ Kristian Anderson, Reader Weekly
Origami Arktika's Kai Mikalsen is behind this project.
Not a real group per se, Kobi is a small ensemble platform that allows
Mikalsen to play with one or two guests on each track -- so it is a solo/collective
hybrid. His experimental ambient electronics provide the backbone for Projecto.
Joining him one or two at a time are members of Origami Arktika, Origami
Republika, Slowburn and Jazzkammer, among others.
They represent an important chunk of the Norwegian experimental
music scene of the early 2000s, all powerful idiosyncratic artists, and
yet Mikalsen's presence remains the strongest. It even gets overwhelming
at times. Tore Bøe and Jazzkammer's John Hegre make significant
contributions, re-orienting the music for a while, but the presence of
Alexander Rishaug, Petter Pogo or even Fredrik Ness Sevendal go almost
unnoticed. That said, Projecto makes a very fine album, especially when
listened to on headphones, since special care has been put on stereo spatialization.
The music often remains non-intrusive, inviting you to immerse yourself
into it rather than imposing itself. If you don¹t pay attention, the
music will turn into an indistinguishable ambient backdrop.
With a bit of effort you will find many interesting features
to study and some illuminating moments too. But in the end Projecto remains
a rather cold artifact, however beautiful and cleverly conceived it may
be.
~ François Couture, All-Music Guide
Kobi est le projet mené par un membre Kai Mikalsen,
membre de Origami Arktika. Il ne s'agit pas d'expériences solo,
mais d'une suite de duos avec d'autres membres de la constallation Origami.
Projecto est une dérive à travers les genres, un jeu avec
leurs balises qui ne cherche sa cohérence que sur l'espace d'un
morceau. La ligne de fuite se dessine selon le collaborateur et la musique
navigue ainsi dans le psychédélisme free-rock avec Sevendal
ou Gaalen, membres de Slowburn et Del), les réverbérations
plombées d'un dark ambient inflitré de sons concrets (avec
Clop Neplat ou Bjarne Larsen, autre membre de Origami Arktika), les microscopies
agitées d'une électronica contaminée (avec John Hegre
et Lasse Marhaug, de Jazzkammer) ou celle d'une musique concrète
construite dans l'abrasion (avec Tore Böe, ou Alexander Rishaug, dont
un très bel album est paru Smalltown Supersound). Bien entendu,
ce sont encore des repères de genres qui tomberont suivant l'écoute...
car tous ces musiciens jouent depuis longtemps à flirter avec ces
frontières, à les passer en douce.
~ Naninani
Kobi est le projet mené par un membre Kai Mikalsen,
membre de Origami Arktika. Il ne s'agit pas d'expériences solo,
mais d'une suite de duos avec d'autres membres de la constallation Origami.
Projecto est une dérive à travers les genres, un jeu avec
leurs balises qui ne cherche sa cohérence que sur l'espace d'un
morceau. La ligne de fuite se dessine selon le collaborateur et la musique
navigue ainsi dans le psychédélisme free-rock (avec Sevendal
ou Gaalen, membres de Slowburn et Del), les réverbérations
plombées d'un dark ambient inflitré de sons concrets (avec
Clop Neplat ou Bjarne Larsen, autre membre de Origami Arktika), les microscopies
agitées d'une électronica contaminée (avec John Hegre
et Lasse Marhaug, de Jazzkammer) ou celle d'une musique concrète
construite dans l'abrasion (avec Tore Böe, ou Alexander Rishaug, dont
un très bel album est paru Smalltown Supersound). Bien entendu,
ce sont encore des repères de genres qui tomberont suivant l'écoute...
car tous ces musiciens jouent depuis longtemps à flirter avec ces
frontières, à les passer en douce.
~ Fear Drop