September 25, 2006
Two new MP3s: Kopernik
For the past week I have listened repeatedly to a self-titled album released in 2003 by Kopernik (record label link), a duo comprising Tim Delaney and Brad Lewis. The former plays upright bass, the latter works with a computer. It is strange music, melancholic, cinematic, and somewhat awkward; the compositions—they are defiantly not “songs”—occasionally sound as if they are about to collapse. Brad Lewis cossets the dirge-like bass with strings or a choir, buttresses it with an occasional drum beat, and sends it twisting and turning, eddying. I picture gunmetal-gray clouds when listening to these sounds. “Theme for Grace” is resolutely contemporary: The introductory notes are played by dropping the bow onto the bass strings and letting it bounce, and are accompanied by sweeping, hazy, synthesized washes of sound. And yet it feels otherworldly, timeless, sliding metronomically from low notes to high before fading out . . . gracefully. “The Sea and the Marsh Are One” opens with a man speaking the title’s words alongside a plaintive bass line and small string section playing ominous notes, which roil for nearly two minutes before being joined by an orchestral swell, including horns, and a choir offering heavenly, indiscernible words.
From the band's biography:
Lewis explains, "The pieces are slowly built up off of my initial abstracts of both organic and synthetic sounds, with an equally abstract narrative in mind. Then, Tim comes in and adds new melodies, chord stacks and strong but supple bass lines to the original themes and phrases. Finally, after adding a few highlights and accents, we both step back and strip the piece down in layers, sometimes revealing new simpler and chance discoveries . . . new colors."
There are other compositions on the album—“Faraday (Goodnight)” and “Kopernistan,” especially—that can be compared to other recent music, including the Chicago group Brokeback, whose album Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table is quietly masterful. But the majority of Kopernik is unlike anything else I have heard, and I urge you to download the two MP3s at the bottom of the middle column. Remember to right-click and “Save As” instead of streaming it directly from my web server. Thank you.