Greg Davis & Jeph Jerman – Ku (Room40)

Utilising found objects the sounds of this perplexing duo are a series of squelches, bangs, taps, creaks, rumbles and scratches. Their approach lead you to consider the sheer physicality of the objects they utilise as they appear to be paying little heed to any form of musicality or compositional structures. Or if they are it’s based on density of sound or highlighting textures. This is sound that you can feel, it’s almost prickly. Yet there’s very little (if any) reprocessing, just the delicate accumulation of texture. Even the previously taboo sound of wind on the microphone is utilised. Ku is an example of two people shifting the frame of composition and focussing almost exclusively on areas that are rarely tackled with any sense of rigour. Yet despite this it all feels hahazardly assembled, almost like humans didn’t have a hand in it. With Ku, the act of Listening is itself a very strange sensation.