The bird-like voice which flitted through a recent full-length from Aus, under the moniker Cokiyu, now strings together her own first effort. Whereas the efforts with Aus favored woody, resonant arco work, full of flaws and all of the murky elements associated with the massed ranks of lo-fi electronica, Mirror Flake is atmospheric and evocative, pretty and charming, much as one would expect.
Despite the fact that the work rarely, if ever, leaves one in a place of dismay, many pieces establish delicious painterly atmospheres. This is perhaps of no great surprise, as Cokiyu holds a Master’ degree of musicology study in the Sonology Department of Kunitachi College of Music in Tokiyo. The title track, for one, is carefully modulated, the gong-like ringing and liquid drips of keyboard know how to approximate the flickering electroncs and heart-beat pulse to affecting result. More often than not, Cokiyu’ voice mixes well with the washes of pastel colored harmonies, and in yet other places, it rises above them in a shivering, sharp manner.
Cokiyu also throws a wrench into these structures of wineglass-pure notes, glissandi, and melodic curlicues. On “Gdb’, her voice glides up and down along the pummeling waves of rhythm, providing some cosmological drama in its constant move towards and away from the soporific realms. To be sure, although “Piano And Frog’ is full of fluctuating detail and carefully tended fractal melodies, it drifts in a certin saccarine soup. It’s enough to curtail this works playing time significantly, yet all the same, the works never do get bogged down in these atmospheres. Cokiyu turns that haziness to her advantage, creating a persistent glow that can be mesmerizing in the right context.
Max Schaefer
