The album opens with a stasis drone, no oscillations just thick stagnation, like an endless harmonium note. Thought’s not warm and tranquil and you can sense a power and restraint operating beneath the surface. But then something strange happens, suddenly we hear a drum kit playing a funky break, slowly increasing in volume, and some distorted vocal proclamations sounding more like John Spencer than you’d expect from either of these two Italian avant garde experimental composers. Cosi is a saxophonist and electroacoustic performer who’s previous worked has run the gamut from free jazz to micro-sound. Orsi meanwhile is known for his gentler electronic work which often features real instrumentation. This is their second duo album and first released in Australia. The drone forms the vertebrae of all the four compositions here, the first two explicitly at times almost working counterpoint to it, the third piece however Melt in the Air allows the textures to evolve from within the drone becoming thin wisps of digital electro acoustic residue slowly lulling against itself. But again as we’re mesmerized by the widescreen grandeur of it all something strange happens. This time it sounds like a house party next door as this funky bass groove grows in volume, the residue starts to sound like horribly distorted piano (which it isn’t) and we’re curiously left in the Necks territory. It’s these unexpected developments that make Thoughts Melt in the Air so compelling. Despite the apparent freedom, at times there seems to be a rule-book in experimental music and the number one rule seems to be ‘don’t get musical, and if you do don’t do it for too long.’ This duo are keeping their options open, both compositionally and texturally. They’re able to create these highly emotive evocative pieces like no one else, have no hesitation about moving their sound art drones into mesmerizing musical territory and no hesitation about moving them back out either. Thoughts Melt in the Air is a gloriously idiosyncratic work, part Eno ambient, electroacoustic laptop music and emotional drone, it’s simultaneously fascinating and seductive.
Bob Baker Fish
