Oliver Coates, a cello player born in London, first reached my ears already 9 years ago because of a collaboration with Mira Calix on a sublime recreation of a legendary Boards Of Canada tune for a Warp compilation, which is not a minor task at all. But even before that he was already building a prolific career that spanned from playing together with names so far away from each other like Steve Reich, Jonny Greenwood, Actress or MF Doom. Primary cellist of the London Contemporary Orchestra, he is the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2011, worked on Radiohead´s latest album ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’, and is touring this summer with Thom Yorke.
Besides all of this, he had his own solo forays into electronic music experimentation with Upstepping, released two years ago on the label PRAH, and now he has signed with New York’s RVNG Intl. Their first ever Record Store Day release was Coates interpretation of John Luther Adams’ ‘Canticles Of The Sky’, and now is the turn of ‘Charlev’, an 8 minutes odyssey that´s soothing, disco and trippy at the same time. With a synth jam that serves as a background, slightly industrial bleeps unfold over a strongly melodic element, with the voice of the singer of Chrysanthemum Bear and Oliver’s strings peaking as a cherry on top. It’s a paced bpm hypnotic adventure that can also be served with the colourful short film made in Cuba by visual artist Leah Walker. There’s more from Oliver Coates coming later this year, and it already sounds very promising.
