Kenneth Kovasin is a Finnish sound artist whose main creative project is [ówt krì]. We first noticed his drone and doom skills at the Kokeile Festival earlier this year; now ‘Ximenes’, his 3rd CD release, arrives to our hands to confirm his quality in manipulating voices, yet also additional qualities as well.
After being received by the intense ‘Sacra Tenebris’, ‘Resurrexit Dominus’ turns into our first pick, it’s a circular structure featuring a piano that marks suspense while ethereal voices float around in the air, they intensify taking over half way through the song, and invite the piano to return. Digitally manipulated psalms that blend in a processed ambiance evoking darkness makes ‘Parce Domine’ our second pick.
Haunted church organs, sacred ritualistic chants, and layered voices that emanate transcendence go together with fading-away sketches of yearning choruses throughout the album, until the elevated beauty of ‘Ad Caelum’ takes over to wrap up this work with a stretched in-detail exploration of a whistle, and its relationship with the enchanted atmosphere crafted by Kovasin.
‘Ximenes’ refers to the religious reformer and grand inquisitor Ximenes de Cisneros. And it has indeed a well developed narrative of mystical approach.
