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LP
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DDS 025LP
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Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe's incredible experiments with Harry Bertoia's sound sculptures are here documented on this beautiful new edition for Demdike Stare's DDS imprint, coinciding with his appearance on Semtember 2017's issue of The Wire magazine. Lowe is something of a polymath; having started out as part of math rock outfit 90 Day Men and doom metal trio Om, he progressed to forge his own solo work (often under the Lichens moniker), as well as a whole slew of collaborations, including work with Johann Johannsson on scoring both Arrival (2016) and Sicario (2015), an acclaimed album with Ariel Kalma for RVNG Intl's FRKWYS series, plus active involvement in site-specific video art and sound installations. His most recent work under his own name has seen him release diverse music for Type, Latency, More Than Human, and, of course, DDS who have, with this album, presented what might just be the most beautiful Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe artefact thus far. In 2016, Lowe was commissioned by New York's museum of Arts and Design to contribute to a Harry Bertoia exhibition, which he undertook alongside video director Johann Rashid. He was asked to create sound recordings with Sonambient sculptures; metal rods and gongs that produce highly distinct, resonant sounds when struck, brushed, or touched. Beginning in 1968, Bertoia set up an eighteenth-century stone barn on his property in Barto, Pennsylvania, to house these sculptures and from which he would go on to record works for his highly collectable Sonambient label, as recently documented on Important Records' breathtaking box set (IMPREC 419CD, 2016) and reissue series. Lowe was given full access to the barn, beautifully filmed footage of which can be found on YouTube. Lowe's work with these sculptures is quite unlike anything you might have heard from those original Bertoia recordings. Instead of serendipitous improvisation, Lowe weaves his way through the sculptures on a path that was mapped out in advance, imbuing them with a more "composed" and arranged feel. As well as that familiar and distinct sound palette, he subtly manipulates and feeds in vocal layers that take proceedings into ever more ethereal and haunting dimensions. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton.
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LP
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DDS 015LP
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Cognition/Observation is the very necessary follow-up to Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe's physically modelled modular trance impulses heard on Timon Irnok Manta, which was issued to critical acclaim by Type in 2012 (TYPE 111LP). Bypassing academic practice in pursuit of fluid, instinctive progression, "Cognition (Forbes)" and "Observation (Sophrons)" unfurl two long, knotted sequences entangling intricate West African drum patterns and visual motifs in a buoyant, propulsive abstraction of techno and earthed-yet-cosmic electronics. Bass is thick as treacle and buffered by a scratchy, semi-organic flux of dancing sparks and mbira-like metallic twang in "Cognition (Forbes)," before the same elements refract and tessellate in a more nuanced echo chamber sound, distinctly recalling the shape of Dynamo's 2002 classic Außen Vor (DIN CD01) as much as Hieroglyphic Being's hypnotic improvisations. Rarified, transcendent music of the strongest order. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy.
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LP
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TYPE 111LP
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2015 repress. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe has been through many shifts in his musical career, from playing with influential Chicago rockers 90 Day Men and forging haunting vocal drones as Lichens all the way to becoming a member of transcendent rockers Om and collaborating with Lucky Dragons and Doug Aitken. Timon Irnok Manta marks the beginning of a brand new stage in his process. Recorded under his full name and based on fabled British science fiction series The Tomorrow People, the record establishes Lowe's format perfectly, with a single mantra-like piece followed by a "version" in classic dub fashion. "M'Bondo" follows closely in the footsteps of Lowe's recent slew of highly-limited private-press releases, taking tumbling electrified rhythms and setting them up against slowly-modulating analog patterns, gradually building into something even more revenant. A far cry from the maximalist synthesizer music that has come to represent the norm, this is bass-heavy and precariously stripped bare, leaving only skeletons of influence and form. On "M'Bondo (Version)" we are given a closer look at Lowe's wide range of influences as he touches on Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works II, early Popul Vuh, and Rhythm & Sound in one fell swoop. The basic building blocks of the original track are still present, but graced with Lowe's unmistakable voice and punctuated by warbling tape hiss and chilling echoes. This is a brave step from one of the most compelling voices in experimental music, and the beginning of what promises to be a very rich musical seam.
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