Weekend EP Project : Cohen Elias, d'Heudieres, Tsadka. Bandcamp

Abstract

When I was first made aware of this project at the end of January, it comprised four minialbums, mostly by Chicago composer-musicians; by mid-March, when I started writing this review, there were nine. So, naturally, this is going to be somewhat of a cursory and incomplete review by the time I finish writing it, and it will most likely appear almost myopic by the time it is finally published. This is not just because the weekend EP project is a prolifically augmented collection, but because its aesthetic scope has become increasingly difficult to pin down. It is only natural, then, that any attempt to provide a succinct overview to this project would be a disservice. Even such a seemingly obvious comment such as "these composers demonstrate a broad unconcern with large-scale forms in favour of a self-sufficient, pithy, DIY aesthetic" doesn't work, since Sivan Cohen Elias's contribution, 'EVE & ADINN', is culled from a radically ambitious operatic project, centred around a feminine artificial intelligence which "believes itself to be human", that has occupied her for over three years. The vocal distortions here are gooey and unsettling, morphing through pitch, timbre, reverb, and identity, recalling Stockhausen's most outré work with Vocoders (the bit in FREITAG aus LICHT where a (male) ice cream cone goes into a (female) pencil sharpener especially comes to mind). It's never overwhelming, though; in fact, the overall texture is quite sparse, even monophonic. [excerpt]