Coh- Above Air

Artist: Coh
CD Title: Above Air
Label: Eskaton
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 5/29/06

Thematically, Russian-born composer Ivan Pavlov's latest CD is more consciously poetic, as evidenced by such evocative song titles as "I Spread My Wings Toward You" and "Through Empty Echoes Of Your Voice." Lest fans of esoteric post-modern glitch music fear that Pavlov somehow transformed himself into a dramatic goth or moping synthpop musician, however, I can safely say that his latest work is as abstract and intellectual as ever. The aforementioned tracks, for example, are a chaotic blur of ambient tones and an oscillating glitch composition, respectively, while "I Ascend Bright With An Oxygen Mask" is a stark and ghostly wailing, and "Lungs Leak A Lullaby" is full of mechanical clunking and echoes. While a few of the tracks here, notably "Faster Than Sound" with its chimes and "Between Heaven And Earth" with its gentle gong effects, hint at organic sounds, the majority of these compositions, like much of Pavlov's previous work, strip down the experimental techno of more accessible composers like Aphex Twin's Richard D. James to its mechanical core. As minimal as it is, though, it's not background music and can be surprisingly evocative. The theremin-like modulations and pulsing bass rhythm of "I Smile I Know" and the layered loops fading into white noise on "Beneath My Sun-Proof Eyelids Truth Never Sleeps" can't help but draw you in. You can't dance to Pavlov's music, but you certainly can't ignore it, either.

Visit Pavlov's enigmatic website at www.post-pop.org.