Oliver Coates / Shelley’s on Zenn-La [CD]
Oliver Coates / Shelley’s on Zenn-La [CD]
トム・ヨークお墨付きの才能。モダン・クラシカルとIDM〜エレクトロニカの融合。
レディオヘッドやアクトレス、ローレル・ヘイロー等の作品や、ジョニー・グリーンウッドが手がけたサントラへの参加、ミラ・カリックスとのコラボ、ハーバートやデムダイク・ステアも絶賛のMica Leviと共作をリリースするなど、気鋭のモダン・クラシカル・チェリストとして活動して来たOliver Coatesの、エレクトロニック・ミュージック・プロデューサーとしての才気がほとばしる傑作ニュー・アルバム。
Oliver Coatesは王立音楽アカデミー、そして、ロンドン・コンテンポラリー・オーケストラ出身のチェロ奏者／コンポーザー／プロデューサー。RadioheadやActress、Laurel Halo等の作品や、Jonny Greenwoodが手がけたサントラへの参加、HerbertやDemdike Stareも絶賛のMica Leviとコラボ作をリリースするなど、気鋭のモダン・クラシカル・チェリストとして活動して来た。その一方でAutechreなどのエレクトロニック・ミュージックの愛好家である彼は、IDM〜エレクトロニカにも精通し、クラシカルな素養と電子音楽を融合した実験的なトラックメイクを行っている。
その独創的なサウンドに目を付けたNYの最先鋭レーベルRVNG Intl.が契約を果たし、今年5〜6月に行われたThom Yorkeのヨーロッパ・ツアーのサポートアクトに大抜擢され、さらなる注目を集める中リリースされる新作が本作『Shelley’s on Zenn-La』。
リヴァービーなチェロやシンセを基軸にIDM的ビートを走らせながら、時に女性ヴォーカルも交えて、彩り鮮やかなエレクトロニカ・サウンドを構築。
AutechreやAphex Twin等を想起させるスリリングな展開からBoards of CanadaやFour Tetのような幻惑的で浮遊感に満ちた音像まで、チェロをひとつの音響として巧みに溶け込ませながら空間的なシンセと多彩なビートを見事にレイヤードしたサウンドは秀逸。哀愁のあるメロディやビートを弾ませるダンサブルな様相、実験的でクラシカルな様相もバランス良く、幅広いリスナーに受け入れられるであろう傑作。
For Shelley’s on Zenn-La, Oliver Coates designs a complex of bending truths and reverse walkways to vernal states. Open ears can peer down hidden aux channel corridors, while melodic patterns present two-way mirrors to rooms of other retinal colors. An endless euphoria is just beneath the dance floorboards of Shelley’s, and an inquisitiveness unencumbered by the institution of knowledge surrounding its frame and inhabitants.
Shelley’s on Zenn-La was made between the Elephant and Castle neighborhood of London and a future dreamscape. In this realm out of time and space, Shelley’s (Laserdome) – a once-legendary late 80s / early 90s nightclub in the industrial town of Stoke-on-Trent in the north of England – can simultaneously exist on the fictional planet of Zenn-La, and can house a devotional, alien ritual of early UK rave culture, pioneering IDM, and deep minimalism.
Much of the album’s construction extends from specific, self-imposed ambitions; particular palettes applied to individual creative ideas. These limitations become limitless manifestations of theme: two bass lines running in parallel (one cello, one synth), synthesized waveforms phasing with bowed acoustic drones and chords, synth sequences in nonstandard tuning sitting against folk melody in standard tuning. Coates made a lot of the music for Shelley’s in Renoise, composing drum sequences in hexadecimal numbers and pencil drawn waveforms and cementing specificity in the intricate, intelligent dance machinations.
Some of Shelley’s tracks veer into and across FM synthesis. “I like hearing how one tone is enriched by another tone modulating the first, resulting in gleaming sets of new harmonics,” says Coates, “I started thinking about placing live cello playing into a chain of antagonism resulting in sounds I found beautiful.” This instinct to poetically process sounds in real life (“sitting on the tube, thinking: I’d remove the low end on that, compress that, add reverb to that”) give Shelley’s an exploratory feel, both guided and unbound, autodidactic by undoing.
Shelley’s opens with “Faraday Monument,” matching the enigmatic precedent of the Brutalist box in London the track is named after. chrysanthemum bear’s vocals oscillate over “A Church” singing lyrics to melt metal and minds. Large spaces adjacent to small enclosed ones house the voice of Malibu reading poetry within “Norrin Radd Dreaming.” “Cello Renoise” is built upon the image of two drummers playing to one click track as if in different booths. The great flautist, Kathryn Williams, recreated midi parts to end Shelley’s as a “Perfect Apple With Silver Mark.”
Cellist, composer, and producer Oliver Coates has been an artist in residency at London’s Southbank Centre, and received the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award. Coates has contributed to the recordings of Radiohead, and collaborated with Laurie Spiegel and John Luther Adams. He has also been commissioned for string and electronic arrangements by visual artist Lawrence Lek, recorded with composer Jonny Greenwood on the scores for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Phantom Thread and collaborated with musician Mica Levi on the 2016 album Remain Calm.
TRACK LIST:
01. Faraday Monument
02. A Church
03. Lime
04. Charlev
05. Norrin Radd Dreaming
06. Cello Renoise
07. Prairie
08. Perfect Apple With Silver Mark
09. Swollen Spiraling Face feat. Malibu (Bonus Track)
10. Sirius viol (Bonus Track)