Kobi – Acousticks

CD | End of huM | EndofuM-04 | 2008-10-06

1. it doesn’t rule out the possibility completely
2. however, these measurements are applied by our minds
3. before when they were just ovals they didn’t stick out
4. they are autonomous, they reproduce and they evolve
5. it might just disappear and reappear a few times
6. some are once in a lifetime sights
7. exactly on time, moved completely into the shadow

Music composed and improvised by:
Petter Flaten Eilertsen & Kai Mikalsen: 1
Tie Qiao Li & Kai Mikalsen: 2
Kjell Runar Jenssen & Kai Mikalsen: 3 & 4
Anla Courtis & Kai Mikalsen: 5 & 6
Michael Duch, Tore H Bøe & Kai Mikalsen: 7

Produced by Kai Mikalsen.
Cover art by Roger Høyer.

REWIEWS

“Nordic electro-acoustic drones with live music overlays. Norwegian producer and composer Kai Mikalsen from Oslo makes his evocative droney compositions in what is now the generally accepted way – using mixtures of field recordings, synth looops and reprocessed sounds captured from common domestic objects. On Acousticks, he has invited numerous collaborators to work on top of his tapes and generally add musical instrumentation improvisations to them. Three years in the making, and a string-based, acoustic, percussive, rattly and creaky affair is the result, said creaks taking place amongst much ambient electro-acoustic droneworthiness. Those participating in this include a number of players who, like Mikalsen, are associated with the mysterious Origami Arktika collective and its numerous spin-offs: the notable Tore Honoré Bøe, also Michael Duch and Kjell R. Jenssen. Anla Courtis also takes part, and others from such cross-pollinated shared-membership projects as Ping Pong Party, Beautiful Drugstore, Del, Marmont, Dog & Sky, and Dip Apple. I value such moments as the desolate horn and recorder blowing you hear on track two, made with the help of Tie Qiao Li; every inch a reincarnation of the lost days of the Norsemen, perched atop high mountains with rattling cowbells attached to their furry pelts. Jenssen’s contributions are much more percussive, but no less rambling (the whole CD is extremely open-ended and meanders in tunnels of its own making for what seems like days). Anla Courtis adds a characteristically snarly streak of metallic scraping to his two tracks, while the long piece with Bøe and Duch is like riding a rickety old mine cart down an endless track into the depths of a damp cavern, with rusty mining equipment rattling and squeaking around our heads. This item arrived here around March 2009. i gather that Kobi has since become a stable band project with four other members, including Fredrik Ness Sevendal, Martin Powell and Petter Flaten Eilertsen.” – Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector, 2009-08-09.