Lowe, Robert Aiki Aubrey

Lowe, Robert Aiki Aubrey

Levitation Praxis Pt 4

DDS

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe’s incredible recordings with Harry Bertoia’s sound sculptures are here documented on a beautiful new edition for Demdike Stare’s DDS imprint, coinciding with his appearance on the cover of this months 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 slew of collaborations including work with Johann Johannsson on scoring both Arrival and Sicario, an acclaimed album with Ariel Kalma for RVNG Intl’s FRKWYS series, plus involvement in site specific video art and sound installations. His most recent work has seen him release diverse music for Type, Latency, More Than Human and, of course DDS - who have here 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 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, recently documented on Important Records' breathtaking box set...

Lowe, Robert Aiki Aubrey

Cognition / Observation

DDS

Cognition 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. 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 a more nuanced echo chamber sound distinctly recalling the shape of Dynamo’s classic Außen Vor as much as Hieroglyphic Being’s hypnotic improvisations. Rarified, transcendent music of the strongest order.