Part two of the re-mastered reissue of Oophoi and Tau Ceti's classic double album from 2004. Oophoi : synths, electronics, loops, bells, vocoder, percussions, shells.Tau Ceti : synths. For more than twelve years, Gianluigi Gasparetti’s Deep Listenings has served as a kind of sonic requiem for Gasparetti’s own music as the mysterious Oöphoi—in his words, "the sound reproducing the breath which generated life at the beginning of the Creation"- Klaus Wiese, and other Italian sound artists.
Oöphoi’s collaborations with Enrico Cosimi, in particular, the mysterious synth master known as Tau Ceti, have provided some particularly engrossing listening experiences in recent years.
Both the deeply cosmic leanings of Celestial Geometries and last year’s more organically harmonic Subterranea, were among my favorite works to utterly zone out to.
This year they return with the equally enjoyable and heavily zone out inducing Archaic Oceans: A double-cd that opens with the massive 39 minute and 46 second mesmeric symphony, "Atlantis Rising". Right off the bat, I hear a fascinating progression in sound from their previous two releases—that is to say, we get both the overwhelming and sometimes disorienting deep space aesthetics of Celestial Geometries at the same time that one feels closer to earthbound nature as in the subtly accented organics of Subterranea.
Ultimately, Archaic Oceans is a frigid, arctic tidal wave however, a tidal wave that washes over the listener in stop-frame as if we are experiencing the loss of gravity in each gush of water spilling from the tsunami—a world of wide open oceanic drones.
Like its predecessors, all of the tracks have that Oöphoi & Tau Ceti trademark "objects appear closer than they seem" build up. These tracks sound purposeful. At the same time, each extended piece opens up and vibrates into often cold, wind swept droning gusts; breezes that swirl and whoosh with particles of organic timbres.
Another metaphor also comes to mind while listening to Archaic Oceans. These sounds are like the soundtrack to a kaleidoscope—as if each shifting lens of refracted color has its own sound identifier (if you close your eyes while listening, you can even feel the sensation of constantly shifting bursts of light on the back of your eyelids).
As always, these craftsmen demonstrate a very refined approach to recording; the use of volume and subtle mixing of tracks really helps the minute details to linger in the ears. It also sounds as though Oöphoi & Tau Ceti have made very effective use of noise reduction techniques. This works quite magnificently on disk two's opener "Meru". Here, there is a wonderful exchange of fading in wobbly and hollow blips and blurps, as if the stereo field has been lopped off exposing a layer of raw pulsing sonic nerve endings. Or, to use an alternate metaphor, I also feel strangely submerged beneath the sea, as if a storm is afoot or the tides have inexplicably changed.
As a soundtrack to the timelessness of the sea—the never ending music of water and wind, Archaic Oceans captures this ancient wonder of nature in both its sounds and icy textures. Very enjoyable stuff, indeed.
