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RM 4228CD
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With Bodies, Australian composer Madeleine Cocolas unlocks an embodied tidal force. As many of her antipodean compatriots would appreciate, water plays a huge part in the understanding of Australia. Vast fluid bodies spill out from its shores and the dynamism and intensity of these oceans -- physically and psychologically -- act as a guide to the forms of this record. Like these fluid bodies themselves, the record shifts between violent ruptures, as waves of sound collide, before giving way to passages of rich lightness and near tranquility. From Madeleine: "Bodies explores similarities between bodies of water and human bodies and seeks to blur the boundaries between them. These works incorporate sounds of water I recorded on recent trips to the Australian coastline as well as creeks and waterfalls in Far North Queensland. I have taken these recordings and other recordings of my voice and breath and heavily processed them together with synths and electronics so that the boundaries between field recordings, vocals and electronics are also blurred. These sounds together create sonic collages that move in ways to emulate rhythmic cycles that can be found in both water and humans such as waves, pulses and currents. In many ways I consider Bodies to be a companion album to Spectral (RM 4167CD, 2022). Whilst Spectral explores the idea of sounds evoking memories and emotions, Bodies is about being present in your body. Sounds wash over you in ways that are sometimes comforting and inviting and in other moments are overwhelming and dark, but it is in those moments of intensity that I invite people to breathe through that discomfort with the knowledge that time will pass and that moment will move on. When I listen back to these pieces, I often imagine I'm floating on my back with my ears half submerged in the water, being pulled back and forth by currents and tides with a sense of vulnerability and release."
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CD
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RM 4167CD
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Madeleine Cocolas's Spectral is a reimagining of the familiar. It is an attentiveness to the incidental, and a reaching out towards the unheard. Taking these acoustic microcosms as a source of focus, she unpacks these transient flickers and memories, and repositions them; exploding them outward and shifting perspective. Spectral, celebrates the shadows of melody and the afterthoughts of rhythm. It breaths with a sense of calculated intensity that reflects on Cocolas's focus throughout the process of realizing the work. It is a dynamic set of transient states which bring to mind a world reimagined through new senses and new ways of being.
From Madeleine Cocolas: "Spectral is built on a foundation of sounds I collected from my immediate surroundings in recent times. It's a familiar story, casting your ears close to home. I captured these sounds as a type of aural diary to mark days and weeks as they passed. As our physical worlds seemed to become smaller, my senses of observation and perception of my immediate surroundings sharpened. Inside these small spaces I found a wellspring of materials that seemed to offer themselves up. At the time I didn't know why I was collecting sounds or what I would do with them, it just felt like something I needed to do and it helped me stay connected and feel tethered to my surroundings. With my phone on hand, ready to record on walks around the block, past whirring industrial machines, deafening crickets and crashing storms, I found so much beauty and meaning in the sounds and the recordings I collected. As the collection grew, I could sense these links between them, some sounds seemed to gravitate towards one another, they self-arranged almost. It felt very natural to then build layers over the top of them, to be able to express some of the emotions that the sounds triggered, of memories from the moments from when they were captured. At its core, Spectral is about deep stillness, observation and perception underpinned by emotional expression. It is a subtle shift in memory, a recoloring of the world we think we know and a willingness to lean into that possibility."
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