Coti — Onda
To be fair, Coti doesn’t go out of his way to highlight any maximalist agenda or approach (he hasn’t called the album “Solo Bass”, or added text like “all sound produced by electric contrabass alone”), but he has made it clear that the contrabass is the sole sound source - and thus the baggage still applies. The “baggage” is: that we are encouraged to judge the works on a technical level - how exhaustively is the instrument being explored and played? (For some musicians, the maximalist approach is a direct invitation for their work to be judged, technically and creatively; presumably because said musicians believe their skills are worth judging.)
Another element of baggage, is that we know precisely where the created sounds have originated from; regardless of the sounds themselves. Despite the inevitable use of extended techniques and unusual sounds, we know precisely the sound source; and this often focusses our listening less on “do I like this?”, and more on “how are these sounds being achieved?” This has a by-product of somewhat ruining the fundamental “magic” of the sounds themselves - no matter how incredible or alien the sounds, they’ll always be tied in a technical relationship to the sound source.
The reason for the preceding, long-winded ramble is quite simple: I feel like my ears have made two assessments of this cdr. Listening in the knowledge that its an album created purely from an electric contrabass, I feel its a reasonable effort. It isn’t remotely technically astounding, or particularly “out there” in terms of sounds; but its competent, with a fairly wide range of colours and tones. Much of “Onda” is looped and layered drones, with little apparent processing. Sometimes these drones are detailed and constructed out of different elements, like the first track, “Tubo”; whereas the last track, “Okeanis”, is much more uniform and lush in tone. Two of the tracks, “Rocking Chair Blue” and “Open The Skies For Electra”, are much more melodic; the former being based around shimmering loops of harmonics, and the latter sounding very much like a piece of minimalist classical music. If this all sounds very civilised, it should be noted that the album is dominated by “close” sounds - often very gritty and noisy; and indeed, “Dead Bugs Dust” is all skittering scraping and dirt. So, its certainly not a staggering album, judged in maximalist terms; but the textural grittiness and “noise” of the instrument is explored nicely.
My other assessment of “Onda”, was found whilst listening to the album and trying to forget its sound source. If this had been presented to me as a blank cdr, I might have told you that I liked the processed breathing and voices of “Tubo”, or the trumpet-like tones of “Smokey Old Boat; or “Dead Bugs Dust”, with its layering of field recordings and bird sounds… By removing the ear’s fixation on a known sound source, the imagination is left to roam quite free; and frankly this makes for a much more engrossing listen. This does sound like I’m making a case for “Onda” being a triumph of maximalism; but in fairness, all the sounds are very clearly derived from a bow and a string - there’s no jaw-dropping moment where something “impossible” is conjured up, or any terrifying technical display. Its just interesting how the words, “written and played on electric contrabass”, could make such a difference…