Jessica Ekomane — Multivocal

For today's review, we have the new Jessica Ekomane album Multivocal. The album features two long-form pieces created by on what I assume is a hardware synth or soft synth on a laptop (kudos to the artist for not mentioning what kind of synthesis was used though because it doesn’t matter ever). Both pieces are slowly formed and use minimal arpeggios, which add little textures and sounds over time.

Long-form minimal music is by far my favorite thing to listen to, things that start simple and add little details over time is the stuff I make and listen to and that’s because in my mind it speaks to a big thing I want out of music which is; 

1 the feeling of the music representing or integrating with how we experience time/our surroundings
2. The ability to just think about my own life and experience being in my own skin while I listen to it.

That being said though, I gotta admit I found it really tough to enjoying this. The work comes across in a couple of ways that I don't think transmit well to record. I felt the same way listening to Ecstatic computation last year (which sucked to see everyone rave about it).

Upon further looking into beyond the notes I got, the album is a stereo mix of a quadraphonic live show, which has then been put to album. Which to me reads as “I put a desk recording onto an album” or “I used the tracks made for a live environment on my laptop onto an album”. Which hey if that was what you were doing, more power to you, but I know I've heard synth-based additive drone/ambient/etc albums (anything by Tyresta, Keith Whitman or the album-oriented work of France Jobin) that are way better to sit in a room and listen to and its because the consideration of live environment probably wasn’t a thing.

The thing is with albums that are made just as recorded, is there's way more attention paid to craft/intention because it's not operating under the risky bullshit conditions of live performance/installs. Similarly, the listener isn’t forced to just enjoy the lack of texture in the same way they are on this album under the premise of appreciating someone's “sound art practice”.