Mike Cooper & Jason Kolàr — Mauve/Pink

The pairing in the title of Mike Cooper & Jason Kolàr’s Mauve/Pink signals a duality not just in name but also in the working methods of the two musicians as played out over the ten tracks that make up the release. A kind of dialogue between the two artists ensues, one in which the organic seems to meet the processed and vice versa. 

There is an improvised feel to the compositions, which fall pretty squarely in the field of ambient electronica, though some important distinctions can be made. For one, there is little to no masking that occurs on Mauve/Pink. By that, I mean the tendency to process a source material – guitar, bass, drums, whatever – to the point of completely obscuring its original identity, its timbre, if you will. In addition to helping to parse the digital cloud that veils much in this genre, the component parts are left bare, allowing us to hear each connection and its inevitable disconnection. If that sounds particularly intimate, it should.

The transparency of networks and their attachments is maintained even on pieces like “Inner Sound World,” where there appears to be only electronic voices chattering about. The influence of earlier pioneers is also easily read, such as the specter of Markus Popp (aka Oval) that haunts much of Mauve/Pink. So too are other artists who have managed to navigate between free-form composition with traditional instruments and a wider palette of electronica. Douglas McCombs, for example, comes to mind on the album’s final song, “Inna won ear—outa nudder,” in which a languid guitar melody is animated by an ethereal ground of synths and washes.

Fans of the aforementioned influences will certainly find Mauve/Pink worthy of a few listens, though the intimate, almost vulnerable sensibility of the album might scare some away. Appreciators of improvised electro-acoustic work in an ambient vein will certainly delight in the unique forms of nakedness on Mauve/Pink, and will probably be ok with that.