Murcof is the solo project of Mexican-born musician and composer Fernando Corona's, now resident in Barcelona, and Cosmos is his third album, following his acclaimed debut Martes in 2002 and the elegiac Remembranza of 2005, which was a tribute to his recently deceased mother. Cosmos grew from an intended EP to become an ambitious full-length album, comprising six lengthy tracks spread over 56 minutes. Cosmos combines cool, glitchy electronica with classical instrumentation, and the album is notable for its use of newly recorded orchestral music rather than samples, carefully arranged and subjected to the absorbingly intricate, precise production and painstaking attention to detail that Murcof has become renowned for. The two tracks ‘Cosmos I’ and ‘Cosmos II’ have a grandiose, expansive, multi-layered droning tonality that will commend them to fans of bands like Boris and Sunn 0))), with ‘Cosmos II’ in particular building relentlessly to a glorious climax of warm, organic church organ and extended string chords in which time seems to stand still. Elsewhere, Fernando Corona’s avant-garde electro-acoustic synthesis recalls the work of eastern European composers such as the Hungarian György Ligeti and the Czech Vladimír Hirsch, as well as the melodramatic ensemble work of Elend. ‘Cielo’ is very different, offering, as the title would suggest, blissed-out, ethereal techno, in which subdued bumps and blips maintain a steady, busy beat whilst wordless, spectral vocals and long, lazy chords drift by like clouds. The 13-minute closing track ‘Oort’ is sparse yet satisfying, unfurling itself slowly out of an understated ambient soundscape populated by low-end rumbles and slow creaks into startling sudden flourishes of brass, woodwind and strings, which blossom briefly and then fade back into the background hum. Cosmos is a masterful work straddling the realms of contemporary orchestral music and experimental electronics, cerebral yet emotionally charged, carefully modulated yet unafraid to pump up the volume when necessary, demanding careful attention, but offering substantial rewards for listeners prepared to put in the effort.
Track list:
1. Cuerpo Celeste
2. Cielo
3. Cosmos I
4. Cometa
5. Cosmos II
6. Oort
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