“Experience the enigmatic allure of [ówt krì]”, it is written. I can vouch for this, having listened to much of what Kenneth Kovasin, the artist behind [ówt krì], has created over the years. Based on previous offerings I expected ambient escapism, where a dark and alien world is presented to our imagination. It’s a suggestive world where looping, haunting and atmospherically obscure passages implant images in our mind. Here on “The Mountain” we are given more clues than normal, as I shall now describe.
The journey up the mountain starts with “Glacial Motion”. Slow and eerie echoes depict an alien world in which a creeping electronic progression prevails, no doubt depicting that movement of ice. Sinister half-sounds and a whistling drone create a sense of cold and a strong feeling of solitude in the face of this irrepressible progression. I know the weather has been rotten of late but it’s approaching summer and yet I feel icily cold listening to “Glacial Motion”. Not for the first time, [ówt krì] collaborates with Pigments, a fellow purveyor of dark and experimental soundscapes, doing so here on “Moonlight Ceremony”. Mystical waves pass slowly by. A hypnotizingly minimalist tune emits from an electronic instrument while a faint menacing drone fills the background. The intrigue of this and all of [ówt krì]’s output is the texture, with the layers of sound at different pitches all speaking to our senses. It’s absorbing me. “Surrender and Allow” seems to take us into deeper isolation. The surrounding sounds are as ever of another world, where there are natural forces at work combining with more ephemeral, magical sounds. All the while the mountain speaks majestically and magnetically.
The atmosphere is imposing and gloomy – “like scary movie music’” was my wife’s comment on walking in to the strange world filling my living room. We agreed that it has powerful energy. The latent threat develops on “Worship”. It is as if the mountain is somehow expressing displeasure, as the distorted electronic sounds now head in a downward spiral. Obscure and mysterious sounds mingle. Images drift by. It could be birds or the echoes of human voices lost in the wilderness but this amalgam of electronic sounds, while creating a disturbing effect, create an overriding image of powerful mystical forces. “A Desolated Land” seems an appropriate title as nature appears to have got its grip. Seth Madison’s droning trumpet is said to be signaling the start of the last ascent, but in truth this wasn’t my sensation. With the sweeping, discordant sonic waves sweeping around me, I found myself stuck and helpless inside this powerful phenomenon. It may not be what the artist had envisaged but I was impressed and struck most by the vastness of the scene and its sheer majesty.
A traditional instrument plays out a gloomy dirge in minimalist fashion as the sound is created of a cold and hostile wind blowing. The echoing moan could that of a human but there is no-one there. This has to be the expression of the mountain in its vastness. The sounds slowly pumping forth have to be the mountain speaking and reminding us of its presence and our isolation. “The Light at the Summit” is said to mark a lighter approach to [ówt krì]’s dark world as the summit is reached. There hasn’t been much light so far, I have to say, but if it matters it has been offset by the sheer breadth of sound. I think it’s pushing it to say that this is lighter, as we “immerse (ourselves) in the haunting melodies for a cathartic experience of rising above adversity”, but I will concede that I did not feel repressed, and the music made me feel that I was floating. So maybe it was that cathartic experience after all. Either way, I congratulate [ówt krì] on giving me once again such an uplifting and thought-provoking experience.
Without doubt [ówt krì] is a master of sound and soundscapes. My response to “The Mountain” and indeed sound art and music in general, is based on my experience while listening to it. It’s telling that the heading of the text which comes with this reads “The Mountain – Depths of the darkness”, but actually while I undoubtedly experienced darkness and depth as if I were marooned in a crevasse with the enormity of the mountain and the sounds of its natural forces around me, I also felt power and a life force through the winds and the drone-like sounds which for me represent extraterrestrial breathing. It’s like an outer-body experience. “The Mountain” is a mysterious and mystical work, and whilst strangely perhaps I didn’t perhaps buy into the idea of human resilience as seemed to be the claim, I did greatly appreciate the multi-layered magnificence of the mountain itself as a natural force with its own life and feeling. Through his imagination and art, Kenneth Kovasin in his capacity as [ówt krì] has created a series of inescapable, powerful and memorable images and sensations. This indeed is a man whose work has an enigmatic allure.
(9/10 Andrew Doherty)
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