(11.29.05) Liberated by his escape from traditional compositional techniques with
his 2001 release, Loop-Finding Jazz Records, Jelinek plugs into
the ethereal vibrations of the cosmic kraut-rockers from the 1970s to
create the infinitely resonating landscapes of Kosmischer
Pitch. He applies trance’s disregard for time and psychedelia’s
distain for space to dub-laced loops and organically evolving minimal
noises, making tracks with their own perpetual motion. His technique
is to build ambient soundtracks from old records, lifting loops from
jazz phrases and cosmic plasmatics.
“Universal Band Silhouette” builds from a bubbling echo into a
cathedral-filling wave of sound, a rubberized loop that bounces wildly
back on itself. The five minutes of “Im Discodickicht” blossoms into a
spiral galaxy of crescending loops; while the lugubrious bass of
“Planeten In Halbtrauer” is a Hindu mantra against a backdrop of bells
and skewed pitches. “Western Mimikry” approaches a recognizable jazz
framework as a rhythm section forms from the frail loops and a guitar
undulates around itself, frets bent backward like a piece of flexible
flesh. The atmosphere is filled with the reverberation of reversed
echoes as if each note of the guitar is spit back out by the monitors
in a mirrored format. Jelinek builds half a song and then creates a
duet by reversing the tape.
Kosmischer Pitch is a blur of sound, a transformative work
which liberates the listener, via loops and recursion, from the static
movement of a traditional piece of music. Time signatures and motifs
morph through iterations and permutations into an ephemeral haze of
transcendental exploration. “Morphing Leadgitarre
Rückwärts,” a song not out of place on a number of recent
Kranky releases, is an endless wave of crackling dust and guitar tone
that induces tantric trance states as it undulates through meditative
plateaus. The vibrations of Kosmischer Pitch are etheric and
phantasmal, and the effects are to illuminate the subjectivity of
time. All things can be stretched and Jelinek warps more than sound
on this record.
Kosmischer Pitch is out now on ~scape.
