On his cd debut, UK sound artist Jodi Cave creates seven short compositions united by themes of singularity and natural randomness. One of the most immediate features of For Myria is its restrained sound palette. Like an instrumentalist who has laid a small collection of choice instruments out in front of him, Cave creates beautifully intimate collages, each touching on maybe only 2 or 3 sounds, woven together by computer processing which has been pushed into the background, utilized more as a compositional aid than a sound source. With instruments such as harmonium, clarinet, and guitar, through field recordings, stones, and scraps of metal, Cave paints a most introspective music in blurred swatches of minimal color… The tones are musical, delicate, punctured by the scraping of close-mic’d found objects rattling across the stereo field.
Cave’s choice of instrumentation helps him create pieces that exist as singular objects, each ebbing and shuffling with accidental dynamics. There is a very tactile and earthy feel to his work as he lets the sounds take a natural course, influencing and sculpting them with his own studio techniques.
Who (or what) is “Myria”? It is not known, but , Cave says… “It sounds yellow…”
