Oliver Coates Electronic & Dance 6 Artikel

Fuelled by caffeine, nervous energy and early Orbital and Photek, ‘Upstepping’ is an album of newclassical electronic experimentalism where Coates pushes the boundaries of what a cello is capable of. As Coates explains, “About 95 per cent of the sounds are derived from recording the cello and processing it digitally. A hi-hat equivalent is often a distorted, compressed and heavily EQ’d horsehair-on-steel stroke. All the melodic pitched sounds, even the ones that feel like keys, are samples of the tail of a cello harmonic. For example, ‘Perfect Love’ is a study in grey, concealing the source – it’s 100 per cent made from different types of cello attack.”

In broad string strokes, British cellist, composer, and producer Oliver Coates went fromstudying at the Royal Academy of Music to becoming an artist in residency at London'sSouthbank Centre to contributing to works from Radiohead. His in depth understandingof classical cello is met with his study and exploration of electronic experimental sound.Earlier on, Coates received the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award and hasbeen commissioned for string and electronic arrangements with visual artist LawrenceLek and composer Jonny Greenwood (on the scores for Paul Thomas Anderson's ThereWill Be Blood and Phantom Thread) and collaborated with musician Mica Levi on their2016 album Remain Calm. Coates' foray into electronic leanings on Upstepping, his other2016 release, have led to the more expansive architecture of his 2018 album, Shelley's onZenn-La, his first for RVNG Intl. Shelley's on Zenn-La is a cerebral dance record thatdoes much with liv e cello performance alongside synthesis. Coates made music mostlyin Renoise, composing complex drum sequences in numbers and pencil drawnwaveforms. Some of the compositions get into FM synthesis - "I like hearing how onetone is enriched by another tone modulating the first, resulting in gleaming sets of newharmonics," says Coates, "I started thinking about putting live cello playing into that chainof antagonism resulting in beauty."

Limited Edition for Record Store Day 2018Oliver Coates' new arrangement of Pulitzer Prize-winning US composer JohnLuther Adams' 2007 piece Canticles of the Sky appears for the first time inrecorded form as a limited vinyl edition from RVNG Intl. In March 2017,Coates conducted 32 cellists in the UK premiere of the composition,displaying its intimacies after deeply communing with the trajectories ofAdams' fictional suns and moons, the guiding characters and carriers of thepiece. This recorded interpretation, performed by Coates for multi-layeredsolo cello, takes Canticles of the Sky to wondrous, dizzying new heights,envisaging Adams' parallel dimension as an idealised construction. Marryingextra-musical studio techniques and meticulous arrangements to Coates'fascination with early electronic synthesis (especially the work of LaurieSpiegel), the result offers an ultra-sensory take on classical stringinstrumentation. "Making this recording was not only about creating the mostfinely tuned interpretation of the piece in terms of frequencies and dynamics,but was also a chance to do something I have always wanted to do; to makea study in colour," Coates says. "Inspired by paintings by Hilma af Klint andAgnes Martin, I had a chance to build an overall image using different playingtechniques and microphone combinations." Coates has released a handful ofsolo records under his own name, including the acclaimed 2016 albumUpstepping, and in 2017 Remain Calm, a collaboration with Mica Levi. As anartist and performer, he is frequently commissioned by world-renownedorchestras, choreographers and visual artists to compose or curate integralnew works.

This new release from PRAH Recordings sees cellist Oliver Coates take on Bryce Hackford’s Moodymann-esque dance floor assault Another Fantasy – the lead track from Bryce’s 2013 ‘Fair’ EP that won support from the likes of Jacques Renault, Ewan Pearson & Dubfire. Oliver de-constructs the track and re-builds it entirely made from cello parts managing to make the already dark tune perhaps even more menacing. The result is astounding. The B-side in return sees Bryce re-mixing and re-imagining Oliver’s recordings of The Clouds Flew Around With The Clouds and Another Day into tripped out ambience and valium funk.

Coates straddles the worlds of classical and contemporary music, winning plaudits for his collaborations with the likes of Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, MF Doom and Massive Attack - and likewise for concerto performances around the world notably with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia.