Rimarimba Below The Horizon

Somewhere out there around the turn of the 1980s, to the left of the post-punk crew,
to the right of the minimalists, and surfacing with a friendlier face than the dour
industrialists of the time - there existed, seemingly unbidden, an entire, networked,
tape-trading community; a community that crossed continents and oceans, that relied
on the postal service to do its bidding; a community full of humble visionaries and lost,
misunderstood, or just plain ignored home steeped genius. Exploring that thicket of
weirdness in the UK wild, you'd likely stumble across labels like Cordelia, Hamster,
and Unlikely; compilations like the should-be-legendary Obscure Independent Classics
series, or the Real Time cassettes; and inexplicable one-offs like The Deep Freeze
Mice, Jody & The Creams, R. Stevie Moore, Leven Signs, Jung Analysts, and Rimarimba.
Rimarimba was the project of Robert Cox, based in Felixstowe, on the seaside in
Suffolk, UK. Rimarimba was not Cox's first entry into the world of recorded music,
but was the first time he explored, most perceptively, the parameters of a particular
musical mode: one where minimalism is removed from its "high-art" mantle, Cox
inveigling its practices in amongst the do-it-yourself creativity of a burgeoning and
beguiling underground, letting the music breathe - and most importantly, letting it play,
gifting it with imagination. The first in the Rimarimba series, 1983's Below The
Horizon, feature Cox in exploratory mode, figuring out exactly how to make his
music. There's a pleasure in hearing how he feels out the parameters of his aesthetic,
here - there's a boxy minimalism, slightly clunky and charming with it, that reflects the
home-spun, improvisatory tenor of the compositions. It's ambitious music, though,
wanting to do the most and the best it can with its limited resources. Cox himself
admits to not being "pre-wired" to making this music, but that only makes it more
compelling: "Were I to be properly musical, it wouldn't actually work as well in some
ways; it'd be just another album of contemporary clattery music." On October 5,
Freedom To Spend will offer Below the Horizon in a one-time edition of 750 copies,
followed On Dry Land and In The Woods on January 8, 2019 and February 22,
respectively. Each album features artwork reinterpreted from its original edition by
Will Work For Good, and accompanying abstracts by Jon Dale.