Discrepant presents the first ever vinyl release of Kiribati, the very first instalment in the acclaimed Ambient Exotica Soundscapes by veteran English experimentalist Mike Cooper. ''This was the first release on my Hipshot c.d.r label in 1999. I wanted to create an album of imaginary soundscapes from imagined exotic places based on my travels in the Pacific Islands and South East Asia. Kiribati was the first in a series of three CDs of Ambient Exotica Soundscapes – played on lap steel, electronics, prepared guitar, sampler, live environmental recordings (from Bali, Malaysia, Australia and Italy) and acoustic and electronic percussion. (The other two are GLOBE NOTES and my award winning RAYON HULA.)
Kiribati was(and is) dedicated to the people and islands of Kiribati because they were slowly sinking into the Pacific Ocean. Although the palm trees are often 25 metres high, the islands themselves, made from gravel and sand, are only 4 or 5 metres above sea level and a rise in sea levels of just 15 centimetres, as has happened over the past 100 years due to global warming, is a disaster. Kiribati was recorded in my studio on a four track cassette, using a Casio SK1 sampling keyboard. A tool I used for many years both for recording and live sampling.'' Mike Cooper

...musical environments as fragile and delicate as the atolls...a shimmering texture of grit and glitter...produced by careful physical activity rather than digitally manipulated deep inside the heart of a computer...'' Clive Bell on Resonance

''...Debussy’s cathedral under the sea replayed as dyspeptic electro-acoustic improv. '' The WIRE