In La Monte Young's formulation, drone music is built on the idea of vertical composition, moving away from developmental form towards "Vertical Hearing". The danger, of course, is that layers will be substituted for composition, resulting in dissonant monolithic roars. These have their place, but tread an easy route to some ambiguous transcendence. On the four extended meditations for guitar and electronics here, Alex Cobb chooses no such route. Instead, patience and focus help him build up vast acres of clean, glowing tones.
Compiled from 3" CDrs originally released on Cobb's own Students Of Decay imprint, this nearly hour long suite of drone-and-drift study is a prime way to enter his music. Once you stop expecting development, the interaction of the stretched tones becomes the real drama, their wavering, tangled dance verging on the erotic. Slow legato swathes unfurl, joined by the occasional gentle attack of strings reverberating through space or the sharp, high pitched cry of controlled feedback. Cobb arranges these events so that they start engaging in a dialogue. His electronic chorale seemingly advances and recedes as well as rises and falls, the pieces expanding in all directions.
Conceptually, Cobb is echoing ideas Young articulated; musically, he follows the lineage of Eliane Radigue and Andrew Chalk, less in hock to drone theory and more interested in the form's effect. Here. the effect is subtle but demanding; difficult not because it is dissonant, but because it is so focused and so patient - and demands the same from listeners. - The Wire