Mokira - Persona

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4...according to our Ant on Fri 24 Apr, 2009.

For his latest album under the name Mokira apparently Andreas Tillander has scrapped his laptop and is now using analogue synthesizers. The word on the street is that he smashed up the laptop with a giant sledgehammer then set it on fire then urinated on it to put the flames out. The remains were then sealed in a lead box and then sent into space on what was a top secret soviet space mission. So how does the new analogue set up impact on the sound. We'll it's very warm as you'd expect with lots of liquidy fluid tones with some dubby atmospherics. It's good to hear some bubbling TB303 basslines on a few of the tracks. There's definitely hints of Berlin dub techno mixed up with hissing Basinski style tape sounds. Some fine moments on this album although one track I had to skip because it was really beginning to do my head in for some unexplainable reason. Had I not turned it off I would have tried to decapitate myself with a bread knife. although the logistics of doing that could be interesting. Smart album though, out on Type on vinyl and CD.

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It's hard to believe that five years have passed since the release of 'Album', Andreas Tilliander's first outing on the Type label. 'Album' marked the final
stage in Andreas's development as a 'laptop' artist and since then he has collected synthesizer upon synthesizer and enough tape to make the boys in
Berlin jealous. Ditching the zeroes and ones, Andreas set about piecing together a follow-up to 'Album' and constructing it entirely in the analogue
realm; the warming hiss of tape, the decomposing buzz of a monosynth and the nostalgic twitch of the Roland TB303.
There might be a love of all things 'Kosmiche' once more, but it would be facile to label 'Persona' as such. Sure Andreas has heard his fair share of
Cluster and Harmonia records, but his sound is just as rooted in psychedelic rock and even Basic Channel-era dub techno as Germanic ambience.
Just listen to the thick, pulsating ode to Spacemen 3 'Oscillations and Tremolo' and you quickly realise that you are not merely listening to 'another'
synthesizer album. Half-heard rhythms and familiar TB303 bass pulses drag us in and out of a hinted-at Basic Channel-axis production on 'Valla Torg
Kraut' while a fairground jangle drives us through 'Ode to the Ode to the Street Hassle'. Something in there is blissful, almost beautiful, but it is hidden
below thick layers of tape hiss and crumbling circuit boards.
'Persona' is a mature, confident and engaging experience - the product of a veteran electronic musician producing music that comes naturally to him.
As the Ingmar Bergman film of the same name suggests, it might be Andreas Tilliander's most revealing record to date. A stunning collection of
modern electronic music.
Tracklisting: 1. About Last Step and Scale 2. Lord, Am I Going Down? 3. Contour
4. Valla Torg Kraut 5. Oscillations and Tremolo 6. Ode to the Ode to the Street Hassle 7. Your Loser Has Gone

4...according to Headphone Commute.

The gentle swells of lo-fi loops and and breathing atmospherics set the tone for Mokira'seighth full-length album. After previous releases on a roster oflabels, a Stockholm-based Swedish sound sculptor, Andreas Tillianderreturns to Type Records with Persona. Tilliander introduced us to his Mokira moniker with his debut, Cliphop, on Raster-Noton. His glitchy hip-hop sound has landed him on Mille Plateaux, where Tilliander continued to contribute towards the 'clicks & cuts'genre. But for Type, Tilliander has been stripping away the beats [butnot the rhythmic structure], and focusing more on ambient textures thatlet the music flow organically through analog and digitally processedlayers. Starting from the first track, the disintegrating repetitionsof drony re-sampled pads instantly remind me of works by William Basinski, tape hiss and all, while the gentle onslaught of incoming harmonic frequencies are reminiscent of works by Tim Hecker and Vladislav Delay. The dull, murky, and thick reverberations bridging acoustic and electronic elements will also satisfy the fans of Gas and Fenneszalike. But comparisons to others are futile, since Tilliander hasalready made a name for himself, ranging from his dub and tech-housereleases under his real name on his own label, Repeatle, to abstract electronica and glitchy IDM on Komplott under a Komp alias, and even a minimal dub 12' on Echocord under his Lowfourmoniker, among the many. Across a wide spectrum of tracks, I hear thesame main theme, which is explored upon through various experimentalapproaches. Tilliander's proficiency in electronic music and control ofits branches clearly shows throughout Mokira. This isespecially evident when ambient progressions are interrupted by agrowing 303-like-gliding-bass-line that is at once unexpected and yetfeels very appropriate. Throughout the album, a noticeable amount oftrue analog equipment dominates the presence, as only accented by atrack, appropriately named Oscillations And Tremolo. Towardsthe end of the album, a single loop is re-sampled and re-assembled. Andonce the tape hiss comes in, the path is obvious - it leads back to thebeginning of the album where the music continues to decay anddisintegrate. Persona is truly listening music. Preferrablywith your eyes closed. And it is upon multiple listens that you willbegin to discern and peel off its layers, to reveal the true geniusbehind this latest installment from Mokira. It's no wonder, that afternumerous contributions towards the evolution of electronic music,Tilliander was awarded a Swedish Grammy music award in 2005. Thus, I amimmediately propelled to dig up and revisit his earlier releases.During your parallel search, it's worth picking up an acid tech-house12' under Tilliander's real name, titled, Stay Down (Repeatle, 2007) featuring a remix by The Field. Also recommended Tilliander's debut on Mille Plateaux, Ljud, and his very latest Show (Adrian, 2009).

Rating: 4 out of 5

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