Morphine, the label run by Rabih Beaini aka Morphosis, is set to release a series of three albums by veteran Philadelphia-based synth improviser Charles Cohen (pictured, left) in the coming weeks, titled The Middle Distance, Group Motion and Music For Dance & Theatre. Beaini came across Cohen’s music though fellow Philadelphia dwellers and Morphine signings Metasplice, whose kenneth lay plays alongside Cohen in the duo Color Is Luxury.
Although Cohen has been making music for decades, primarily using a rare Buchla Music Easel synthesiser, these are the first substantial documents of Cohen’s music to be issued to date, as the bulk of his musical activity has been based around live improvisation and collaboration. Following on from a recent 12" of Beaini’s remixes of Cohen’s ‘Dance Of The Spiritcatchers’, the three albums will be released in October. In advance, they’ve made a pair of tracks available for your listening pleasure – Music For Dance & Theatre‘s graceful ‘Shopping Cart Lady’ and The Middle Distance‘s edgier ‘Club Revival Peformance’, a tightly meshed web of woody bleeps and stumbling rhythmic interplay whose gradual unraveling is mesmeric. Listen to both via the embeds below.
