Yet another powerful and effective (for me, at least) audio experience. This one reminds me a little of Meredith Monk’s work, in that it suggests many different possibilities the human voice offers. Then there are the minimal but significant elements of instruments and “natural” sounds from the world outside the body, including the recording process itself (it sounds to me like a recording of a live performance, which is not distracting but simply another sonic element). This all builds to a point where—spoiler alert!—the different sound sources feed off and blend into each other. There’s a beautiful spot where I fully grasped how much the cycles of inhalation and exhalation resemble the ebb and flow of the tides—a metaphor that I have heard meditation instructors use many a time over the years, but it really sank in on a much deeper, almost physical level as I actually heard the two sounds together.
I think of many of Coen’s pieces as “shamanic soundtracks”—you can use them passively, as accompaniment to meditation or visualization (“seeing” with your mind’s eye where the sounds take you), but you can also improvise WITH them, via instruments, movement, and/or your own voice. This flexibility is part of what makes the series especially open for multiple, even regular, listening.
I recommend headphones with all of these “soundtracks.” In this particular case there are some wonderfully subtle sounds you might not otherwise notice. On the other hand, I also intend to check this one out sometime via external speakers (slightly louder than usual).
