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The Forever Moment — The Forever Moment
(Bandcamp no#, 2022, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2022-10-26

The Forever Moment Cover art

It’s been more than ten years now since Herd of Instinct’s first album came out and showed us what Mark Cook was capable of. His music was appealing enough to attract as guest contributors members of King Crimson, Djam Karet, and more, and he’s maintained the quality through a succession of subsequent releases. Now he presents another project, this time in conjunction with Canadian artist Steven Leak, who brings in programming, synthesizers, field recordings, other electronics, and visuals. The result is almost exactly what you might expect — kind of like Herd of Instinct with more emphasis on the synths — but the music is good enough to mitigate any lack of surprise. It’s within the axis of sound pioneered by King Crimson and Djam Karet starting in the 80s, and you can compare some of Markus Reuter’s solo work as well. In addition to his usual Warr guitar, Cook plays fretless bass, guitar, keyboards, and contributes samples and “beat construction.” Leak’s primary instrument is the quirky Arturia MicroFreak synthesizer, which contributes to the hybrid nature of the sound, blending analog and digital tones into a tasty sonic palette. One of the great things about the album is that it doesn’t rely on any one method for assembling the compositions. In some places you’ll hear Crimson-like repeating patterns, but elsewhere you’ll find Berlin-school sequences or ambient swells and drones. Sometimes the lead part is an overdriven guitar, but there are also vocal samples, keyboard lines, and more. The percussion parts deserve special mention, as they are quite appealing, blending conventional drum-kit sounds with various kinds of hand drums and electronic hits as well. All in all, The Forever Moment is a great debut, and hopefully not the last we’ll hear from this duo.

Filed under: New releases, 2022 releases

Related artist(s): The Forever Moment

More info
http://herdofinstinct.bandcamp.com/album/the-forever-moment

 

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