Solar
Cosmo Sheldrake is a 24 year old producer from London. And a bloody good one at that. Solar is the B-Side to Cosmo’s debut single ‘The Moss’ and it’s about as bizarre as it is incredible – and believe you me, this song is off the incredible scale.
For me a lot of the reason I love this track so much is the weird and wonderful methods used to produce the otherworldly sounds you’re hearing. Sheldrake actually used the Sun as an instrument here. Thats right – the Sun.
In a technique known as ‘Stellar Seismology’, Cosmo used recordings of the Sun, manipulating the sounds to create something that is truly unique. I can safely say I’ve never heard any song before that was composed using the sounds of celestial bodies. It even seems bizarre that we’re talking about the Sun having a sound. But nope – there are producers out there so talented they can use something as seemingly ridiculous as space noise as an instrument. Go figure.
Compared to the Sun the other aspects of this song seem outright mundane. Which is silly considering that Solar also features field recordings of Ecuadorian flutes and the singing of the Aka Pygmy Tribes of Central America.
But that’s not all, to top it all off Cosmo recites a verse from ‘I Woke Up At The Dawn Of Day’ (a William Blake poem) in a bleak and ghostly tone that makes the hairs on the back of neck stand up. I love this song because when you take its individual components, there just seems to be no way it should come together at all. But it does, and it’s fantastic. Enjoy.
