Delicate IDM for the end of the week: Morris Cowan – The Stories We Tell Ourselves
As we approach the end of the week I’d normally go for something pumping or uplifting. Today, I’m going with some gentle IDM which matches my incoming manflu. Morris Cowan is provider (of the tune, not the manflu).
Morris Cowan is Adam Morris Cowan Taylor from Penzance, Cornwall. Listening to his work, that he’s released on labels like UK imprint Wigflex, or Köln’s Traum Schallplatten comes as no surprise. His work bears comparison to Aphex Twin’s more ambient offerings and people like Max Cooper.
Here’s The Stories We Tell Ourselves from the Notes album. It’s pitched somewhere between IDM, Ambient and delicate chill. It has a lovely organic and analog quality with burnished edges. A sort of deep patina if you will.
This is less of a surprise when Morris says “Mattel didn’t just make Barbie in the 80s, they also put out a wonderful little electronic drum kit called the Synsonics. This track features lots of hits recorded from one of these machines. Fizzy, bubbly, bouncy, drum sounds. Those are paired with a stack of found sounds, mostly generated from tapping bits of wood out amongst the trees. I always enjoy the layering of organic and electronic percussion.”
Away from the how of production to the what of the sound. This is lovely polyrhythmic IDM. It’s full of tinkling, childlike sounds that tumble over each other in a way that makes you want to hug them close.
ACID TED 