Abby Lee Tee – Cohabiting Species
“Cohabiting Species” is an EP of two movements - “A” and “B” - to appreciate listening after listening. Two hypnotic soundtracks that immerse you in layers of field recordings, alienated acoustic instruments and exceptional arrangements: a cinematic journey exploring the boundaries of human perceptions of nature and music, intermediate worlds full of elusive percussion, jittery sparrows, running waters, drumming hail, seesawing seagulls, rumbling pebbles, splintering ice, disfigured jaw harps, shruti box drones and warily inserted synth miniatures.
“Cohabiting Species marks Abby Tee Lee out as one to watch for a filigree blend of field recordings with ambient pads and fractalized offbeats, as previously heard on sides for Austrian label Shash. This one picks up in similar, liminal terrain with extra subtle transitions between textured location sounds, patches of sloshing rhythms and phosphorescent pads that seem to time stamp it around dusk, as the sounds of nature pick up with dying light and nimbly creep into Lee’s subtle detailed artificial backdrops, eventually shoring up in distant keys and causing one to ponder how the chuff they got there. It’s not an unwelcome sensation.”
Boomkat
“In horror films, cohabiting usually leads to a gruesome death, but Abby Lee Tee is kinder to the citizens of his created community. They resurface in turns beginning with the shrimp, followed by the birds and wedding bells. Single, ominous taps turn into a festive dance, and one of the birds ~ who has managed to imitate an car’s electronic remote ~ demonstrates a perfect sense of tempo.”
Richard Allen / a closer listen
Artwork by System Jaquelinde
Based on a picture by Gregor Holzinger
Mix & Mastering by Christian 'GC'
Ghahremanian
Shash / Accidental Records 2020
“Cohabiting Species marks Abby Tee Lee out as one to watch for a filigree blend of field recordings with ambient pads and fractalized offbeats, as previously heard on sides for Austrian label Shash. This one picks up in similar, liminal terrain with extra subtle transitions between textured location sounds, patches of sloshing rhythms and phosphorescent pads that seem to time stamp it around dusk, as the sounds of nature pick up with dying light and nimbly creep into Lee’s subtle detailed artificial backdrops, eventually shoring up in distant keys and causing one to ponder how the chuff they got there. It’s not an unwelcome sensation.”
Boomkat
“In horror films, cohabiting usually leads to a gruesome death, but Abby Lee Tee is kinder to the citizens of his created community. They resurface in turns beginning with the shrimp, followed by the birds and wedding bells. Single, ominous taps turn into a festive dance, and one of the birds ~ who has managed to imitate an car’s electronic remote ~ demonstrates a perfect sense of tempo.”
Richard Allen / a closer listen
Artwork by System Jaquelinde
Based on a picture by Gregor Holzinger
Mix & Mastering by Christian 'GC'
Ghahremanian
Shash / Accidental Records 2020
