Copernicus - Cipher and Decipher
SKU
Moonjune 2092
Cipher and Decipher is a brand new studio album by Copernicus, the conceptual concerns of the New York performer-poet who addresses The Universe itself. He is not distracted by everyday matters. He is not penning couplets about the changing fortunes of human existence, other than on the grandest (or lowliest) scale. He speaks of subatomic matter, and refuses to bear any glad tidings. As always, Copernicus is documenting the evolution of an old-world human confronting modern physic. Musical direction by Pierce Turner, and Copernicus’ powerful vocals are accompanied by a 13 piece band, featuring among othersmembersof Celtic rock band Black 47 (Larry Kirwan, Thomas Hamlin and Fred Parcells). “All music is spontaneous, completely improvised, chaotic, ravingly psychedelic, and perfectly intuitively scored to the rants, cozenings, enlightenments, and madnesses he's conveying.” Perhaps the most fitting way to describe Copernicus is as a performance poet. Even though he (originally named Joseph Smalkowski) plays keyboards, Copernicus refuses to be categorised as a musician. Despite often having inhabited the alternative New York rock'n'roll scene, his music also exudes strong elements of jazz, classical and the avant garde. Even though Copernicus' preferred recording strategy is that of improvisation, his epic pieces tend to revolve around themes, riffs and repeated clusters, moving along a clearly linear pathway. The booming delivery and abstract texts evoke the spirit of classic beat generation poetry, but the Copernicus stance goes back even further to the theatrical confrontations of the Dada movement. He's always preferred the improvisatory approach, even though each poem's grist might be prepared in advance, their rhythms and content might be disassembled in the moment."