Taiga Remains - Obelia (Barl Fire Recordings, 2007)

1 Absence-Frost 17:40
2 Shining Metal Spheres 12:59
3 Radiolaria 3:10

Another lost recording from aQ faves Taiga Remains, one of two unearthed releases that have been lurking on the shelves but have somehow made it unreviewed until now.
This one came out on Barl Fire a while back, and since then the label has called it quits, so these are absolutely the very last copies, so act fast. It's too bad cd-r releases like this are so limited, when you think about the time and care and love that went into beautiful sounds like these, it seems almost criminal that they might only be heard by 50 or 100 people. And these are beautiful sounds, Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, is as comfortable weaving haunting noisescapes as he is unfurling sweet minimal Appalachia, this one is begins as the latter, a spacious reverb drenched chunk of Fahey-esque soft strum, notes and chords drifting in a wide open expanse of reverby shimmer. So delicate and soft focus and lovely.
This is quickly followed up by a bout of extended buzz. A prickly electronic hum, the excited vibrations of steel strings rendered in a subtly undulating layer of insectoid whir, cloaking a deep rumbling drone and mysterious barely audible melodies. The closer is a 3 minute reprise of the opener, more delicate harmonics and fluttery strum, quivering like a dew dappled spider web spun across a sun dappled sonic glade. So so so nice.
Hopefully this will get reissued one of these days, but for now, a handful of you can feast on these lovely sounds.
Aquarius Records

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Taiga Remains - Paper Lanterns (Students of Decay, 2006)

1 Neone (9:58)
2 Vistas (8:24)

Drones à base de guitare acoustique traitée, de vocaux distants et d'électronique stylée...

One time I was in a fist-fight – long story, don’t ask – and I’d landed a couple, and taken a couple too, and then Time. Slowed. Down. Riiiiiiiiiiiight down, to the point where I was mentally focusing tight in on the swinging punches of my assailant at about 1.5 frames a second. And each breath I took was taking hours to draw and release, and the blood was deafening, banshee-howling as it sped around my body, hopped-up on adrenaline, spinning out on the corners and burning its tires in the cul-de-sac of my lungs. But then I started to hear little tiny melodies too drifting in and out of my mix; ghosting, skirting around on the fringes of my attention, as I was ducking and weaving and.. well.. this is the sound of "Paper Lanterns". Punching well above its weight, Alex Cobb's Taiga Remains project returns with more deep-listening psych-drone -
eighteen-and-something minutes of the exploded microverse of the sound of one breath. In. And out. But it's not some kind of yogic transcendental meditation, concentrating on one's inner being with one's legs wrapped around the back of one's ass; it's more along the lines of Popol Vuh being tortured in slow motion on some medieval device which has been contact-mic'd and run through a 20,000 watt PA. This is mainly due to the astonishingly loud mastering; astonishing chiefly in that it's Really. Fucking. Loud.Frankly, I've had jet aircraft land on my head, and hurt less than I hurt the first time through with this thing on the cans. But really I guess it's bigger than the both of us; it's not so much about the single slow, calm inhalation and exhalation of you, or I, or that guy over there - nor is it the rattling echo of life-blood coursing through our arteries and veins and capillaries and pounding in our cauliflower ears and battered noses. It's the thundering, roaring of the stream of the protons emanating from the origin of the universe in
its slow, deep, melancholic shuffle; expanding to fill all available space, and then collapsing in on itself again as it rounds final turn and into the home-stretch back towards the beginning of time. It's scored for acoustic guitar, voice and computer. It's the perfect intersection of drone and "harsh-noise." And it's really, really beautiful.
Foxy Digitalis

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Taiga Remains - Unfamiliar Sphere, Thin As Light (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, 2007)

1 Upon Reflection On Thing Language (Live) (8:36)
2 Blown Ash Firmament (8:14)
3 On Waves, This Traverse (10:17)
4 Endless Collapse (Live) (9:01)

Drones allant de la stridulation d'insectes à la guitare acoustique...

Fabulous concentric circles have been emanating out from Alex Cobbs own splosh in the pond for quite some time now. Judge, jury, and executioner of the rather good Student of Decay label and his own smokin' box of audio-tricks, Taiga Remains, have seen the good Mr Cobb accepted into many a loving home... and rightly so. In spite of the all-acoustic nature of this latest instalment of greatness, 'Unfamiliar Sphere...' may be one of the most electrifying releases to wrap itself in the magic Celebrate Psi Phenomenon wallpaper. Oceans and oceans of shimmer. An engrossing musical sensation very much akin swimming in a lake of luke warm brass. Or being chained to a mile-high gong. Awesome in every respect.
Celebrate Psi Phenomenon

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Taiga Remains - Fairing's Chapel (Digitalis, 2009)

1 Fairing's Chapel (17:56)

Only available with the first 100 copies of Wax Canopy CD.

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