Christian Kobi is a Swiss experimental sax player and sound artist whose work explores the relationship between sound, silence and action in space. He has worked and recorded with such innovative musicians and composers as Phill Niblock, Jürg Frey, Taku Sugimoto and Keith Rowe, is a member of the Konus Quartett and teaches improvisation at the Bern University of Arts. Aare is a solo album that reflects Kobi’s interest since childhood in listening underwater, and especially in his hometown Bern, where he used to dive into the river Aare and found out that «a universe of sounds opens up».

Aare’s universe of fascinating sounds is comprised of hypnotic sine waves and field recordings of rippling water sounds that suggest a steady and long-term flow, punctuated by microscopic beatings and other brief sonic events. The listening experience of Aare is, obviously, highly immersive and it is surprisingly easy to completely surrender to its sonic drift. A more careful listening, and after a few minutes, will reveal that your perspective may and something else has come to the fore.

Aare is released as a limited edition of 200 vinyl, all numbered and signed by the Kobi, and as a download option. At the end of its A-side, Kobi shifts the sonic impression and focuses on being extremely close to the surface of the water, with a fragile sense of being «thin-skinned» and the feeling of being torn out of this world at any moment. The constant sine tones shift into the deep, far away from the «surface». The B-side reverses that kind of feeling and the water sounds offer a stronger continuum and the beatings of the sine tones as more lively, and more mobile. The water noise forms distinct resonances and is rhythmically influenced by the water beatings that act like a perceptual filter on the noise.

Eyal Hareuveni

Christian Kobi (sine waves, field recordings)