The curtain has closed on the saga of No Exist and yet, we find our protagonist Così e Così at the onset of a new narrative and a new horizon. Today, the romantic reincarnate and enigmatic existentialist shares his expansive new double LP “Impermanence In the Time of Heavens” (Euphonic Records) with SBVRSV and the world.
After examining the phenomenon of subjectivity by way of electronic-beat poetry over the course of five releases, “Impermanence” finds the Montreal-based artist engaging with the theme of temporality through the recycling and abstracting of personal source material, dating back fifteen years.
Working on this album, he found that by “revisiting and reworking songs, loops and poems that were already dated by previous projects and their releases (and) by reflecting on my own experiences with overt nostalgia, I was constantly informed by time, my contributions to it, and my place in it, hoping to dismantle that completely.”
Such an approach adds a sense of sentimentality that distinguishes “Impermanence” from previous Così e Così releases. That devastated past is distant, that worthy stab wound healed and we are made to feel again. This is most palpable on lead single “Bee,” an amalgam of outsider house and art-pop that is arguably the most approachable Cosi song to date.
He acknowledges that this record is more direct or accessible than past works insofar as it “offers something to another”. As he says: “I don’t want to scare people away with indulgent harsh noise or bore them with repetition, but also I want there to be something there to access. There needs to be something unsaid, or said in an unknown language for the listener to discover anything for themselves.”
For such an ambitious work, “Impermanence” still carries a very fluid and spontaneous sound. Like a Proustian memory, the subdued synths and dense rhythms bend in and out of consciousness, awakening our senses. Così’s cerebral spoken-word carries us through the passages of time, momentary reflections scribbled in a journal.
That desire to overcome ‘fleeting ideals in love and life’ is something we all feel. Every day we battle time, clawing at moments lost, yearning to return. “Impermanence” is an effort to liberate us from that struggle and find resolve in the present. Così e Così is in search of infinite time, the boundlessness of a love that breaks from reality and opens up heaven here on Earth.
“Impermanence In the Time of Heavens” is now available to stream/download here. Così e Così performs alongside TRNSGNDR/VHS, Brigitte Bardon’t and Girls Rituals this Friday at Double Double Land in Toronto. More info here.