RE:COOPERATION: TransAtlantic Collaboration

Re:Cooperation

TransAtlantic Collaboration

© 2003 David Cooper Orton/James H. Sidlo (634479751820)

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Ambient, Soundscapes, Trance

tracks

1 Thing2
2 Thing3
3 Thing4
4 And Then This
5 Time To Spare
6 Garage Gamelan
7 Delayed In Traffic
8 There And Back And There Again
9 East of Ealing
10 Between Breaks
11 Re:Cooperation Part One
12 Re:Cooperation: Part Two
13 Texas Trees
14 Never Enough part One
15 Never Enough Part Two

notes

TransCollaboration is the five year project of David Cooper Orton (England) and James H. Sidlo (USA). David and James started this project out of mutual interests in looping, having "met" on The Looper's Delight mailing list. Looper's Delight is an open on-line forum for samplists to discuss different techniques and ideas concerning the looping of music and sound.

James proposed a joint project with David that would entail the trading of tapes with ideas. The end result is the cd ReCooperation: TransCollaboration. A release representing the progressive diversity from Uncle Buzz Records and Dogfingers Productions.

Together they create sound collages-aural landscapes-which initially traced the contours mapped-out by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, but gradually moved-on to circumnavigate vistas of their own diving, which increasingly meander towards more urban environs.

reviews

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  • Always interesting, atmospheric and intelligent album
    author: Mark, Ireland

    A fine cd, well-crafted and full of flowing melodies and organic ambient sounds. Reminiscent of Fripp etc as everyone else has said. Relaxing, laid-back and soothing without being at all boring or lacking in musical interest.

  • author: Nicholas

    Needless To Say, These 2 Artists Are Head & Shoulders Above Many In This Competive Genre Of Electronics... The CD Is Well Executed & Delivers The AWESOME Sounds That One Would Expect From Talent This Good... These Sounds Drift So Easily That It Is Hard Not To 'Mellow' Out & Relax... A Very Nice Album Worthy Of All The Praise It Deserves... A++++++++++

  • the kind such ambient pioneers as Brian Eno or David Sylvian used to make
    author: The Giant Progweed

    It's rare these days to find good ambient or electronic music that doesn't cater too heavily to today's narrow definitions of such. The popular term "electronica" is generally used merely as a synonym for all manner of what is essentially dance music, and "ambient" has sometimes been applied to music that is really too structured or otherwise conspicuous to be truly ambient. Not all of Re:Collaboration's music is truly ambient, nor does it entirely eschew dance characteristics. There is, however, enough really good, progressive ambient/electronic music on the CD Transcollaboration to make it a worthy purchase for anyone who admires ambient or electronic music that doesn't pander too much to current trends. Actually, about half of this transatlantic collaboration between Texas guitarist James Sidlo and UK loop guru David Cooper Orton is pure, unadulterated ambient bliss - the kind such ambient pioneers as Brian Eno or David Sylvian used to make. Tracks like the hazily clangorous "Garage Gamelan" and the muted spaghetti western-ish "Delayed in Traffic" carry on in a fine tradition of subtlety and somnambulism that is sure to send fans of No Pussyfooting or Plight & Premonition into the land of "Hyper-nod," as Julian Cope put it in his book, Krautrocksampler. Much of the best music on this CD is clearly in the mold of guitar-based ambient, whereby electric guitar is cleverly played and processed to create the desired effect. Short identifiable melodies appear in many tracks, but are almost always looped rather than being "live." Both Sidlo and Orton play guitar on the album, and guitar is often the only recognizable instrument heard in any one track. The second half of this CD exhibits a strikingly more accessible, structured slant, revealing influences that might fall under the urban or even world music categories. Fortunately, these influences are muted, refined and tweaked for more discriminating tastes. Some slightly cheesy drum machine rhythms can be found on occasion, but they tend to disappear, reappear and undergo a certain amount of modulation, thereby eliminating any real potential for monotony or danceability. Such techniques appear in "There and Back and There Again", which offers a simplistic beat and muted bass guitar riff that actually echo hip, post rock á la Tortoise more than any sort of rap or dance music. The urban influence is there, but it seems to have come to Re:Cooperation's music via more interesting avenues rather than directly from the source. The second half of the CD may be something of a letdown to those who prefer purer, more abstract forms of electronic music, but it's not bad for what it is. Even if it were, there would be enough great music on the first half of the album (about 31 minutes worth) to make it a worthy album. One could conceivably listen to only one half of the album or the other and still get a good sense of satisfaction from it. Re:Cooperation seems to have its finger on the pulse of several different kinds of subtle, progressive music. It could appeal to a wide range of listeners who can enjoy the quieter, more subdued end of the progressive musical spectrum.

  • ...headphones on, dim the lights, back to the womb.
    author: Zeitgeist

    RE:COOPERATION - TransCollaboration If the words psychedelic and experimental conjoined bring a flush to your brow and a tremor to your heart then you may want to leave the room now. For this release from texas based uncle buzz records is that and more. The product of five years transatlantic collaboration between uk based david cooper orton and us based james h sidlo, hence the title, the output is based on loops and samples. Primarily ambient in tone, this is headphones on, dim the lights, back to the womb. But in a good way. Having just returned from bagging another cathedral i can empathise with the solitary choralistic undertones and otherwordly aspect of the project. I would suspect that this is a work i will return to when i need space apart from the world, and for that alone it is to be commended.

  • All the CD has amazing melodies and phrases
    author: Music Extreme

    Here we have an amazing collaboration between James H. Sidlo and David Cooper Orton. This guys here deliver a lot of guitar, bass phrases, programmed rhythms, loops and interesting atmospheres. Here they have used Sonic Foundry Acid Software to achiueve this amazing mixture of improvisation and incredibly textural compositions. There is a ver beautiful atmosphere on each of the tracks here and they have been created by this two master musicians, I really liked the way this two guys have interacted here developing new ideas at each moment of this musical pieces. Beautiful guitar phrases coexist with loops and software manipulation that deliver idea after idea changing all the time and never making the listener feel tired. Improvisation and manipulation at its top levels.

  • despite it's melodic touches...retains an adventurous and experimental edge
    author: Aural-Innovations/Jeff Fitzgerald

    From Aural Innovations #23 (April 2003) As the album title and the name of the artist suggests, Transcollaboration is the combined efforts of U.K.’s David Cooper Orton, and James Sidlo from the U.S. Sidlo may be familiar to some readers as a member of psychedelic space unit Pseudo Buddha. The two musicians “met” on a mailing list for those interested in looping, and decided to collaborate on a ‘cross the pond project. Just by chance, I had been listening to Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music For Airports just before I popped this disc into my player, and the two dovetailed quite nicely together. Like Eno’s classic ambient experiments, Cooper Orton and Sidlo use loops of ambient sound to construct their atmospheric and spacious compositions, but also layer them with guitar, bass, and percussion. The first three pieces, amusingly titled Thing2, 3 and 4 (what happened to Thing1?) especially echo the Eno influence, but after that, the two musicians branch out, exploring their own looping space jazz territory. Since both musicians play guitar, it’s often the lead instrument in the music, although “lead” is not always an accurate term, since, in the more ambient pieces, no single instrument really plays above the rest in a soloing manner. Instead, the instrumental voices blend together into a sonic melange, but never to the extent where they are drowning each other out. Like in the music of Sidlo’s Pseudo Buddha, each instrument has it’s own clear voice while playing off the others, all in a very subtle but effective manner. That, of course, changes somewhat later on. In the latter half of the album, Cooper Orton and Sidlo diverge away from a strictly ambient approach, adding breezy rhythms and upbeat percussion, such as on There and Back and There Again, which utilizes a trippy beat to go along with the bass, guitar, and atmospherics and East of Ealing, a bright number that reminded me a little of early Penguin Café Orchestra, with a jazzy edge. One of my favorite pieces was the two-part title track. Re: Cooperation Part 1 is a reflective soundscape with the electric guitar taking the pensive lead, backed by subtle atmospherics. It blends seamlessly into Part 2, where eccentric rhythms, hints of electronics, and sometimes enchanting, sometimes eerie loops weave through the mix. I liked the fact that, despite it’s melodic touches and soothing nature, Re: Cooperation always retained an adventurous and experimental edge, never allowing itself to become overwhelmed with its more accessible aspirations, always remaining fresh and interesting. It’s a safe bet, that if you like artists like Eno and Penguin Café Orchestra, you’ll find plenty to enjoy on this album

  • one can distinguish subtle melodies
    author: Prog-PT

    Some time ago I had the chance to positively review one of James Sidlo's projects, Dreamland. This project, more precisely the album "Underwater", had revealed itself a very nice surprise that came from the world of ambient music. This is another project of this north-american, based again on ambient music with incidence on the work with samples and looping. This time, Sidlo appears in cooperation with the british David Orton and the result, albeit not surprising, is very positive. Similarly to what happens with Dreamland, this work knows very well how to not fall into monotony. This also has to be with fact that most of the sonority comes from the guitar. And the best of all is that one can distinguish subtle melodies, unlike what happens with most of the ambient music. The first three tracks, THING 2 to THING 4, are a perfect example of that, with the electric guitar fulfilling most of the sonic spectrum. To help the sonic and instrumental diversity, some of the tracks take more distinct paths. TIME TO SPARE is an example while almost stepping out from ambient music, being erected by an intercommunion of guitars. BETWEEN BREAKS is another example, here with a strong and prominent rhythmic section. Almost all over the album there's an ephemeral Vangelis presence, mainly in what it takes to the construction of beautiful sonic landscapes. It's important to notice that this record could easily be considered as a soundtrack. So there are several reference points on this project and that gives it more distinction. Those who were interested on Dreamland now have here another work that will certainly please them, despite this being more direct and with the feet on the ground.

  • Loops and soundscapes
    author: LET IT ROCK - DME Music Site

    The title may point to how the album came to existence but the artwork bears no sign of what a pleasure the package hides. Loops and soundscapes strung a thread between David Cooper Orton of Wales and American James Sidlo, who drown their liquid guitars in etherial synths atmosphere redolent of that that Sidlo pursued on a parallel course with DREAMLAND's "Underwater". Here, the music's more abstract: three pieces are entitled simply "Thing", and one called "Delayed In Traffic" a perfect capture of one endlessly suspended moment. Meditative though it isn't, connecting a listener to the outside rather than inside and keeping him awake with magnificient stereo panning and delicate folk-tinctured melodies like "Time To Spare" or "East Of Ealing". Drums which make their appearance on the second half of the album introduce a certain dancefulness and bring the whole picture into focus, and that makes for a sheer brilliance. Whether the guys met in the flesh is uknown, yet the distance between the two undoubtedly added up to the resulting fragility. The world is too small, that's the point.

  • Too Cool for Words
    author: Kent Walter

    OK, I’m about cheat a lot on this review. I’m copying most of the liner here so that you can hear just how cool this CD is from the horse itself, so to speak. Here goes: "TransCollaboration is the five year project of Re:Cooperation. David (Britain) and James (United States) started this project out of mutual interests in looping, having met on The Looper’s Delight mailing list (Looper’s Delight is an open online forum for samplists to discuss different techniques and ideas concerning the looping of music and sound). James proposed a joint project with David that would entail the trading of tapes with ideas. Over the following years, the duo mailed the master tapes back and forth, adding new tracks with each new mailing. The end result is the album you now hold in your hands." Five years, kids. It doesn’t matter how bad this is. That is too cool for words, if you ask me. Add to this the fact that it’s not at all bad, and you’ve got a great little project. Brian Eno would be proud of this, I think. Almost everything here is looped little bits of tinkering on an electric guitar, with the occasional pad or percussive loop, and the spare atmosphere and many layers make this recording unique and oh so interesting. You have to hear it to understand it, but when you do, you’ll find yourself immediately beginning to record seemingly meaningless bits of tinkering on your electric guitar and mailing it all across the pond so you can make something cool, too. Maybe not, but you need to hear this. Key Track: "Between Breaks" Kent Walter

  • Long-Distance Creation
    author: Dusted Magazine

    In many ways Re:Cooperation makes me nostalgic for a time, not so long ago, when musical experimentation and discovery were alive with a relaxed open-mindedness, sans ideological or socio-musico-intellectual axes to grind. What I find refreshing here is that this is music made by two artists who seem to have no agenda beyond that of following sound and music into evocative and interesting new places.

  • Spooky Haunted House Cadences
    author: Echo From Esoterica

    There are all sorts of sounds to be heard on TransCollaboration. From the spacey, beautiful guitars found on "Thing2" to the hypnotic, trancey flourishes of "Thing4" and the other-worldly tones of "Time To Spare", this is certainly music to get lost in. But don't chalk it up to New Age bullshit, please. This is music that breaks barriers, reforming into and onto itself with each passing note. There's the spooky haunted house cadences of "Garage Gamelan", the percolating, slap-happy beats and guitars of "East of Ealing", the experimental rock of "Re:Cooperation Part Two", and the trippy, techno-like journey of "Never Enough Part Two". All in all, a dizzying masterpiece of five years of labor, worth every second of every day put into it.

  • drony, atmospheric
    author: John Scalzi, Writer/Editor, IndieCrit

    Now, here are two guys after my own geeky heart: David Cooper Orton and James Sidlo are musicians who "met" online (on a discussion forum about sound loops) and decided to work together by sending each other tapes. The end result is a long spacey album, with 15 tracks of  Eno-y goodness. And it is goodness. You have to be the sort of person who gets off on drony, atmospheric repetition, long, drawn-out synth pads and choruses, and evanescent, flittery guitar, but as it just so happens, I'm that person. Anyone wanting their music to go somewhere and do something is advised to listen to something a smidgen more purposeful; however, if every now and then you like putting on something and then just thinking about, like, the universe and stuff, this is the CD to get you cogitating.

  • Ambient/atmospheric
    author: babysue

    This is the five-year transatlantic collaboration between David Cooper Orton and James H. Sidlo. Orton plays and/or handles e-bowed and electric guitars, loops, software manipulation, and drum pattern programming while Sidlo plays and/or handles guitars, standard and fretless bass, loops, and atmospherics. As you might guess from the instruments and programs used, this is an experimental project consisting mostly of electronic manipulation and sound effects. As such, the two players are treading territory originally chartered by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp...in that the stringed instruments are manipulated in unusual ways. The first half of this disc flows along in with a meditative sort of flow. In the second half, the duo introduces rhythms. For our money, the tracks without percussion work best. Prime cuts: "Thing2," "Thing3," "Thing4," "Time To Spare," "Never Enough Part One." (Rating: 4++)

  • The Looper's Delight mailing list brought together two sides of the Atlantic, re
    author: Dmitry M. Epstein/dmitry@epstein.to

    The title may point to how the album came to existence but the artwork bears no sign of what a pleasure the package hides. Loops and soundscapes strung a thread between David Cooper Orton of Wales and American James Sidlo, who drown their liquid guitars in etherial synths atmosphere redolent of that that Sidlo pursued on a parallel course with DREAMLAND's "Underwater". Here, the music's more abstract: three pieces are entitled simply "Thing", and one called "Delayed In Traffic" a perfect capture of one endlessly suspended moment. Meditative though it isn't, connecting a listener to the outside rather than inside and keeping him awake with magnificient stereo panning and delicate folk-tinctured melodies like "Time To Spare" or "East Of Ealing". Drums which make their appearance on the second half of the album introduce a certain dancefulness and bring the whole picture into focus, and that makes for a sheer brilliance. Whether the guys met in the flesh is uknown, yet the distance between the two undoubtedly added up to the resulting fragility. The world is too small, that's the point.

  • Forget Late Nights
    author: Dave Niddrie/dave@adbusters.org

    Forget late nights, this is the glint in your eye as the wing tips below the horizon. Like a postcard from the estranged family member, the one who can't keep his head from spinning, round the bend of what is lucid - towards what is far from. Re:Cooperation have taken the concept of file swapping offline to create a wonderous work of mutation and the result is pure communion.

  • slow burn
    author: Elias Granillo/dropforge@dc.rr.com

    Two words: slow burn. Slowly unfolding aural shapes, bending, intersecting, assimilating. They creep up on you, just like the roaches in E.G. Marshall’s apartment in Creepshow. The justly-titled Transcollaboration is a loophound’s closed-circuit video booth, a pylon on the runway of guitar-loop recordings, an oasis in the desert of heavily amorphous ambient music. American guitarist James Sidlo and Welsh guitarist/synthesist David Cooper Orton hit mutual chords on the Looper’s Delight online forum, and began mailing tapes back and forth, adding tracks on each go-around. Careful multi-tracking, editing and refining culminated in an hourlong sojourn into the realm of sound collage, first explored in the 1970s by the likes of Tangerine Dream, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, and Steve Roach. Transcollaboration is distinctively marked by the presence of clean acoustic guitar and expressly organic drumloops. As the first trio of tracks, “Thing2,” “Thing3,” and “Thing4,” consist of familiar-sounding, slowly-evolving soundscapes not dissimilar to Fripp's, the spaciousness is not without breadth, even hauntingly noirish, e.g., the wonderfully-titled, minute-long “Garage Gamelan.” The heavily-reverbed, spaced-out guitar chords of “Delayed In Traffic” evoke the charm of Djam Karet's Suspension & Displacement. “There And Back And There Again” has a curiously 'J. Carpenter' twist, with the modulating gnatlike sequence and throbbing bass. The drumloop is anything but Carpenter, however, and considering this is Track Eight, the listener has arrived at a fork in the road: "East Of Ealing” and “Between Breaks” come as jolts, with upbeat tempi, quick-firing Methenyesque passages, and drum programming by guest DJ Shadow (okay, just kidding about that last tidbit)—wait, isn’t this supposed to be a sound collage project? Diversity is the spice of life, they say. "Re:Cooperation, Part One” and "—Part Two" subsequently return us to spatial shores. There are certain clichés better left collecting dust, but younger minds breathe new life into old conventions; one of these clichés is the heartbeat metronome: timing a rhythm against a heartbeat, or letting a heartbeat sequence act as the foundation. The minute-and-a-half-long “Texas Trees” is one of the best examples to utilize this motif I’ve heard yet—it’s closer to a grandfather clock. Crank up the reverb, let the note decay completely, and presto. Also a two-parter, “Never Enough” is the most overtly-organic and melodic movement of the hour; the sync'ing of guitar tracks recorded an ocean apart via modern technology is a beautiful thing. They may be loop aficionados separated by the Atlantic, but I’d love to hear a real drummer laying down the backbeat behind Sidlo & Orton—the fruit of the fallout could be something along the lines of Jade. Nice going.

  • Ideas cross and then pollinate entirely new thoughts.
    author: Jon Worley/jworley@cent.com

    David Cooper Orton and James Sidlo have been trading tapes for five years. One of them would start a loop, the other would add a little something, then the first would drop in a little more and so forth. In the end, we get the 15 tracks on this disc. My description probably tipped you off, but you've gotta want to really listen to get into this album. Sidlo and Orton didn't send tapes back and forth across the Atlantic in order to craft three-minute pop songs, although the songs do average four minutes in length. You've just gotta love listening for the points of intersection, those places where the ideas cross and then pollinate entirely new thoughts. Yes, this is abstract fare. Often pretty, but decidedly without structure. Each little loop contains its own rules of physics, which is why it's always interesting to hear how the different pieces come together. The clash is rarely cataclysmic, but it's always intriguing. I know, some of you out there are calling me some kind of artsy-fartsy freaky music critic who only likes unlistenable music. Well, I think I've made the case for listening to this outstanding album. Thinking about music while you listen to it isn't that hard. In fact, it's damned enjoyable. Especially when two talents guys like Orton and Sidlo are purveying their ideas. Contact:

  • Long distance relationships are worth pursuing
    author: Jonathan Leonard/leonardslair@ntlworld.com

    'Transcollaboration' is the result of five years of tape swapping between American James Sidlo and Welshman David Cooper Orton. With a common interest in looping techniques, the somewhat unimaginative song titles and faux-air mail packaging cover art belie a unity of great talents. The duo recognise old favourites Brian Eno and Robert Fripp as key influences but in reality some of their material is comparable to much more recent material. The opening three-part suite of 'Thing2', 'Thing3' and 'Thing4' captures the spirit of Yellow6 to a fine art through their ambient, moving textures. 'Delayed In Traffic' brilliantly distorts a fragile bassline in all directions which the likes of Rothko would be proud of. 'East Of Ealing's use of Indian rhythms bears evidence of their wider view of music as does the breakbeat and guitar twang mix of 'Between Breaks'. Rounded off by the two part title track - a stunning work of shimmering ambient effects and guitar work - there's little to fault here. At long last, proof that long distance relationships are worth pursuing, in the musical sense at least.

  • Very interesting mix of music
    author: pam stevens /shoehead42@hotmail.com

    It goes fabulously with a sundown whilst riding a ferry!

  • brilliant work
    author: Serge Tikhanoff /serge@gallery.nsc.ru

    Re: Cooperation Transcollaboration is perfectly brilliant work - incredibly powerful impression!

  • Hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
    author: Gary Phillips/gary@friendlyspider.com

    Definitely atmospheric, moody, ambient...mostly dark.... I've been producing planetarium soundtracks for the Memphis Museum for about 20 years, and I would have to say that many of the tracks would make excellent backdrops to voyages to black holes and colliding galaxies

  • Energizing, humanized electronica
    author: asmakit@wyoming.com

    Engaging and energizing, this well-balanced effort is one of the most distinctive and listenable ambient electronica albums to appear in recent years. The structural and emotional variations within the fifteen tracks set it apart from much of the genre; tinged with deft jazz, rock, and Latin touches, it never falls into the icy lassitude of space music. Though Sidlo and Orton skillfully employ those elements as well, they avoid the soulless, mechanical feel common to that sound. The planet they’re circling isn’t dead- it’s the Earth, and things are hopping down there.

  • IT IS VERY GREAT!!
    author: Isabel Garcia Pallarol/antiox@eresmas.net

    IT IS VERY GREAT

  • First Impression
    author: Mark Sottilaro/sine@zerocrossing.net

    My very first impression upon putting this CD in my player was that the sound was nice and lush. Reminiscent of Brian Eno's Apollo Soundscapes album.

  • "Amazing"
    author: Mitchell Rasor/mrasor@mrld.net

    Amazing

  • TransCollaboration is a remarkable album
    author: Erik Deerly (erik@deerly.com)

    TransCollaboration is a remarkable album, sitting somewhere between the heavily treated acoustic sounds of the Eno ambience circa 1980, and the slightly more up-tempo DJ ambient music we hear today, centered around loops and samples. Both Cooper and Sidlo show remarkable restraint and patience in their guitar work, and the result is a fresh sound, blending their individual styles into an unblemished music that defies pigeon-holing. Add TransCollaboration to the list of CDs that get better with each listen.

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