CHARLES COHEN Vinyl & CDs

Review: Rabih Beaini's Morphine label have stepped it up once again this year, embarking on a series of projects that sees the Lebanese artist producing albums from unique artists with the visual assistance of French-born designer Nathalie Du Pasquier and Tankboys. The first introduced the fairly unclassifiable Senyawa and Brother I Prove You Wrong sees the welcome return of Charles Cohen. We have Morphine to thank for introducing us to the work of the Philadelphia-based Buchla synth pioneer with the label's trilogy of retrospectives in 2013, and this nine track set actually represents Cohen's first solo album since the early '80s. Experimental electronics of the highest order!!

Review: Even by the standards of abstract early electronic music, the compositions of obscure American Charles Cohen - who spent much of the 1970s improvising wildly with the suitcase-sized Buchla Music Easel synthesizer - are deliciously out there. Having previously been rescued from permanent obscurity by synthesizer fetishist Rabih Beaini, Cohen has enjoyed something of a renaissance of late, releasing three vinyl-only albums of his 1970s Music Easel experiments. Here, tracks from those three essential LPs are released on CD for the first time, alongside a slew of previously unheard cuts. For those interested in the atmospheric potential of free jazz inspired abstract synthesizer music, it should be essential listening. In turns freaky, intense, beautiful, creepy and deliciously melodic, A Retrospective is superb from start to finish.

Review: Part two of Morphine's essential Charles Cohen retrospective series arrives with Group Motion consisting of two long form productions. For the uninitiated, Philadelphia-based Charles Cohen is a figurehead of the long running East Coast improvised electronics scene, working largely with a super rare vintage Buchla Music Easel synthesizer. Cohen's largely shunned the recorded format, preferring the live stage to wow attendees with his clear mastery of immersive analogue compositions. Group Motion takes its name from the Dance Theater in Philadelphia founded by Manfred Fischbeck with whom Cohen collaborated and the A Side composition "Group Motion Performance" is a live recording of Cohen performing with the dance company using both the Buchla Music Easel and the Buchla 700 series synths. B Side track "Generator" is a recording of Cohen using the same setup at the Generator Sound Art Gallery in New York. Essential sonics!

Review: Philadelphia-based Charles Cohen has been making improvised electronics since the early '70s, almost entirely with the rare vintage Buchla Music Easel synthesizer, of which only 25 were made. One of Cohen's most noted fans is Morphine boss Rabih Beaini, who has organised the most comprehensive retrospectives of his work to date. The Middle Distance provides the first full record in a series of three planned releases, and contains seven tracks recorded between 1979 and 1988 from art installations and live performances. Fans of Beaini's work as Morphosis will find much to love in Cohen's compositions, which blur the lines between techno and 20th century minimalism in unique and enveloping ways.

Review: Charles Cohen has a rich heritage as a composer of improvised electronics and free jazz dating back to the early '70s, working solo and as part of The Ghostwriters with Jeff Cain, and more recently in the Color Is Luxury duo with Metasplice and _moonraker member kenneth_lay. His music is performed almost entirely with the rare vintage Buchla Music Easel synthesizer, of which only 25 were made in the early '70s (with just a few left in working condition). He is now the subject of an extensive reissue project from analogue synth enthusiast Rabih Beaini's Morphine label, which kicks off its exploration of his work with the second "Redose" release from the label; Morphosis provides two reworks of Cohen's Dance Of The Spiritcatchers, with both the beatless and rhythmic versions capturing some expectedly alien moods.

Review: Well, you can always count on Rabih Beaini's Morphine Doser to deliver the drip and send you peacefully into heaven. What's particularly incredible about the label is its diversity and continuous evolution - one moment releasing deranged, experimental house cuts by Madteo and then dropping the most abstract of sonic patchworks the next. This particular release is the third instalment of the Redose series, and these particular EPs just keep on getting wilder. The first track is by upcoming Morphine signees Senyawa - a hardcore band from Indonesia - and it's masterfully reinterpreted by the legendary Charles Cohen, an artist who has released some of the most cutting-edge electronic sounds known to man, and who has also contributed to the Morphine label with a sublime series of LPs last year. On the flip, one of Cohen's own track, "Conundrums", is torn apart by Robert Turnman, an experimental artist who needs no introduction thanks to his countless releases, some of them on highly coveted fringe labels such as Aaron Dilloway's Hanson Records. Essential, obviously.