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Cor Unvers

With the unlimited scope for invention afforded by electronic music, it can be frustrating to see it so often conform to a few well-worn templates. Then again, innovation is difficult and time-consuming, as exemplified by the music of English composer Lee Fraser. Apparently it can take him as long as a year to compose a single piece. His discography, therefore, is not extensive, comprising two albums: Dark Camber (2014) and this one, Cor Unvers (2018).

I first saw Fraser's name mentioned in a short comment recommending his work posted somewhere on Reddit a couple of years ago. Looking it up on Bandcamp, I was much intrigued, and ordered both albums on CD direct from the artist - they arrived with a handwritten note of thanks. 

The four tracks on Cor Unvers encompass a tremedous variety of tones and timbres, from the obtrusively artificial to the seemingly organic: buzzing, fizzing, droning, clanging, ringing, beeping, dripping, etc., etc. There is very little in the way of discernable melody or regular rhythm to cling on to. Despite their slow and painstaking gestation, there's a paradoxical naturalness to the way these pieces unfold, and a sense that something is being communicated, though I couldn't say what. 

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