coti – lido/lato (poeta negra)

what you can clearly notice in poeta negra’s previous releases is that this label has a very eclectic approach concerning the sound. from the classical post rock that s.ink makes, through decades’ typical electro, through the eclectic sounds of peekay tayloh to the cinematic ambient that dani joss offers. this time coti’s release opens another perspective in exploring this label’s sound. judging by his biography, this artist apparently is a veteran in production. lido/lato is coti’s fourth solo album, after leaving a serious promising impression with his album metamemoria (vibrant recs, 2002). in the meantime coti simultaneously records his album while participating in a few side projects, such as the texturiser with nikos veliotis of antifrost. he performes live, composes film soundtracks as well as music for theatre plays, finally records and produces other bands’ projects, among which is tuxedomoon’s upcoming album. as far as his own history is concerned, constantino luca rolando kiriakos aka coti or coti k is integrated in the scene with all sorts of different pioneer electronic bands in athens, with his work as a producer, sound engeneer, and also by collaborating with names like blaine raininger, the previously mentioned tuxedomoon, stereoniva, nikos veliotis, ilios... and many other collaborations, composing soundtracks for not only films and theatre plays but also commertials. this album consists of two parts (i.e. 2 disks) lido and lato. the first part of this release is experimental, and completely different from the second part, even though these are just two sides of a unique creation both composed at the same time. it starts off with completely dark ambience, while microglitch layers appear even at the very beginning. these only insinuate the interesting moment that is about to follow in the rest of the tracks on this album, that have the same sensibility. the microglitch sound and the ambient background wrapped in quiet unrecognizable melody represent the basis of the whole album. (for exp. ‘baben g.’ is based on live recordings from babis and pavlos makridis’ performances. in q.respiro you can feel a completely quiet and unnoticeable noise flux which is mixed up with the already recognizable ambient setting, while in s~p. the noise direction is more categorical, to be later amalgamated in ambience. the subtlety, the minimalism and micronoise variation are the orientations that describe lido, a nice guide to what is to follow, the second part called lato. lato is more classic with piano and string melodies. although it begins interestingly and experimentally enough, from the second track the classic melodies take place, through the presence of a piano choked in the unrecognizable minimal electronics. contemporary classic is what dominates and is realized through this part. nostalgia, sentiment, and emotion...that end it in a slight pathetic manner with ‘p.stritch’ that features a cello sample by nikos veliotis. today when the classical sound is something already past, lato faces the usual problem of becoming too boring, uninventive and totally banal. however he gets away with it thanks to the experimental tendency in the sound. despite these two parts being two complementary sides of a whole, the sound that they have to offer is quite different and it makes them come across as diverse, so diverse that they could be considered as two different releases. only if we see the experimental intention as a link between the two, could this complementing be realized.