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While each genre has its own themes, tropes and imagery the basic human point of Electronic Music is self-revelation. Expressing oneself by shaping timbre, the very fabric of sound, may be the most direct route to the galaxy inside. Throughout a range of works K Markov displays remarkable growth. His Dark Energy I (71:57) and Dark Energy II (69:53) seem to interrogate The Universe itself. Across 8 tracks total the music rises and falls, lightens and darkens, exists and flows without any regard to Earthly factors. Somewhere in the glimmer of the imaginative spirit modulated effects emerge, open and wither - inviting us down into churning tones and alien drones of dungeon synths and the starless regions of space. Textured and corroded, then inward-facing and soft Dark Energy I & II offer an electrifying immediacy of excited circuits chilled in stalled zones of oppressive nothingness. Between the abstract tones and curious currents the awakening of the mind becomes this music's most meaningful source of truth. Markov's engineering murmurs of empty space, and suggests surreal apparitions and night thoughts better hidden until daybreak. Being exposed to such challenges ultimately widens and expands our definition of what beauty is. This process can feel uncomfortable, but for the more open-minded there is some immeasurable factor that steadily pulls us in. All of us need more of this in our lives. And musicians such as K Markov are a gateway to finding it - not with conventional consonant arrangements, but with his innovative explorations of dreamy atmospheres and negative space. To have a meaningful experience, we will have to listen differently - using a different part of the brain if we are to attend and engage with the music itself.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 22 February 2024 |
