Coppice

Genuine individuality in music is quite rare. The practice of recycling and recombining influences makes most groups some forbearers' "children." Not so, Coppice, the Chicago, IL-based duo of Joseph Kramer Noé Cuéllar. With unlikely, unique instrumentation, Coppice create a pulsating, shimmering, delicate sound world. Prepared pump organ, altered boom box, jigged karaoke machine and specially created cassette tapes are brought online and abandoned, as breath-rhythm whispers of tones rise and fall. On "Sop" — at 16 minutes, the longest track — harmonious drones float by, seemingly endlessly, to be joined, and left, by arpeggiated figures, giving the piece the strange characteristic of simultaneous stasis and movement. "Hoist Spell" is noisy, but with restraint; it clatters, buzzes and scratches with ominous overtones. There is what might seem like muffled footsteps. Unidentifiable audio traceries make the duo's music engaging and mysterious. Maybe John Cage's "Cartridge Music" could be considered a musical ancestor, but Coppice has the seldom achieved distinction of having utterly its own sound.