Altered Zones

We would probably be hailing Ghostwriters’ Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear LP as one of the best pieces of music to come out of the contemporary synth revival if it didn’t date back to 1981, before most of the musicians we write about were even born. I was informed by an expert source last week that Philly’s Charles Cohen-- formerly one-half of Ghostwriters, and now one-half of the band Planet Y (with Stinking Lizaveta’s Yanni Papadopoulos)-- composed this tittering fairy wallop in front of a 200 series Buchla Music Easel, an intrepid, candy-colored modular dashboard by synth pioneer Don Buchla, who only made 14 of the model. Think Keith Fullerton Whitman meets Blondes meets “Beach Point Pleasant”- era Ducktails, but composed on equipment your parents' age.

Word on the street is that Cohen composes the majority of his compositions in real time (on the Easel), has virtually no interest in studio recording, and is all but invisible save for the occasional local performance with Papadopoulos and other collaborators. For those of you who can’t make it out to his upcoming dates in Philly this winter (below), this video by Pennsylvania sound and video artist Alex Tyson gives you the idea. (via Visitation Rites)

MP3: Ghostwriters: "Swizzle" (1981)

Objects In Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear is available for free download on Charles Cohen’s blog. Upcoming appearances include:

01-21 Philadelphia, PA - The Rotunda *
02-04 Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie ^
02-12 Philadelphia, PA - Highwire Gallery $

* as Charles Cohen & Chris Madak
^ as Planet Y
$ as Charles Cohen & Julius Masri