3908

3908 is the fruit of an unexpected, if not improbable, collaboration between two artists whose diametrically opposite musical temperaments promise an intriguing (at least) auditory experience. The extremely minimalistic cover and laconic, enigmatic title do a really good job at disguising the tumultuous richness hidden within. This is an album that should by all means be seen - and most importantly, listened to - in conjunction with the personal view of art expressed by each one of its contributors.

Melchiades is a master in formal perfection, but whose poetic disposition always lurks below the apparent "scientific" organisation and architecture of his compositions. His predilection for structural and morphological coherence gives shape to abstraction and sets the chaos in order. Kouki, on the other hand, seems more inclined towards the deconstruction of rules, the decomposition of musical "tissue"; his work usually reflects a degree of contempt for the "traditional" concepts of harmony and beauty (as a side note - and no matter whether that was intentional on the artist's part or not - by using Windows Movie Maker to create clips playable on iPod Nano, he also managed to bring together the two sworn technology competitors, Microsoft and Apple, in creative coexistence; and I am being serious here).

The innate contradiction that constitutes the essence of this common musical adventure conjures mental images overlayed by the blurry sepia tint and altered perspective of a post-apocalyptic nightmare - a promenade in the streets of a deserted provincial town, which begins under the warning echoes of a storm only to end up once more in biblical doom. Each track invariably evolves into a stifled cry of agony; despite the melodious versatility of her disguises at the start of every piece, there will inevitably come a moment when Beauty bares her canines and turns herself into the Beast.

However, despite the powerful inner conflict at the very foundations of this work, there is also a kind of illusory truce as both styles attempt to "seduce" one another in a strange, fascinating choreography of dangerous flirtation, a tango in its original form, which is a dance as well as a duel. A tempestuous clash/fusion follows, giving birth to an unprecedented hybrid - something with a very distinctive character of its own, but without compromising the unique features of the two different entities from which it sprang.

Acid Tuesday and Acid Champain are the highlights of 3908, both combining and defining in the most effective way each composer's pivotal stylistic elements.

For all of the above reasons (and perhaps many others that would be better analysed by the more technically knowledgeable), the result of this co-operation deserves to be considered innovative by nature as well as by definition, and even revolutionary.