The Green Kingdom is the music of Michael Cottone: a graphic designer and sound artist from Michigan. Prismatic sees him delve further into the musical landscapes he began utilising with last year’s Twig and Twine release.
The minimalist instrumentals showcased here are all strongly linked with nature. In an attempt to avoid many obvious accusations thrown towards sparse electro music, mainly that it can be cold an unemotional, The Green Kingdom places huge emphasis on warm instrumentation. Prismatic is full of snippets of acoustic guitars and real recorded noise, most notably what must be the sound of frogs on the albums centre piece Wetlands.
It’s undeniably a work of extraordinary skill. The sounds are recorded to perfection and the handling of textures and instrumentation is nothing short of profound. The sound-scapes that Cottone creates as The Green Kingdom are so well crafted that with only a few layers he evokes a depth and lushness that places him well above many contemporaries. The use of footsteps set against distant strings on Thoughts and Bells is a sterling example of this. It’s an extremely delicate record and textures can open up immediately and be transformed with a mere hint of glockenspiel or woodland reverberation.
The expansive nature of The Green Kingdom never fails to bring to mind visions of a forest after a summer rainstorm: blossoming and burgeoning with life. This is credit to Cottone’s talents that he is able to evoke such vivid images from his resources; the music is always welcoming and comforting. There is only one problem: Prismatic is unbelievably dull.
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Although the compositions are obviously intricately plotted, nothing grabs your attention. Every single song washes over you and leaves little impression when compared to the ones that went before it. There are subtle shifts in harmony and melodic ideas slowly develop but there is never anything that remotely resembles a build up of tension or a moment of thoughtful release to make the record worthwhile. As a result we are left with over forty minutes of music that undoubtedly achieves its goal of encapsulating the serenity of nature, but are so unfulfilling a journey, that they ironically leave you more agitated than when you began.
Unfortunately, despite Cottone’s skills as a producer, as The Green Kingdom he is creating music so anaemic that even those suffering a ferocious ketamine come down would probably label it as ‘a little bit too soft’.
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