You can’t say that SCooby Trillion isn’t eclectic. If my first encounter saw him delve into the ancient and diverse sounds of Africa and reframe them in a modern context, ‘Mortal Eyes,’ his latest single, is perhaps a million sonic miles away. But that, of course, is the art of embracing the modern musical landscape: tribalism and genres are gone, borders are broken, sonic demarcations have been eroded, and everything and anything is up for grabs. The building blocks and inspirations of modern music are anywhere you choose to find them.
‘Mortal Eyes’ finds us in a neo-classical landscape, opening on serene strings and dulcet tones, but as the first blast of piano comes in on a wave of free jazz-meets-more-conceptual modern orchestration, you realise that the track isn’t going to go where you expect… and why should it? Comfort zones and familiarity are not in play here.
As the song flurries along, there is a feeling of Shostakovich‘s jazz-classical creations, of recognisable instrumental styles being subsumed into wilder creative freedoms. This, in turn, seems to head into the realm that fans of Alex Paxton will find familiar, not just in terms of using traditional instruments to create a more contemporary style, but through the use of unexpected found sounds – tick clocks, doorbells and vocal art attacks.
And just as this energy begins to feel overwhelming, it drops into a violin serenade worthy of Dvořák‘s tribute to the romantic era, but only briefly; a quick pit-stop and before long, the song is rebuilding itself from this lovely lull into the frenzied and fantastic array that has already beguiled us.
Between the two releases that I have heard it becomes clear that Scooby Trillion is a music maker of the modern age, someone less concerned with where we have been, more interesed in where things go next, not beholden to a sound or style but exploring what happens when you find the middle ground between them, explore the liminal spaces around their edges, draw the fringes into the central space. Hi is not here to explore genres but to eradicate them, or at least ignore them.
All you can wonder is where he might go next. Wherever it is, I’ll be right behind him.
Discover more from Dancing About Architecture
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
