Label: Conspiracy International Format: CD
Surely Ms. Cosey is the empress of electronic bliss. Time To Tell (2000) is nothing if not the most complete guide to a woman who stirs, blends and folds her life and art more comprehensively and with more sincerity than just about anyone else I can think of involved in modern performance and media manipulation.
This re-re-release (with additions and enhancements) of Time To Tell is like a learn it all kit on what it means to be the empress Cosey certainly is. The music as well as the accompanying materials give ultra-evidence that a person can be their work, their art, as well as the work itself being the artist. Cosey becomes every little thing she does, is made into something like an instrument herself, uses her body and mind and undoubtedly her soul for something that seems to transfer into the entertainment of others, while maintaining a perfect sense that she does all this for herself, as herself.
Despite her explorations into debasement, pain, sexual explotation and personal degredation Cosey remains like an innocent, perhaps because she is so pure in her intentions. Indeed, she is nearly angelic, taking all the evil out of bad things, and presenting them as things to do, to learn from, to be, and all without the standard fears and repulsions that become our ordinary response. Cosey impresses me to believe that if most humans even could turn themselves inside out and peer inside, they would be so astounded by what they find. Luxuriously for her, she has been doing so for over 30 years until the element of shock is nothing, but the actions are everything.
What does this CD sound like? It sounds beautiful, just as music on its own, not condsidering the actions, pictures and media that go with it. Electronics, synths and machines, guitars, voices and all else come together into the most ethereal soothing sounds, lullabies from ghosts. Drifting soft clouds of sound slipped one into another, hyper-female, as sensitive as any mother’s hand on the face of her child, gentle and sleepy and melodic. Cosey says “Whisper to me…” and her clear strong voice beems the most gossamer light straight to the heart.
This music is decades old and as timeless as its mistress. It is said at some point in the most informative literature that Cosey used music for performances rather than dialogue so that it could be more open to interpretation and less indicative of her meanings. I swear I think she means to lull us all in love with her, or perhaps, this is just the love she has for herself, and her life. Not to imply that she lets on to be in love with herself, but rather to know herself much more than most of us do. It is ideally impossible to dislike what one truly knows and knows so thoroughly.
-Lilly Novak-
