A Closer Listen
And now, today’s vocabulary word. Enantiodromia is “the tendency for things to turn into their opposites,” especially when it comes to the mind: despair to hope, sorrow to joy, confusion to resolve. According to Carl Jung, the mind seeks equilibrium after hitting a wall of the extreme. According to CORIN, the principle is evident in the pendulums of today: selfishness and volunteerism, fear and overconfidence, xenophobia and globalism. Her music twists and turns on its way to new forms. Nothing rests. Physically embodying the shift, the artist has even changed her hair color from black to blonde.
The EP picks up where Manifest left off, with a high energy reminiscent of classic industrial and IDM. This is never more apparent than on the lead single and title track, whose template of aggressive synth and drums hearkens back to Nitzer Ebb (“Join in the Chant”). We are so ready to dance this season, and while unintentional, CORIN’s club tendencies highlight other forms of enantiodromia: from lethargy to movement, isolation to integration.
“Sublimate” makes great use of stereo effects, an extremity of busyness visited upon each speaker. The music stops and starts, retreats and attacks, underlining the principle of the title. At one point the track is carried by a single synth line, before the floodgates open once more. And then there is “Mnemosyne,” which is not a new vocabulary word for us as it is also the title of a 2019 album by The Phonometrician, referring to the goddess of memory and mother of the Muses. The industrial flavors are apparent throughout, synth lines traveling right to left and back like the thoughts of a wavering mind. The volume rises slightly in bonus track “Dromos,” indicating a separate genesis; the title refers to the entrance to a Greek temple or the passageway to transformation.
CORIN is an artist in flux; her productions range from digital music to theatre, dance, installation art and even puppetry. Will she land on a specific sonic space and call it home, or will she wander forever, carried on a wave of enantiodromia? If we had to choose one, we’d choose evolution over repetition every time. (Richard Allen)
Thu Jun 03 00:01:06 GMT 2021