Brady Cohan

In 2020, Brady debuted the first release of his ongoing album series via tastemaker UK experimental label, Phantom Limb. Studies, Vol. 1 distills Brady’s contrasting musical influences and backgrounds into a uniquely eloquent instrumental collection, subtly energizing and brimming with life. A record, he writes, that “connects the way I play the guitar with the kind of music I want to write. 

On, Studies, Vol. 2, Brady approaches the second edition of this fascinating series with dark sparsity. Brady describes Studies, Vol. 2 as “a study in gestures”. Thematically, it acts as a continuation of the same musical landscapes ventured by December 2020’s first Studies volume – the same skilled, agile handling of guitar and electronics; the same radical chill of downtown LA’s jazz scene; the same distillation of musical mastery honed by years of composing film score. However, this new edition minimizes the lush, slow-mo Malibu balm of the previous iteration in favor of a rarefied and subtle intensity. Where guest musician Sam Wilkes’ bassline in Vol. 1 quietly grooves, Sam Gendel’s treated saxophone in Vol. 2’s “Begin Again” smears and smudges an already-blurred canvas. “This record was an act of self-preservation,” writes Brady. – Phantom Limb

Brady also presented a sequence of videos via ClotMag corresponding to three tracks from Studies, Vol. 2:

“Begin Again, the track of choice for the opening video sees LA master musician Sam Gendel turning Brady’s strange, echoing sonics into a nocturnal backdrop of dreamlike haze. while the video recreates a delicate 3D pointmapped space. With minimalistic colours and expression, the shapes foldings and expansions, elegantly follow the sound and nocturnal dreaminess. That nowhere land in between awakeness and sleep.” – ClotMag 

“For Rally, Cohan tells us he really wanted the video to draw the viewer into this otherworldly space and illuminate the various subtleties happening in the music. The piece is based on a single repetitive musical gesture, with various other elements coming in and out as it progresses.  He wanted the animation to react to the music in such a way that brought attention to those other, less obvious, elements.” – ClotMag

“For capitOl pt. 2, Cohan tells us is the darkest piece on the EP, as it deals with the actual breaching of the Capitol building.  I used a public domain film of a protest from Griffith Park in 1933 as the backdrop for the video.  I mangled and abstracted the footage to the point where it was almost unrecognizable, which gives the video the ominous and foreboding tone I wanted.” – ClotMag

Studies, Vol. 3, the final edition of his fascinating, ongoing series for solo guitar and electronics, takes a neat step along from the themes and styles of its earlier cousins. Where Vol. 1 leant into lush Malibu balm and Sam Wilkes’ slo-mo grooves, and Vol. 2 darkens into a Lynchian noir featuring Sam Gendel’s blurry treated saxophone, Vol. 3 takes us to a new destination still. Its deconstructed, cubist guitar journeys weave similar patterns to avant-guitar’s deftest practitioners such as Loren Connors, Fennesz, Jim O’Rourke or Tashi Dorji. And across all three volumes of Cohan’s Studies is the same skilled, agile handling of guitar and electronics; the same radical chill of downtown LA’s vital jazz scene; the same distillation of musical mastery honed by years of composing filmscore. Studies Vol. 3 tidily sews up the set while contributing a whole new world of strange sonics itself.

Brady was interviewed by Sonofmarketing where he discussed Vol. 3 and premiered three new videos for the corresponding singles leading up to the EP’s release.