On The Corner present their 10th full release ‘Door to the Cosmos’ a 24 track compilation of rawkus sonic explorations brought to the fore via a heady blend of label mainstays and fresh family recruits. ‘Door To The Cosmos’ expresses the label’s adventure; future sounds referencing the source, be it Detroit, UK bass culture, New Orleans or the Niger delta.
The title riffs off of the otherworldly, afro-futurist jazzer Sun Ra’s infamous chant ‘dare to knock at the door to the cosmos’. Sun Ra’s sound and narrative bending inspires us to kick at the rules and push at the infinite, the ecstatic and the unknown through music by knock, knock, knocking at the door to the cosmos.
The compilation is the first outing for a new raft of artists who are celebrated by the label and welcomed to a creative space brimming with the tales of unsung pioneers of the past and champion sonic explorers of the future. Prolific underground-house producer from Denmark; Uffe joins the rising star of dub-inflected electronica from the Tunisian Sahara, Azu Tiwaline, Glasgow DJ and tastemaker, Rebecca Vasmant is bringing her love of deep jazz to her house and soul productions. The cosmopolitan influences embodied by Sunken Cages whose Indian percussions and Siddhi culture informs the New York / UK bass music being conjured, Edrix Puzzle is a new UK Jazz trio pushing jazz beyond Earthly constraints and into plateaus of imagined Mwandishi landscapes. Clive From Accounts bangs numbers and drum machines equally hard, Batida is a party-pro renown for bringing Kuduro to European good times, Ariwo are referencing their Cuban-Iranian roots, exploring ancient rhythms with drum machines and modular synths, L.A. legend, Jose Marquez makes the house deep and ancestral. Petwo Evans are seeking the ecstatic in future dance with an eye on afro centric rhythms brought to life in the Welsh valleys. These are just the ‘Door to the Cosmos’ artists making their label entrance, and for a handful of artists this is their debut release.
Taking the nine preceding OtC albums as the imprints baseline, ‘Door to the Cosmos’ demonstrates On the Corner’s ambitious breadth of sound whilst still very much in its infancy; Khalab, Tenesha The Wordsmith, Hieroglyphic Being, Asher Gamedze, Collocutor and Siti Muharam have all registered acclaimed albums.
Talent rising up, breaking borders and pushing genre gives OtC it’s earned reputation for leading the way. On remix duties Quixosis, lines up with Taxi Kabir, African Sciences, Iyer and Nicola Cruz. From dub electronica laden with Iranian textures rising out of the Sahara to the sounds of the chieftains of the global underground (JD Twitch / Batida / Afrikan Sciences) to OtC’s pioneers in droid jazz, percussive house or afrocentric bangers channelling the rhythms of ancestors for future times.
