A LOOK AT COS

From the depths of Zeuhl, Jazz, Progressive and Canterbury rock, Cos emerges and enchants with a hypnotic and cryptic language that asks to be deciphered, leaving the listener momentarily stranded, somewhere between Boma and Bomma, much like an opium smoker or the hippos on the river Boma, or both… Unique and truly Belgian, with a touch of defiant humour, yet with uncanny finesse, Cos rightfully delivers the word, often with no words at all, through a rich texture of pulsating and elastic bass lines, magical farsifa organ, intricate drums and percussion and the ever-present blistering duality of Shell and Son. Son who almost entirely discards language, using her voice much as a new instrument. Schell who reinvents language in his subtle punctuated guitar phrasing. With this album, we are given hints of something that parallels the creation of a new world. We are passengers of a ship that is heading to uncharted terrain, a place that belongs to Cos and to Cos alone, a place that feels like outer space, yet familiar and even comforting. A place from which one never returns as the same person. Viva Boma is this journey and we are delighted to be part of it.

Saturday

4

  In July 1976, the group started recording at Studio Cathy, owned by the famous variety singer Marc ARYAN. This COS album was going to be the first one produced in that brand new studio. The whole session took 5 days to record and 2 days to mix.
Pascale SON had to record several vocal parts alone in a studio booth while she was used to sing among the musicians (the vocals of the first album were all taken live), but this certainly provided the album with a specific climate, with some kind of delicacy and retained emotion.
Daniel SCHELL played his Gibson Les Paul guitar, a double neck (6 and 12 strings) guitar and a Ramirez classical model. He also used several effects (saturation, a Wah-wah filter, etc) and modified the sounds of his guitar through an EMS converter to an EMS synthesiser which allowed him to double the melody.
Marc HOLLANDER managed to feel perfectly at ease in that artificial context and got on well with Marc MOULIN. He played his old Farfisa which sounds were treated by fuzz and Wah-wah devices and ended up in a Dynacord echo chamber that could reproduce the signal at variable speed. He also resorted to a Fender Rhodes piano, a saxophone, a bass clarinet and a derbouka.
Alain GOUTIER used the same effects on his Rickenbaker bass.
Many people were invited as guests: Marc MOULIN on mini-moog, Denis van HECKE on cello (for "Ixelles"), Pipou (the nickname by which Yves LACOMBLEZ, the author of PLASTIC BERTRAND's pseudo-punk hit "Ca plane pour moi", was known) and Jean Louis HAESEVOETS on percussion (Jean-Louis, the drummer of Charles LOOS jazz-rock group ABRAXIS, had replaced Willy MAZY for two concerts with COS).
COS second album established the band with their original, elaborate and sophisticated European music.
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