Behind COH, so far released two LPs (Enter_Tinnitus, Mask of Birth) and two EPs (Vox Tinnitus, Into Memories of s-tones) under this name, there is one person: Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov, who has been living for several years in Stockholm, has been dealing with music from his childhood, played in a rock-band at school back in Russia, and even made computer-music in his home country. Pavlov researches in acoustics at one of the universities in Stockholm (specialised in traffic noise reduction) and works for a private company as software developer. He made his first record on CDR for fun and - amongst few other friends gave a copy to Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic. One day Vainio played the record to Carsten Nicolai of Noton records, who then immediately offered a contract to Ivan. To be the first release on Static series of the minimal electronica label Noton, COH recorded all-new material under the title Enter_Tinnitus. As an afterlife of this album this year Noton released Vox Tinnitus with the voices of Peter Christopherson and Annie Anxiety, but before COH had also been invited to make a record for the Raster / Noton label's 20' to 2000 series, which he made and dedicated to Gavin Bryars. The new COH record, Mask of Birth, is released on LP in Februrary 2000 although has been recorded prior to the "static" material.

We talked with Ivan Pavlov in Berlin at the closing event of the 20' to 2000 series of Raster / Noton label in December 1999. The interview was round up via e-mail during January 2000.

Do you use any traditional instruments? How do you work?

I guess in these days computer should be considered a rather traditional instrument, isn't it? I use nothing but a computer. A PC. And use it, indeed, as an "instrument" - without attempting to bring to focus the specifics of digital media or make statements about computer vs. music etc. I like the instrument - computers potentially provide nearly infinite freedom in sound synthesis... How I work... I put on my new Sennheiser headphones and sit down in front of my instrument. We "interact", which probably would be an appropriately trendy term for the trendy computer music genre.

I just realised after a few re-listenings how drumless Enter Tinnitus is. If there is, it is just like any other coming and going noise. Don't take me wrong I do not miss constant drums at all, but was it a conscious decision of yours?

Yes, quite often I consciously avoid using drums or stronger, clearer beats. I find it more interesting to try and achieve comparable rhythmical drive without using actual drums. I also feel that the use of drums might impose certain limitations on both structure and sonic contents of the piece. From the other hand, a drum/beat seems a convenient frame on the listener side, sort of a solid ground one can more easily relate to. This suggests a rather attractive area for experimentation and I'm actually going to do some "drum" work in the nearest future.

Do you build the pieces up consciously or you left space for glitches to contribute somehow?

Glitches are always welcome, of course... Generally, all sounds used in a track are specifically created and many of them are the result of what could be called "spontaneous signal processing", part of which is explicitly random and usually leaves plenty of room for glitches. At the same time, the actual "construction" of each piece is ultimately conscious and very much controlled - I attempt to utilize certain existing structures, often borrowed from pop-music. I do try to "compose", so to speak.

Do you use any results, methods of your research while you are making music?

Not really... Well, maybe some basics - the knowledge of the spectral analysis and of the nonlinear effects like generation of combinational frequencies etc. may be helpful, but that's about it.

Did you make Enter_Tinnitus exclusively for the Static series?

Yes, this was made for the static series. In fact, I had two other albums ready by the time when the offer from raster came - they would release either. I was told it was going to be an opening for the long planned series (static). I really liked the concept and wanted to make something new and more appropriate than the existing material, something specifically "static"...

I don't know if it is positive to you but somehow I found the music more than a skeleton. It is skinny, but has blood and flesh too, which is very unique in the genre (if you consider yourself belonging to any at all). I also found it mystical and archaic a bit and lyrical too, which is again very rare. In this sense it is close to Coil's music. Would you like to comment this?

Well, I think Coil have been one of the major influences over a rather long time now. Particularly after I met them a couple of years ago. I find much of their work inspirational - Coil is very poetic... Some of their pieces keep revealing new depths - I mean they still do, even now. As for the flesh and blood - I don't know... I'm just interested in making "music". In the traditional sense of the word. I'm trying to make "music" using the new kind of instrument, which may seem a bit inconvenient for the purpose...

Enter Tinnitus was made in 1998. You said that it was made after Carsten's offer to put you out. What about the earlier materials? Do you plan to release them?

One of the two albums I mentioned is coming out as LP-only now in February - it's called Mask of Birth - largely a disco-inspired record. There is an earlier one from 1996 - a rather raw recording, although quite entertaining... maybe sometime later, as a retrospective release of sorts. It was actually home-released in edition of 7 CDR copies with a very special hand-made packaging... those went to friends.

This year you made Vox Tinnitus on which the instrumental parts are from Enter_Tinnitus. What is the relation in your concept between the two?

I just wanted to try and emphasize the pop-aspect of Enter_Tinnitus with its somewhat conventional song-structures of many pieces. It was also interesting to give the music another dimension or another view. Turning the original pieces into real songs... well, they aren't really songs in a conventional sense... but I like the idea and the result (Vox Tinnitus) and will try to continue in that direction...

Neglecting the meaning of the Latin word, Tinnitus seems to be a place, a realm. Where does it come from?

Its a rather long story... "static" in ENTER_TINNITUS is not only "electrical" but also has a "kinetic" meaning - a general term describing absence of visible motion or activity. I wrote a "difficult" press release (see on the raster-noton web-site) which some journalists failed to properly interpret... The point I was trying to make is that certain things perceived as static, i.e. visibly devoid of change, in reality hide a great deal of activity inside them... Say, one may discover the Brownian motion of particles in still water - but only using appropriate equipment. There're also known cases when people can, for instance, hear normally inaudible electromagnetic fields - that is, they perceive the hidden. These cases are considered being anomalies... The title suggests a rather humorous speculation on Tinnitus - the strange disease of hearing - as such anomaly, the one that hints at the existence of another dimension (or even a life-form!) into sound. That is somewhat close to the ideas of Giacinto Scelsi - a contemporary Italian composer, who wrote whole pieces for one note exploring the other dimension. He actually claimed to have "received" music in meditations... which again, links to ELpH! The circle-above-line logo inside the package is actually a reference to Scelsi - I was listening to his records quite often at the time...

So, Tinnitus is not exactly a realm, but rather a state of openness towards the processes, entities or spirits possibly inhabiting sound, or, at least, the sound of that particular record! In a sense, it was an attempt to put a non-obvious "dynamics" into the "static" music, something alive which does not belong to the apparent skeleton...

Listening to the record I sometimes had the impression that it was music for an abstract science-fiction movie. But instead of the suggestion of the title 'Space Odyssey Revisited' I had Solaris in mind. Was it you intention to make it like that?

I didn't really have any filmic connections during my work... Space Odyssey Revisited - that particular track doesn't really sound like Solaris to me with its naive melodic lines and primitive rhythmical structure. That one was a joke...

Maybe it is because of the cooing of the baby in the last piece, but certain times I found the tunes functioning like a lullaby. Lullaby in a space station.

I also noticed that some bits (surprisingly enough) have meditative qualities. Although, the last piece with my daughter was a joke too... in 1998 Annie Anxiety did a verse for the Sentrax compilation Interiors. The piece was called Thirteen Things I Did Today - a kind of thumbnailed dairy, filled with dark humour. Then I made that lyrical track with Sasha's voice, trying to preserve the urban tension of the original in the machinery rhythmic structure of the "lullaby" (its called The Fourteenth Thing She Did Today)... Now the story continues - Little Annie appears on Vox Tinnitus with the piece entitled Forty Six Things I Did Today! I always loved Annie's incredible voice and I'm very happy to have met and worked with her...

You dedicated your record in the 20' to 2000 series to Gavin Bryars. Who is he? Why was it important to have his name on it?

Gavin Bryars is a contemporary British composer. I was listening to quite a bit of his music at the time... Then at some point I discovered about the wonderful piece called Last Few Days (Die Letzen Tage) he wrote for the end of millennium, which was conceived as an anti-millennial work. So was mine - I just couldn't resist having his name there!

As for the live act in Berlin, the first half was really amazing and tendering with the very-very soft drum and sine-tones. In about half time there was a change with twisted rhythms, which lead to a rather aggressive rotating noise. There was a moment just about the change that it sounded awkward a bit and you too on the stage were looking to the sides as if something had not been in order. Is that true?

The first part was based upon the material for the 20' piece made for the series. The second part was meant to be a polar opposite - harsh and aggressive. The moment of change was planned to sound "awkward" and at that point, the video engineer was supposed to turn off the video projection to make a full impression as if something went broken. He didn't though... that's why I was looking at him!

I think the show - may I use this word here? - was frenetically designed. You received an exceptional ovation from the audience. I learned from Robin Rimbaud that you play very rarely. Why? What do you think about playing live?

Hm... I do enjoy playing live and never refused an invitation.

It's really a pity that we could not see the film you wanted to show? Did you want to project it with the same music or it would have been a completely different performance?

The film is based around the 20' piece from the series on Noton. Actually, I don't regret being unable to present it at the event. The live set I made turned out quite successful and I really like performing it...

As for your contribution to the series of 20' to 2000: Though I recorded the talk upstairs I cannot hear everything clearly. I understand that you started the work from pictures you had taken of rocks in Sweden, and which reminded you of sine waves (?) Would you please explain your idea or background behind the piece for me again? You also said something that it is rather an anti-millennium record.

Yes, the rocks... the bedrock here is very hard and therefore old. Like, in some places people literally walk upon Viking carvings made some 9-10 centuries ago and those still remain there. Quite amazing, isn't it? One day I was taking photographs of the rock surfaces in Stockholm and the white curves of inclusions in stone seemed exactly like the sound wave profiles on my monitor screen... here came the image of stones as beholders of passing events, absorbing and storing the information in these white sine-like curves. What would the curves reveal if played as wave profiles? - the piece is more or less a speculation on that. The whole image is quite anti-millennial as the stones are likely to be indifferent to the year numbering we use...

What are the main influences on you recently (not necessarily musical)? Your family and your child are quite obvious.

I think most of the influences remain musical... or at least those that I'm aware of. At the moment I'm working on a "heavy-metal" album - mainly interested in the interaction of distorted mid-frequencies with clean or distorted low frequencies - so I tend to buy various records that I was listening to in early 80ies... It's fun.

Do you think about collaborating with anyone in near future?

Yes I do and I hope this happens, but I am not ready to expand on that yet... sorry.