Despite having great success with his wildly artistic leap into the EDM/Trance world with his last album, Three BC, Bruce Cohen decided to return to his ambient electronic roots. His latest album, Four BC, has the slightly added twist of totally improvising every song. Utilizing “Four” from the album’s title, each of the twelve songs were composed within a four minute time frame, with little to no overdubs, and no edits whatsoever. Cohen recorded each improvised track ending as close as possible to his self-imposed four minute mark. The result for the listener is to hear the exact sound created live in the studio, without abandoning the groove and funk, continuing his directions-in-electronics concept by throwing in a few unexpected beats tracks for some fun.
Four BC continues Cohen’s quirky knack of combining different electronic genres into a completely comprehensive album. From the ethereal, spacial soundscapes of Luna, and the hard dancing groove of Pawn, this album is destined to be his best yet. His musical path has always been greatly influenced by two music titans who are no longer with us, David Bowie and Keith Emerson, and Four BC is Cohen’s way of paying tribute to both.
∎ Tarock Music, January 17, 2017
