[Interview] A Quick Chat With Kokong

I recently hit up Kokong with a few questions as I was very excited when I heard some of their tracks on soundcloud and wanted to know more about this project and what we can expect from them in the future.

Kokong is cosmic consciousness expressing itself as:
Ludvig Cimbrelius (Alveol) and Rasmus Alkestrand (Ito Oto)

Kokong

How did you both meet?

As all roads seem to cross eventually, so did mine and Ludvigs in Malmö, Sweden. Back in 2009 or something both he and I was booked for an outdoor event in a park – but playing in different constellations.

Some time later I was starting up a small diy-label for experimental and ambient music, called Eter Records. I decided to do a trilogy compilation about the transformation through death into life and some of Ludvigs shimmering, all-is-bliss type of work he has done as Purl and Alveol would be essential to the first release.

He came over to my loft in the middle of nowhere (the swedish countryside) and from there we started a very beautiful and inspiring journey in music and life together.

But Kokong was actually formed back in 2010 when we spent 5 months travelling through south India. Ludvig brought a small laptop, a microphone and zoom H4 recorder and we did quite a lot of field recordings, ashrams, weird peacocks and other type of soundscapes found through our travels in India.

How do you think you compliment each other when making these tracks?

We are very different, but still very alike. I think our differences, both in life and in making music, helps us connect on a deeper level.

Ludvig is very professional and effective. And he also has the ability to work on one track at a time. For hours/days/weeks…I usually send him some material, come over, make some pads and stabs, maybe play a bit of flute and sitar and then watch the magic happen while eating nuts and fine chocolate.

When we are doing new material for Kokong (which is the swedish word for Cocoon), it happens in Ludvigs 10 square-meter cottage in the forest, so the experience is very powerful and suits the name fantastically. Two or three days together, in a really small space, eating some really good food and making some really good music.

Future plans for the project?

There are some ideas of putting together a live show where we play Kokong material but in a more improvised form together with the instruments we use, such as Indian tabla drums, guitars, kalimbas, live drum set, flute, sitar and electronics.

Any upcoming releases to wish to share with us?

We have an EP coming out on Avant Roots, run by the very friendly Pablo Bolivar, I think it will also feature a remix from Dactilar.

All the best to you from Kokong.