Rotate by Co-Pilot

Creativity seems to be an endeavor that requires a great amount of contortion and effort, but sometimes the greatest instances of creativity come about by surrendering to a flow that feels external. For British experimental pop duo Co-Pilot, their process feels like the latter of these situations. You as a listener feel as if you’re falling into this smoky studio, watching in awe as these wonderful musical ideas shoot across the room from person to person. Close inspection reveals all sorts of elements here that ought not to go together very well, from bossa nova rhythms to fuzzy synths to baroque harmonies. However, the resulting album makes these styles feel as if they were born to live together, and Co-Pilot develops their own distinct sonic fingerprint as a result of this mixture.

Neither of the collaborators seem to have entered the process with the intention of blending all these diverse sounds; they instead seem to have naturally fallen into this position as they gradually uncovered their aesthetic similarities. For those with the artistic know-how to pull from diverse inspirations and an intense personal connection with their collaborators, creative epiphanies feel more like a surrender than an exerted effort. If we get the word out about this universal creative flow that these artists tap into, we could bring our world to a much healthier understanding of creativity as a process which is available to everyone.

-Michael