In the realm of Dwellers, the collaboration CAIV, crafted by Israel Vines and Camille Altay, delves into the profound intersections of language and symbolism.
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The project challenges its audience to embrace the ambiguity of existence, recognizing incongruity as an integral facet of the whole.
The genesis of CAIV can be traced back to the partnership initiated on Israel Vines’ 2021 track, “Keeping.” Dwellers explores the realms of sound, semiotics, and obscured meanings, drawing inspiration from the word association embedded in their chosen moniker that ultimately influenced the EP’s title.
As Vines elucidates, “CAIV is obviously our initials combined, and we both liked the ‘cave’ references that it brought to mind – digging, exploring, existing pre-modernity and continuing underground through the ages.”
Through four tracks, CAIV utilizes both language and rhythm to construct a dense stratum of significance and buried meaning.
Titles such as “Göbekli Tepe” and “Ötzi 2.0” reference prehistoric relics whose complete histories may forever remain unearthed. Meanwhile, tracks like “Cymbalism” and “Shamanfreude” playfully engage in wordplay, offering a glimpse into the ancient and modern simultaneously.
Altay further elaborates on this convergence of pre-civilized ironies, opposites, conundrums, and conjectures, expressing admiration for the uncertainty surrounding great human discoveries. She notes, “There is no definitive answer – someone hazards a guess that is grasping for meaning. We can only feel our way towards the truth of it, based on the signs and symbols we know and have associations with.”
The music itself mirrors the depth and resonance of the project, blending primordial rhythms with modern sound production and unexpected instrumentation. For instance, the opening track, “Cymbalism,” incorporates samples of Altay interacting with Alicia Kwade’s sculpture, “TunnelTeller,” described as “resonant metal tubes and concrete, resembling an instrument waiting to be played.” This inclination to approach things differently paradoxically leads them to techniques that echo practices from thousands of years ago.
Altay struggles to encapsulate this creative drive, describing it as a quest for a shared language that transcends the written form.
Despite living on opposite sides of the country, the music they exchange becomes a symbolic communication akin to signaling through fires on a mountain—a profound, nonlinear gesture to communicate deeply over vast distances. This instinct to transmit experiences in novel ways is the essence propelling the CAIV project.
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