[media-credit name=’Photo courtesy of Sarah Polenska’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

To be a musician is to be an architect of sound. Jordan Cohen, leading man of an atmospheric Madison band, Chants, describes the process of creating his electronic, beat-based music as a textural and tactile response to the many types of music he listens to, as well as street noise and sounds in his everyday life.

Cohen, who was a student at UW-Madison years ago, released his first album under the Chants name in September 2010. The music found on that first album is eclectic, to say the least. It is a compilation of tracks Cohen had been working on and circulating since 2004 with his college friend and recently-officiated Chants songwriting partner, Scott Lamps.

Electronic composition, especially in the case of Cohen and Chants, can result in an underdeveloped sound if contained to spare, traditional instrumentation.

“[2004] is when I started to make computer-based music, and doing electronic music…before that I played drums in college,” Cohen said. “With the first album I was fairly inexperienced with recording. Instrumentation was made up of whatever we could get our hands on in the apartment, so we ended up doing a lot of piano, upright bass and stuff like that. Now [I’m trying to] figure out a lot of things about the electronic music I listen to and love, but hadn’t necessarily pursued. So now it’s a lot more synthesizers and that stuff is going very well; definitely a different sound that I’m excited about.”

The metamorphosis into the next album – which might be a 4-song EP to start with – will include methodic changes in multiple ways. A break from the sporadic piano, bass and the occasional kitchen utensil played with soft mallets from Chants’ first release will make way for, among other things, a texture of hand claps and the sounds of vegetables and branches breaking.

“I think [the source of the sounds] will be a little more disguised; I like using things that aren’t identifiable,” Cohen said. “It’s funny when you’re making beats the way anything can be a percussive sound.”

Cohen said he could appreciate the scattering of different sonic styles in his earlier music, because “it all comes from the same place.” However, a goal of his is to create a narrower focus for his newer works, after a realization that maintaining a sense of unity among album tracks is something he has found to be desirable in the music of other artists.

“I listen to so many kinds of music and get inspired by so many things that I feel it would be really easy and natural to do things that sound totally different,” he said. “But, often [records] have a very focused style and identifiable sound…it’s nice for people who are listening to your music. When you’re making music and you do a few songs you might be worrying that the sound is like this other thing you did, and think people will notice and think [you are] repeating [yourself], but I feel like when I listen to other people that’s kind of a pleasurable thing. You feel like you can identify with their style that’s kind of fun.”

Chants is not the only project with which Cohen occupies his time. He explained how his other involvements have helped Chants to thrive, sitting upon an infrastructure of camaraderie.

“I play drums in Mama Digtown’s Brass Band, which I got involved with in college,” Cohen said. “Scott and I were in the Black Music Ensemble at the university led by Richard Davis. We both met a lot of people who have remained really good musical friends.”

Cohen said fellow students in the group have gone on to be involved with local bands like Cougar and Youngblood Brass Band. Also, the first Chants album came out on Layered Music, started by friend David Skogen from Mama Digtown’s Brass Band.

A typical Chants show will have a portable electronic sampler, which Cohen can use to trigger certain sounds from the original recording, along with a manageable range of percussion toys and a small drum kit. Lamps, who is a multi-instrumentalist, does not normally perform but may join frontman Cohen in future shows. Cohen said he plays about once or twice a month, normally at venues in Madison – Chants’ next show will be Feb. 24 at Project Lodge.

“I really enjoy [the Project Lodge]; it’s a nice space. It always has a really positive vibe,” he said. “I’ve just started to do some out of town stuff as well; the Whistler in Chicago… I’m really focusing on the new record now. It’s really nice… On the first album I had never played live before, but now if I’m working on a new song I can try it out at a show then take it back and work on it some more.”

New York based DJ and producer DJ Rupture played a song from Chants’ first album on his radio show, which Cohen called “the coolest thing” to happen to a piece of the band’s music. He is excited about the music to come in 2011, seeing the future for Chants in a positive light.