Improvised Music from Japan (Nippon Columbia, 1975)
Takehisa Kosugi / Ryo Koike / Yukio Tsuchiya / Michihiro Kimura
Seiji Nagai / Tokio Hasegawa / Kinji Hayashi / Hirokazu Sato
August 1974 is surely one of the most hallowed and whispered about documents of the avant-garde artifact-era (a set of these on original LP would set you back $1000+ even 10-15 years ago & have very rarely been offered anywhere). The sound is floating like coming from distant loudspeakers, coloured back and forth from hand made electronic devices and delayed throug echo machines. Bass, harmonica, trumpet, synthesizer, oriental percussions are added. There are no interractions between the musicians, each one is having his own inner discussion with the instrument, however the result of merging them all together is a pulsating feedback of complex sound waves. Music drifts slowly like autumn sunsets or a peacefull lovemaking offer. Zen-like approach to ethnic japanese music and gets into an intergalactic mind trip. Full of cosmic electronics, kosugi's violin effects, tibetan chanting, ethnic drones, oscillators the band displays one track of eerie haunting galaxial music full of quiet tension.
"Places and times of the trip: coffee houses, small galleries of Tokyo. They perform also on lonely beaches at dawn or on deserted hills in the afternoon. Also in Sweden, India, Iran, and England. Wherever a power supply is available. 'This music is not rehearsed, it happens. Without written notes or oral instructions; without an ensemble leader, each one having his own discourse immediately integrated into a slow, irregular throbbing of complex sound waves. Sound waves surfing.' Verfremdung: instruments are amplified with delay through echo machines. Previously produced sounds delivered by distant loudspeakers have already become something beyond reach when heard. This feedback - actually a time-space lag - is the basis of their music. The instrument arsenal: a violin played with glissandi in the same manner as the Indian sitar, string bass, guitar, drums, harmonica, small synthesizers, santurs (Iranian dulcimer played with two spoon-shaped mallets), a shahnal (Indian oboe), voices (Japanese Buddhist chanting, harmonic singing such as La Monte Young does or as heard in Stockhausen's 'Stimmung'). Amplifiers: a heterodyne (voltage controlled filters connected to infrasonic wave sources) which changes tone colors back and forth very slowly. Also, other rather primitive hand-made electronic devices. All these contribute to the everchanging diversity of the ensemble. Close your eyes, relax and musically receive passing clouds, breezes, surging waves. This music is slow as a Japanese tea ceremony and as peacefully full of cheer as ancient scroll paintings. - Yuji Takahashi
Since January 1996, reedist KEN VANDERMARK and writer/musician/producer JOHN CORBETT have brought established stars of the vanguard and emerging artists from all over the world to the Empty Bottle for an extraordinary gathering of Jazz and Improvised music. In its Ninth year, this four-day event(June 15th - June 18th) is no exception, featuring performances by SAM RIVERS, PETER BROTZMANN,ED WILKERSON JR., KEN VANDERMARK, PAUL RUTHERFORD, NASHEET WAITS and ROBERT BARRY,THE REMPIS PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE,TATSU AOKI, FRED LONBERG-HOLM Trio and others.
15 de Junho
- Chicago Ad Hoc: A first time meeting of ten performers featuring an amalgam of instrumental combinations ranging from brass to reeds to electronics to strings.
16 de Junho
- Peter Brotzmann and Nasheet Waits
- Davey Williams with Jim Baker and Tim Daisy
- The Rempis Percussion Ensemble
- Surprise Set
17 de Junho
- Ken Vandermark with Torsten Muller, Paul Rutherford and Dylan Van Der Schyff
- Peter Brotzmann, Kent Kessler, Paul Rutherford and Nasheet Waits
- The Tatsu Oaki, Ed Wilkerson Jr. and Michael Zerang Trio
- Surprise Set
18 de Junho
- Sam Rivers
- The Robert Barry, Paul Rutherford Duo
- The Fred Lonberg-Holm Trio
- Relay Signals featuring Jason Ajemian, Zoe Buck, Tim Daisy, Ernst Karel and Aram Shelton
A ESQUILO anuncia que adicionou à sua loja online uma série de novas editoras, quase todas em exclusivo total para Portugal e Espanha. A saber: Improvised Music From Japan (Japão), Doubtmusic (Japão), For 4 Ears (Suiça), Cut (Suiça), A Bruit Secrét (França), Musica Genera (Polónia). A juntar a estas também alguns itens de várias editoras como o novo de Tetuzi Akiyama na Utech Records, ou cópias de alguns álbuns da limitadíssima Why Not Limited da Malásia.
Nova, na netlabel Frozen Elephants Music, é a edição de Kiechima (FE005), da cantora Miwa Momo Hojo e do artista sonoro Yuichi Nagao, em arrojadas combinações de sons de voz humana e de origem electrónica. Não será para todos os gostos. Só para os bons.Meet the voice & performance artist Miwa Momo Hojo and her colleague, the media & sound artist Yuichi Nagao from Tokyo, Japan. The combination of their works is a tidal wave of dense, digital recordings, loaded with compact melodic structures, shifting voice patterns & fuzzy electronic noise. Some of these songs are meandering from improvised acoustic basics to richly layered compositions, some have an almost romantic quality, taking the listener from from gasping emptiness to scratchy indeterminacy. The music by Miwa Momo Hojo & Yuichi Nagao is a breathtaking update to the idea of digital songwriting. Miwa Momo Hojo, born in 1982 studied Imagine Arts & Sciences at Musashino Art University, Japan. Her solo-works are mainly influenced by traditional japanese music and it's instruments. Yuichi Nagao studied media/soundart with Christophe Charles at Tokyo Arts University and musicology with the jazz musician Naruyoshi Kikuchi. His solo-works are defined by the search for new musical structures.
