01.05.10
(Alluvial) Used CDR $5.00
Five pieces, “brilliantly recorded with natural echo so that the instruments shine like polished mirrors,” says Sound Projector. “These scheming homunculi attack their instruments with a vigor that borders on pathological hatred: energetic sawing motion produces tremendous effective harmonics leaping off the bridge and shimmering in the air like the northern lights; tiny fingers the size of a crab’s claws create plucking motions so sharp they could break the neck of a Canadian goose…; busy left-hand fingering motions running up and down … as though a colony of ants had escaped and had to be wiped out, using only fingertips, in two minutes flat. It’s fine, crucial stuff, but a harsh dissonance also results, and the way it seeps off the record like so much ectoplasm may frighten those afraid of atonality.”
01.06.16
(Trente Oiseaux) Used CD $7.00
The sound of crickets and waves outside the building, transmitted inside the empty warehouse where Kuwayama and Kijima played along with them. Close attention is required for successful immersion in the ongoing transformations of sounds and musical figures.
02.08.31
(Trente Oiseaux) Used CDR $5.00
The duo’s second release for the label, released in 2003, was recorded in an empty warehouse at Nagoya Port, where the sound of crickets and waves picked up by microphones placed outside the building were transmitted into the space. This recording’s ambience is much quieter and more static, a peaceful canvas to hold explorations that, with a bit of attention, can immerse the listener in ongoing transformations of sounds and musical figures.
KUWAYAMA-KIJIMA / CARTER THORNTON
Shrine
(Conduit Creations) Used LP $8.00
Post-midnight summit from 2005 recorded in a vast Shinto shrine by that one guy from Enos Slaughter in the company of the zoned Japanese improvising duo. The trio utilizes acoustic guitars, cellos, violins, sticks, leaves, rocks and toys. “At points Thornton’s guitar playing sounds like an extremely fractured take on American Primitive modes,” notes Volcanic Tongue, “While the whole huge spatial geometry of the group sound conjures up huge orchestras of revolving wooden insects.”