Reviews :: Piana, Tsunoda Toshiya
i heard some sound samples of Piana from the CubicMusic
(
http://www.cubicmusic.com/ ) website some months ago. i think it was
kinda like some Tsujiko Noriko/Minamo stuff. Samurai Jazz, which is
mentioned in the review, is also quite nice from what little i've heard.
i've included the website URL(s) releated to the act in each review, at
the end of each review.
-Wesley
[Sound :: Lounge]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoundLounge
--
source: Incursion
PIANA: Snow Bird
Happy | hap001 | CD
Here is the inaugural release from Happy, the new imprint from Taylor
Deupree's 12k label focusing on "unconventional Japanese pop." Piana is
Naoko Sasaki from Morioka, Japan. She makes a sweet, tranquil sort of
pop music using her voice and a laptop, with two special guests:
Yuichiro Iwashita from Minamo, performing on bass and guitar on a
handful of tracks, and Yasuyo, who plays clarinet on the final piece.
Not understanding more than three words Japanese (I'll leave it up to
you to imagine which three), I can't tell you if Piana has a lyrical
sense of humour, or whether her words are rather drenched in sorrow, or
bitterness, but the tone of her music is both quiet and light, playing
up to ideas (or ideals) of innocence, naivitee and purity, all in the
context of these sweet, simple songs. And yet, sometimes they're not so
simple. The electronic elements blip and drone in sometimes wonderful,
detailed arrangements, even for a work of pop-minimalism. Her voice is
sometimes soft like a whisper, but sometimes it seems flat and
monotonal, unable to transcend its barriers or add any flourishes to the
vocal arrangements. Any failings in her voice (however slight; she
certainly has her charms), though, are made up for by the
instrumentation, which is subtly textured, carefully arranged, and a joy
to listen to. In all, it's a nice debut from an intriguing artist and a
promising side-label, and perhaps it will also bring some worthy
attention to Cubic Music (from which this record was licensed), a
Tokyo-based label and design company having also released music from the
likes of Minamo, Samurai Jazz and No. 9. [Richard di Santo]
http://www.12k.com/happy
http://www.cubicmusic.com/
TOSHIYA TSUNODA / CIVYIU KKLIU
Bremsstrahlung | 003 | 2CD
Two new releases from Bremsstrahlung Recordings, the imprint label of
lowercase sound, are actually four new EPs, since four CDs are packaged
into these two rather nice-looking metal containers, and each CD runs
about 20 minutes in length.
The first, by field recording artist and composer Toshiya Tsunoda, is
concerned with spaces, distances, landscapes. "Recorded Landscape: Pier"
is not a straightforward field recording by any means; its upfront,
intensely deep bass tones seem to imply that anything higher than 100 Hz
had been filtered out of the recordings, yet these impressions change as
the piece develops. Book-ending the release are two shorter, concise
tracks, "Fragments for stereophony," for sine tones and cyphered
crackles, which are more active, densely layered structures. A nice work
all around.
It's been a while since I've heard from Civyiu Kkliu (not since the
release of 111 on Bake Records a couple of years back, an impossibly
hushed, minimal "utility" that you play in your house like you turn on a
lightbulb, or set the temperature for your heaters). Minimalism is still
the order of the day (this is lowercase audio, after all), and this
piece compliments his other work quite nicely. A simple, seemingly
unchanging drone appears (low-to-mid tones), sustains itself for the
duration of the piece, then disappears. What more can be said? As a
utility or as a piece of music, it tickles the ears and makes you doubt
that what you are listening to is in fact unchanging, and it's quite
soothing to listen to, as well.
[Richard di Santo]
http://www.lowercasesound.com/
http://www.incursion.org/
--
The Eclectic Sounds of Japan
[Sound :: Lounge]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoundLounge
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