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Released
1998

Label
Iris Light

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

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G.R.O.S.S.
c/o Akifumi Nakajima
412 Higashianekoujicho Sanjo-asaru
Furukawacho Higashiyama-ku
Kyoto  605-0029
Japan

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Last Edit/Update
18 august, 1998

Aube

SUBSTRUCTURAL PENETRATION
1991-1995

         
Track Listing

DISK.1
1. Torpedo
2. Spread Heat
3. Refrigeration
4. Torrent
5. Undercurrent I/II
6. Spill
7. Luminous 1 Minute
8. Compressed Radiant
9. On The Blink
10. Breath Hard

DISK.2
1. Ionosphere II
2. Galvanic Vertigo
3. Stiffer
4. Ring Insensitive
5. Strand
6. Crossing Line
7. Phase Encording
8. Isometric Wall
9. Ionosphere Live II
10. Ionosphere Live V

          Iris Light has just announced that they will be re-releasing on CD, Aube's two tapes -- Flush and Flare. Initially, the two CDs will be available exclusively through mail order, and limited to 500 copies each; they will tentatively appear in September of this year. Meanwhile, uninitiated listeners, as well as dedicated fans, can catch up with Aube on Iris Light's recent double-CD Substructural Penetration 1991-1995, which brings together seventeen tracks that originally appeared on compilations, along with three previously unreleased recordings.
          Let it be said at the outset for those unfamiliar with Aube, that this Japanese artist (Akifumi Nakajima) is amongst the most extreme and uncompromising composers presently active. His music can be intensely uncomfortable to listen to; one must listen with commitment and concentration, or not at all. The rewards are: First, a powerful purely musical experience, for Aube's dense, and often noisy single source soundscapes, are both rhythmic and melodic in a very unique sense; secondly, Aube offers an almost profound glimpse of the world, for by using sound(s) of single objects to create his compositions, he reveals characteristics and dimensions of these objects that we would never otherwise be exposed to. Everyone has an idea of what a fluorescent lamp, water and steel-wire looks like, and what "sounds" these objects are capable of producing. Aube's multi-layered compositions, using numerous different recordings -- the frequencies, timbres and pitches of which have been manipulated -- leave just enough aural information for the listener to identify the source of the sounds, but simultaneously "show" the listener through sound, facets of these sources that could not have been experienced in any other way. After having listened to Substructural Penetration, it is quite possible to never again look at the sea, or a light bulb, or a wire again in the same way.

          The first six tracks on Disc 1 are all based upon the sound of water, and ranging in length from 2 to 22 minutes -- from the all-out chaotic to the beautifully harmonic -- these compositions in themselves paint a vivid portrait of Akifumi Nakajima's versatile musical sensibility. "Torpedo" is a thundering centrifuge of dense, pulsating noise. "Spread Heat" begins like a distant, shimmering vapor haze, and ends with a tsunami of rushing sound. "Torrent" is just that -- a nine minute flood of deeply saturated gushing sound, the texture of which is in a constant flux. "Spill" opens with the soothing sound of water dripping, and then explodes into a storm of distortion, in which the liquid sound quality is all but completely drowned. The monumental "Undercurrent I/II" combines it all: An opening sequence of subtle, humming like the pressure of the deep sea pressing against the eardrums of a scuba diver; subtle echoes, bubbling and drippings; and then, suddenly, after a brief break of silence, Aube once more unleashes all the latent fury of the ocean. The remainder of the track is a richly textured, rhythmic stream of fluid noise. "Refrigeration," which is unique to this collection, opens with gyrating, gurgling sounds, and a distant wall of crashing noise that gradually closes, eventually washing over the more minute details, like nothing so much as a tidal wave.
          "Luminous 1 Minute," "Compressed Radiant" and "On The Blink" utilize 'fluorescent' and 'glow lamp' as the sources, and the contrast in sound quality, when compared to the water-based tracks is immense. The tinny and metallic feel of the tinklings, rattlings and buzzing of "Luminous 1 Minute" could not be further removed from the organic, 'soft,' round sounds of the first half of the CD. Much of "Compressed Radiant" sounds like tappings of sheet metal, and electronic wind chimes. The sound picture is very busy, and seems to explore the rhythmic nature of light.
          "On The Blink" is the noisiest of the three 'lamp' source recordings, and although the piece is extremely rich and continuously evolves, also seems the least structured. Many of the sounds have a flickering quality, and the associations here is of radio tunings with heavy interference.
          The final selection is the most disconcerting. Wheezing, soughing, fibrous layers of pulsating sounds that originate in recordings of lungs gradually build in intensity, until they achieve a racing, stormy quality. Again, the quality of sound here is vastly different from that of any of the other compositions.

          On the majority of the tracks on Disc 2, Aube has taken a voltage-controlled-oscillator as his point of departure, and the resulting compositions are decidedly more synthetic and electric than those on Disc 1. Many of the screaming and distorted sounds are here reminiscent of guitar feed-back, and this half of Substructural Penetration is without question the more noisy and extreme. The first four selections occasionally develop rhythmic or periodic patterns, but in general these tracks are more concerned with manipulations of frequency and pitch. "Isomeric Wall" is on the brink of being torturous, as the screaming, grinding sounds of the oscillator gradually are shaped into the solid "wall" of sound that the title refers to.
          The final two selections -- also using the oscillator as source -- are again original to this collection. Both are epic in length (13:30 and 19:18 minutes), and were recorded live on two separate occasions in July, 1994 and December, 1995. The latter track seems to be a better recording, but both develop into very intense and insistent noise-scapes, and must be considered primarily of interest to the confirmed Aube fans.
          Included on Disc 2 are also two 'steel wire' recordings, and one using a magnetic resonance spectroscopy as source sound. "Strand" begins with layers of vibrating, grating sounds over a background of droning presence. However, soon the movement of sound comes to an abrupt halt, and, like "Undercurrent I/II" on the first disc, a storm of splintering noise is unleashed. The brief "Crossing Line," which follows, skips the subtleties, and opens right into a pulsating inferno of grinding and distorted sonic frenzy. Aside from the opening of "Strand," these two recordings are probably those revealing the nature of their sources the least.
          The last track "Phase Encording" is perhaps the most compelling and accessibly on Disc 2, with pulsating streams of atmospheres coursing through the entire piece, and the snapping sound as of riffles being armed in the foreground.

          In all respects, Substructural Penetration 1991-1995 is a well-rounded and kaleidoscopic presentation of the work of this fascinating artist. And, for Aube completionists, this collection will eradicate the need to chase down the many obscure compilations from which this material stems.

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