Released
1997
Label
Artware
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Artware
Taunusstr. 63b
65183 Wiesbaden
Deutschland
Last Edit/Update
30 juni, 1998
YUZURU SYOGASE/
KAISER NIETZSCHE
Track Listing
1. Bichanco
2. Divizadero I
3. Divizadero III
4. Negative Space
5. Ceteris Paribus
Originally released on vinyl back
in 1990 in a private edition of only 100 copies, this split-album with Japanese Yuzuru
Syogase and Canadian Kaiser Nietzsche has been made available in a limited
CD version of 500 copies by German experimental label extraordinaire Artware.
Like most of the artists featured on this label, Syogase and Nietzsche's
music is original and challenging, and above all else not easily categorized or described.
Both artists operate with
rhythmically arranged soundscapes of a very dense and saturated character. The pieces are
not rhythmic in a percussional sense -- percussion is almost completely absent on the CD;
rather, they are rhythmic or cyclical in the sense that they are organized in pulsating
waves that continually wash over the listener with great power and intensity.
The first three selections are by Yuzuru
Syogase, and are of a noisier variety than Kaiser Nietzsche's contributions.
"Bichanco," which opens the CD, especially so, with its slowly waxing and
developing wall of centrifugal aquatic rumblings; streaming, windy howls; and recurring
screams as of someone drowning in the whirl of sound. Likewise very noisy and full is the
sound on "Divizadero I," although here it is less organic, and more electronic
or static. A screeching, high-pitched noise meanders melodically amongst the thunderous
sonic structures, while heavily manipulated and splintered voice recordings are heard at
uncertain intervals, like ghosts inside this machinated aural storm.
Kaiser Nietzsche's two
tracks are both very extended, and quite different from each other in mood and structure.
"Negative Space" is a fantastic sequence of continuous hammering pulses that
send the entire living room into subtle vibrations with their echoing after effects.
Flickering in the torn atmosphere created by these intense impacts is a swarm of
electronic minutiae and other synthetic bric-a-brac. The episodic structure of Nietzsche's
other piece "Ceteris Paribus," is centered around a similar segment of dark
atmospheric droning. However, the beginning and end of the piece consists of a series of
environmental recordings, test tones and other brief and strange sound impressions.
One of the really fascinating
things about Syogase and Nietzsche's work is how differently they
incorporate noise into their compositions. Compare for example the intricately structured
pieces on this CD with K. Mizuntani's minimalist noise-scapes on Transcend
Sideways, and some of the compositional and emotional variety that is possible in
"noise" music will be immediately apparent. Artware is to be
commended for unearthing this little gem of an album, and making it available to a wider
audience, the way they recently re-released SAT Stoicizmo's long lost Mah
2 -- a review of which was featured in the our last issue.
Limited to 500 copies, and off the
beaten musical paths, as this release is, it may be difficult to find in local record
stores. However, Artware's products, as well as those of literally
hundreds of other underground labels, are obtainable directly from Artware
per mail order.
