Released
1997
Label
Gentle Giant Records
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Gentle Giant Records
P.O. Box 50013
Kalamazoo, MI 49005
USA
gengiant (at) aol.com
Visit
Otomo
Yoshihide
Web Page
Last Edit/Update
17 May, 1998
Otomo Yoshihide
SOUND FACTORY (1997)
Track Listing
1. DD
2. HK
For anyone even vaguely familiar with the current Japanese experimental music
scene, Otomo Yoshihide needs little introduction. Working within a broad spectrum of
musical expression, Yoshihide has in recent years composed award-winning soundtracks for
the films The Blue Kite (1993) and The Day The Sun Turned Cold (1994);
participated in the improvisationally oriented group Ground-Zero, as well as created a
series of solo works, using guitar and turntable as the main musical ingredients. Sound
Factory (1997) is of the latter kind, and has been released by Gentle Giant Records as
volume 3 in Yoshihide's "memory disorder" series. The release contains two
tracks -- each of twenty minute duration, and is an uncompromising exploration of the
possibilities of sound.
The first track labelled merely as
"DD" is an almost painful exercise in the bending and molding of sheer sound.
Some of the screaming, throbbing and gyrating noises that constitute the piece are
recognizable as turntable manipulations, but mostly the splintered and fragmented sound
waves are mysterious in origin. Although "DD" seems to have no discernible
structure as such, it constantly mutates and develops, at times letting up for a few
moments the intense bombardment of noise, only to rise again with revewed force.
"HK" is somewhat less
strenuous to listen to than "DD," although the experimentation is just as
prevalent. This track opens with, and is interrupted at several points, by test tones of
varying duration and frequency. Mainly, however, the piece is a sonic Ballet Mechanique.
Brief snippets of sound of a multitude of origins: TV shows, voices, traditional music,
pop songs, and Yoshihide's own creations, are cut-up and placed back-to-back in a
continuous sonic montage. The complex passages of sampled sound take on a strange staccato
rhythm, and, as the piece progresses, come to sound more and more structured.
The appeal of Sound Factory
(1997) is the mere fact that someone would think of creating this kind of music. The
forty minute program on the disc is difficult listening, but it is music that confirms
one's belief in the possibility of creating something new and original with sound.
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