On Yamaguchi, Cut proprietor Jason Kahn makes tangible his worldwide connections across the acousmatic improv interface in conjunction with five of the most forward-thinking talents inhabiting the same spheres of influence. Recorded live in the studio at Japan’s Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Kahn and his band of noisemakers—Tomas Korber, post-Voice Crack member Norbert Möslang, the nearly ubiquitous Günter Müller, and contrabass exhumist Christian Weber—comprise a veritable “supergroup” of experimental alchemists, documented (in various configurations) across five different volumes on Müller’s For 4 Ears imprint, and now on this “formal” release utilizing the quintet in toto.
Electronics rule the roost here, as it were, over the course of three lengthy tracks. Who does what, whose incidents determine the course of the others actions, who provides the shadow and filigree is an abject mystery (which is as it should be), but the culmination illustrates a forest perilous of low-end thrum, insectile chatter, weirdly modulated howls, and coarse digital gusts. Rather than gravitating towards a cohesive whole, the quintet fairly regale the listener in sound: these are tentative yet bold examinations into microbial regions where acoustic plucks vie for space in an increasingly alien yet utterly spellbinding world. Movements occur seemingly at random, but a charming madness underscores the player’s methods: a ploy is revealed (a sudden rhythmic undertow from Weber, say) then just as quickly absorbed into a series of flickering events which erupt from their sonic earth like time-sped flora. The sense of drama is further heightened by the quintet’s adroit feel for logical progression, by an intuitive knack for letting the myriad crackles, wheezes, contrails and fibrillations either reach critical mass (which they do to awesome effect during the closing minutes of the second piece) or just blossom, colorfully irradiate and dazzle the full stereophonic spectrum.
The average music consumer today is so deluged with choices, and made more befuddled by the take-for-granted ease of digital formatting and acquisition, that rarely does there seem to be time to fully digest a recording over repeated listens. Yamaguchi demands you do just that; few if any other records in recent memory absolutely require the donning of headphones to experience the brilliant clarity of its nuances.
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