"One of the Erstwhile label's specialties is commissioning encounters between singular sound-makers. Some, such as their splendid releases by the already-acquainted John Tilbury and Keith Rowe or Burkhard Stangl and Christof Kurzmann, proved so assuredly compatible that one had to wonder why no one had done so earlier. The outcomes of others, such as Rowe and Graham Lambkin or Jérôme Noetinger and Will Guthrie, were harder to predict, but the non-obviousness of each pairing paid off.   

This recording by Clara de Asís, a Spanish-born, French-based composer and multi-instrumentalist, and Ryoko Akama, a Japanese-born, English-based sound and installation artist, falls into the latter category. Each woman's discography is a feat of ongoing diversification. And acquaintance with their live performances might only highlights their differences. The one time I saw de Asís, she sat at a table, tweaking electronics and striking percussion with barely perceptible motions. But motion is the most vivid memory I have of my sole Akama concert; while it's hard to say what made her and her fellow performers' patient circuits of folding tables covered with thrift shop detritus so hypnotic, I couldn't take my eyes off of them, and I felt moved by the spectacle. What might they do together?

It turns out that only parts of the album involve joint action. Three of six tracks were made from sounds recorded by the duo, and then assembled and mixed by Akama. De Asís assembled one more from that collective sound trove, and made two more entirely on her own after their joint sessions, but it all hangs together. The two women share a respect for the integrity of small sounds, which they present in uncluttered assortments. One electronic wave might flow into another; two different varieties of metal percussion are struck at different rates; some crackling static sits in proximity to gentle, woody clatter within a vast field of silence. Things happen unemphatically, and if you're looking for excitement, sisbiosis will deny you. But if you're up for a close listen to the emergence and decay of sounds, presented with the transitory quality of drizzle falling upon a Zen garden, your patience will be rewarded by sound arrangements that feel complete in themselves. Another quality that Akama and de Asís share is a willingness to let sounds be themselves; they do not bully them into being music, but present them in a light that will allow you to appreciate their inherent musicality."-Bill Meyer, Dusted Magazine