kuwayama - kijima with carter thornton / shrine
( LP conduit creations 007 USA ) c+p 2005

Carter Thornton : Guiter, etc
Kuwayama Kiyoharu : cello, violin, guitar, etc
Kijima Rina : violon, etc
recorded june 04 . atsuta shrine . nagoya japan

Beautifully packaged post-midnight summit featuring Carter Thornton of Enos Slaughter, IZITITIZ et al in the company of zoned Japanese improvising duo Kuwayama-Kijima. Recorded in a vast Shinto shrine, the trio utilise acoustic guitars, cellos, violins, sticks, leaves, rocks and toys in a highly-charged improvisatory seLance that feels fully populated by revenant spirits and trails of the long-dead. At points Thorntonfs guitar playing sounds like an extremely fractured take on American Primitive modes, at others Christina Carter at her most restless, while the whole huge spatial geometry of the group sound conjures up huge orchestras of revolving wooden insects. gIfd heard stories about Kuwayama and was told to get in touch with him when I got to Japan. I heard things about him running from black caves full of bats and clapping his hands in dark tunnels full of sleeping homeless people to make sure the acoustics were just right. Chased by old men and security guards. Setting up recording sessions under giant horse statues and being afraid of ghostsc soon we were breaking into a vast Shinto shrine at 1AM, moving barricades to drive in the van with the recording equipment. As we walked through the enormous shrine gate Ma-Mi warned me in a hushed voice that we were entering the world of the spirits. We walked down a long gravel path under a tunnel canopy of trees with occasional circles of light on the path breaking up the hot humid Japanese dark. I made jokes while they set up the equipment until Kuwayama tersely turned to me and said eIt has startedf.h This special LP/CD-R edition is a limited pre-release package in a run of only 50 copies that comes with the bonus CD-R loaded with the music in itfs gpure formh unedited and unmastered. All in all a pretty mind-blowing package, very beautiful and highly recommended.

by Volcanic Tongue