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 seLance that feels fully populated by
revenant spirits and trails of the long-dead. At points
Thorntonfs 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. gIfd 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 ghostsc 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 startedf.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 itfs gpure formh
unedited and unmastered. All in all a pretty mind-blowing
package, very beautiful and highly recommended.
by Volcanic Tongue
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