kuwayama - kijima / 01.06.16 ( CD by trente oiseaux Germany ) kuwayama kiyoharu : cello kijima rina : violin recorded at the warehouse no 20 ,garden pier in port of nagoya Reviews KUWAYAMA - KIJIMA: 01.06.16 trente oiseaux | TOC 023 | CD The best way to describe {01.06.16} would be 3site-specific free improve or environmental free improve {Kuwayama Kiyoharu} (cello) and {Kijima Rina} (violin) set to play and record under a highway in the middle of the night. There are absolutely no electronics involved -- a rarity on the {Trente Oiseaux} label. What we hear is four excerpts from their performance, violin and cello intermingling with the sounds of cars passing by. Kuwayama and Kijima create delicate improvisations remote from any classical or jazz languages: fragile gestures, extended techniques, and acute listening. This music has a counterpart in England in the work of {Simon H. Fell}1s {Improvising String Trio} and {Tony Wren}1s {Quatuor Accorde}. But here there is the extra"in situ" feel. At times it seems the musicians deliberately ignore the traffic over their heads. In specific sections, they sound propelled by the level of ambient noise. Witness the end of {01.06.16 }: the sudden absence of traffic (a rare occurrence) prompts them to distillate the music, let it evaporate completely. This is the second all-acoustic album {Trente Oiseaux} released. The first one was a collaboration between {Reinhold Friedl} and {Michael Vorfeld}; it kept a tie to the lowercase esthetic established by the label. {01.06.16} is different, as it doesn't make microscopic study of sound or silence an essential aspect of the music. On the other hand it raises questions on performance space and the recording (ossification) of improvised music (ephemeral by nature). More importantly, at the basis of it all is a highly inspired performance by the two players. Recommended. - Francois Couture - KUWAYAMA-KIJIMA - 01.06.16 (CD by Trente Oiseaux) Once again, K-K have undertaken a trip to the Japanese underworld, recording their improvisations on cello and violin underneath a highway at midnight. And judging by the sound of the passing cars, it's been a good choice to do this at midnight; during the day the sound of the traffic would probably have drowned them out. Even at night it seems to be pretty busy over there. So, this CD presents four improvised pieces using a vocabulary that is very rich, from free jazz to contemporary composed music and everything inbetween. The passing cars have a very specific influence: they seem to be directing the duo in a strange way. In a sense this is only true, of course. K-K have been reacting on their environment without any doubt. At other moments, it seems just the other way around: as if cars are recting on K-K's music. This a fascinating record for everyone interested in contemporary music and music concrete. (MR)Vital Weekly kuwayama-kijima / 01.06.16 GERMANY TRENTE OISEAUX Another 'traffic sound' record. Players Kuwayama Kiyoharu (cello) and Kijima Rina Performed their music - live string work improvisations - and recorded it 'at the bottom of the highway at midnight'. The hum of the passing cars on site is compelling mixture. The sound of the cars soon becomes a pleasing effect, not noise pollution; it adds a lot to the music; or perhaps the players improvise around it . Sight and sweeps of string glissandoes are indistinguishable from the swooshing of a passing vehicle in the distance. A very sympathetic marriage. Apparently this is only the second time that the trente oiseaux label, in their dedication to providing a focal point for ultra-minimal sound art,have released a CD of improvised music. Of course, what probably appeals to Bernhard Gunter (and to us listeners) is what he calls the 'spatial impression' created by the cars going by . A reference point for the ears , it opens up the performance space being used to such great effect by these talented japanese musicians. Indeed, it creates a unique aural image the like of which i can't say i have heard before . Now, if only more classical music was recorded like this (an unlikely prospect, I'll admit) , then i might take more of an interest in it; maybe the big record label that looks after Nigel Kennedy could persuade him to make a 'mortorway' CD along similar lines, or at least advise him to take his violin and go outside and play in traffic. A gorgeous little record ; something that is usually construed by a recording engineer as an undesirable noise is transformed into music. In like manner, some threatening aspects of 21st century urban living (traffic,car accidents, carbon emissions, air pollution) have their danger somehow diminished through their incorporation into this gentle work of art. ED PINSENT 26/12/2002 The Sound Projector Elleventh Issue 2003 KUWAYAMA - KIJIMA: 01.06.16 trente oiseaux | TOC 023 | CD Kuwayama Kiyoharu and Kijima Rina have been performing together for some time, creating adventurous, subtle and suggestive improvisational music that blends instrumentation (they perform on cello and violin respectively) and location ambience. The sounds of their recording locations are central to their work, figuring just as prominently in their music as do the sounds from their instruments. Last year saw the release of an excellent 7 inch on 20 City which also marked my introduction to the duo's innovative work. On 01.06.16, their latest full length release out on Bernhard Gunter's trente oiseaux label (having been venturing into experimental improv territories of late), the duo presents four pieces recorded live at the bottom of a highway at midnight. We can hear the cars driving by, and the wind, as the two players work through their improvisations. Each piece seems both free and tightly structured all at once; the cello and violin work around each other in slow drones or in tight, restless movements, creating compelling environments, conflicting tensions or calming harmonies, disharmonies. This is music that draws me in deeper and deeper with repeated listening, the immediacy of the recordings (reinforced by the location sounds) translates into an immediacy of listening, of uncovering sound events in the present tense, being surprised at the turn of every stone. Recommended. [Richard di Santo] KUWAYAMA - KIJIMA: 01.06.16 trente oiseaux | TOC 023 | CD Motorists traveling on the highway might have glanced out the passenger window and glimpsed two blue flames outside Tkyo flickering near the bottom of an ambankment one wet June midnight. On Kuwayama-Kijima's 01.06.16 CD, (Trente Oiseaux), the whoosh of rubber rolling across asphalt at sixty miles an hour is at once inviting and malevolent in its endlessness . playing cello and violin , the duo scremble like amphibians first making their way onto land . Gills flex i this snapshot from a monumental struggle to assimilate , evolve , absorb the summer air , and scrap off the primordial muck.Burning,clawing. bananafish KUWAYAMA/ KIJIMA 01.06.16 (Trente Oiseaux) cd A slight departure from the silence and drones that often-inaudible composer Bernhard Gunter's Trente Oiseaux label is known for, this disc by Japanese cello and violin duo Kuwayama Kiyoharu and Kijima Rina is a live acoustic improv set. Not exactly jazz improv, though! More of an avant-garde modern classical chamber improv thing, but minus the actual "chamber", 'cause the real twist is that "01.06.16" isn't just live, it's what you might term a "field recording" -- they recorded it outdoors, beside a highway at midnight! So you get the sound of passing cars and trucks, adding a whooshing, rumbling texture to the proceedings. We're not sure if they're really listening to the traffic and interactively improvising with those sounds -- although it seems that way at least some of the time -- but the ambient (and very present) pulsation of the highway noise makes a nice setting for the creaking, scrabbling, droning interplay of their strings. This type of thing is this duo's modus operandi, as we've also heard Mr. Kuwayama's and Ms. Kijima's previous, self-titled disc on GG Records which featured them improvising similarily in a warehouse and on the construction site of an expressway. Although we're still a bit surprised to find this on Trente Oiseaux -- being the label that released Reynols' "Blank Tapes", we'd have expected them to want even more highway and less violin and cello on this release... Aquarius Records