Limited to 300 Copies
Tête de Chou, the trio of Mark Anderson, Kurumi Kido, and Arlo Wynks, introduce themselves with a self-titled debut for An'Archives that speaks clearly of both Anderson's other known forays into art-noise exploration via his involvement with Greymouth, 番長Taste and Mysteries Of Love, and the labels overall admirable commitment to intuitive, lovingly-rendered noise-making. Recorded between New Zealand and Japan over two sessions, and employing a diverse range of instrumentation - take a breath: organ, glockenspiel, microphone, mini-amp, dulcimer, guitar, shehnai, violin, and ‘two-stringed goatophone' - alongside various manipulations of field recordings and the human voice, Tête de Chou proves an unusual experience, almost diaristic or travelog like in its presentation as it moves between sonorous drones, metallic clang and otherwise implacable sound caught in the fog of lo-fi recording quality. This sense of journey is central to it, unsurprisingly given the recordings split origins across two different countries and not least because Wynks left to go travelling halfway through its creation. There is certainly motion in here, but the direction in which it's heading somewhat held back from view, perhaps even unknown by its creators themselves. Uncertainty guides Tête de Chou, and if repeat plays get no closer to revealing anything concrete, know that the experience of shared intuition is the ultimate outcome.
