Ultra clear LP + 20 page A4 booklet + postcards
Hypnotic and ocassionally perplexing display of Cageian concreté minimalism from Japanese 'freelance sound planner' Masaaki Takano, recorded - I think, because the exact timeline is unclear - sometime in mid 80s around the time of his so called 'Sound Play' performances using self-made and obscure instruments, and based upon a growing interest in sound effects and natural sounds. In simple terms, Shizukutachi is a 40+ minute recording of water droplets, that over repeated exposure extends into something more profound than it's prosaic origins might first suggest. Could you descibe this as a precursor to the Kankyo Ongaku movement? The notion of natural sound (which is at the very least adjacent to the practice of field recording) does not feel too far removed from that of environmental music, and the water theme that seems to run through a great deal of 80s Japanese ambient sound design - Yoshimura's Surround, Takashi Kokubo's 'The Legend of Water', the Wave Notation series - clearly shares some conceptual ground. The form, though, is somewhat different. The water drops here, it does not flow, and the concreté aspect of the practice perhaps displays more in common with something like Felix Hess' Frogs, Yuji Dogane & Mamoru Fujieda's Ecological Plantron (which involved the turning of plant growth into audible sound), or even Luc Ferrari’s tour de force, Presque Rien, which explores the sounds of natural urban spaces. in such company, the idea becomes clear: 'music' is not simply an institutional, rehearsed or even improvised practice. It exists all around us in unconventional vibrations and resonances should you, of course, be willing to attune your ear to it. This will not be for everyone, but for those willing to push out a little further, there's a gentle, unknown beauty lingering in these otherwise incidental sounds. Includes a 20 page booklet & download code, and the packaging allegely mimics that of the original, though I can find no evidence of what that was like online. It is, nonetheless, beautifully assembled.
Side note - if you enjoy this, please also do check out Chester Schultz' Sounds Like Work, a brilliant series of compositions documenting the ambience of working life. More info here.
FFO: John Cage, Luc Ferrari, Felix Hess, Kankyo Ongaku, Chester Schultz
