KAKUHAN is the pseudonym of cellist Yuki Nakagawa and Koshiro Hino, the Japanese percussionist/producer who also plays in goat (JP) and we most recently heard alongside Valentina Magaletti on Kansai Bruises under their YPY alias. Past work informs present activity, as KAK leans heavily into the kind of electroacoustic, polyrhythmic blistered glitch syncopation that has littered a fair bit of Hino's previous work. You might make contemporary reference to Magaletti, Beatrice Dillon or Bendik Giske (particularly the formers remix of the latter), though dialing back a little further to the stuttering, abstracted counterpoints of SND, Autechre and Mika Vainio might be arguably more informative, so technical and restless are these productions. Most impressively, KAK shifts into an unexpected middle section where Nakagawa's previously buried cello comes to the fore, its epic sweeps conjuring expansive vistas that push the sound palette into spaces the opening few tracks did not suggest, and really makes sense of the collaboration. In the end, you're left with the sense of a true creative dialogue of strange baroque-futurism, both marble and chrome.
FFO: Beatrice Dillon, Bendik Giske, Autechre, Pan Sonic
