Sound artist Toshiya Tsunoda has an ear for detail. He's known for presenting pristine recordings of sounds most people would never even notice. On Ridge of Undulation, he juxtaposes the sounds of waves with sound waves of the manmade variety. The disc starts off with "Sine Waves Mixed With The Sound OF A Vibrating Surface_1," followed by "Seashore, Venice Beach_31 Jul 01." As I'm wont to do, I first gave the CD a pure listen, without the aid of Tsunoda's track list or notes. Having been conditioned by the first, obviously electronically generated track, I perceived the waves of Venice Beach to be synthesized as well. This disc will test your ears, focus, patience and stereo equipment--not to mention the acoustical properties of your home. At one point a laser beam of sound in the upper limits of my ears' frequency response seemed to be coming from my dishwasher (my kitchen is adjacent to the living room).

Discs like these don’t make it into many CD changers, but I find listening to sounds instead of music from time to time to be an essential practice of awareness. To open oneself up to what Tsunoda is doing is to gain insight on sound and hearing as processes.