February 22, 2006

News | Indie Singer on the Verge--Shugo Tokumaru |

He writes lovely and whimsical tunes, has opened in Japan for M Ward and Animal Collective, and has sold out of copies of his first album. Oh yes, and he just got a shout out from "indie pop heartthrob" Jens Lekman in Pitchfork. If none of this means anything to you, pat yourself on the back, but still check out Japanese songwriter Shugo Tokumaru. He should soon release his second album in the US and UK and maybe do some touring abroad as well. You can hear some of his stuff on his myspace page.

February 19, 2006

KK Null/Chris Watson/Z'ev | Number One | | Japan

buy it
Before starting his musical career, Japanese noise pioneer KK Null studied the jarring dance theatre known as Butoh. Characterized by their white-painted bodies and grotesque beauty, Butoh dancers are said to concentrate intently on an internal image and move in response to this inner vision. Audiences are not expected to know what the dancer is seeing, but to construct their own story for the dance.

Null's recent collaboration with Chris Watson (Cabaret Voltaire) and Z'ev has a similar Rorschach effect. Like Toshiya Tsunoda's latest, Number One juxtaposes the natural and synthetic. But while Tsunoda practices minimalism, this trio creates thick soundscapes of crickets, thunder, elephants and manmade sounds that hum, grind and resonate. This is sound at its most visual, and every pair of ears will see something different.

February 15, 2006

News | Japanese Jazzercise with Poodles |

Well, it's East Asian and it has music. Oh hell, I'm not even going to try to justify posting this. It's just so disturbing I couldn't bear it alone. Apparently, this video was produced by the Panasonic Corporation. To think I just bought a television from these people...

February 06, 2006

Toshiya Tsunoda | Ridge of Undulation |Hapna | Japan

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.