KK Null/Chris Watson/Z'ev

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.