| $21.98
back in stock as of
june 19th, 2009
first in stock on
april 1st, 2007
threads:
live-electronic
electro-acoustic-improvisation
guitar-themed
harsh-noise
minimalism-drones
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| | | jinya disc (japan) #jinya b05 cd masayuki takayanagi “three improvised variations on a theme of qadhafi” compact disc - variation i (26:05)
- variation ii (20:11)
- variation iii (6:18)
| | click the play button to hear an excerpt of "variation i" |
| fifth title in the jinya campaign (the third , “the smile i love” was simply an earlier version of the same music reissued on the “flower girl” sets (jinya b10b/b10p) - the fourth, “el pulso” appears to be o/p) - this 1990 solo session really caught me by surprise; it’s never been mentioned (to me at least) as one of the “seminal” takayanagi releases; yet it appears to be an almost entirely electronic (as in synthesizers, effects, filters, etc...) take on the groundwork laid out earlier (later?) that year on “inanimate nature” - strange as he’s only credited with “guitar” both on the disc and in the label-info...
regardles of which tools he is or isn’t using, this is amazing, eye-opening music. |
| | jinya disc press release... |
| liner notes by jim o’rourke:
you might find it odd that in the history of music making, it is not often that someone thinks to hold their instrument the wrong way. why not play the cello backwards, and why not play flute with a saxophone mouthpiece?
of course, in the last decades, people have asked the same question, frances marie-uitti has not only played the cello backwards, but with two bows, and mats gustafsson slapped a sax and flute together, sending supersonic squawks into our ears. only the piano seemed to escape these barriers early on, opening the lid, reaching inside, whether it was the hands of cage, crumb, or cowell, or their many followers. if the piano was not so heavy, someone might be tempted to turn it on it's side and play it like a giant autoharp.
the guitar is not nearly as heavy though, and although it is considered bad manners to put the guitar on his back, it has been those who stepped back and said" why pick it up?" that have expanded the language of "the world's most popular instrument." late in masayuki takayanagi's musical adventures, he made the same decision, almost as if he was constrained by looking down at his six strings from the side, he need to attack it head on.
the first time i heard his tabletop guitar was on "collaborative performance", his lp with john zorn on the moby's disk label. i was expecting something in the vein of his earthshattering duo with kaoru abe, and was strangely curious when i saw the back cover: there was takayanagi and zorn shaking hands after a performance, but there on the table in front of him, piled high with kitschen utensils, pedals, motors, etc., laid takayanagi's instrument, like a championship runner, spread out on the ground after a gruelling race.
i found the picture both odd and intriguing, like keith rowe, he had the guitar laying on it's back, but the pedals and homemade electronics were more reminiscent of the 60's electronic setups of david tudor, gordon mumma, or takehisa kosugi. but takayanagi sounded like none of these, like on his solo record "mass projection" and on these very special recordings, he's creating a dense constellation of moving bodies, expanding gasses, and exploding stars.
these sounds do not seems to come from one place, bursting forth from a single cardboard amp speaker, instead the seem to come from above, below, and all around both inside and outside our heads. this is a music that sets us free to roam at our own pace, through endless corridors of possibilities and discovery, and when we revisit it again, we find it is still unmapped territory, where we thought there was a path we find only detours, and what once before was a forboding high mountin peak is now a tranquil lake.
a elaborate field filled with braid strokes and detailed images, and to think, some people still think he played the guitar "wrong" ---------- jim o'rourke
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