Disc of the day
Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
Features Disc of the day
Yuichiro Fujimoto
The Mountain Record
(Ahornfelder, 2006)
Deputy editor’s Yuletide present finds its magic hour moment.
Are we still basking in the hazy glow of an Indian summer? Is the autumn light still diffused by high clouds and soft morning mists? Rain, you say? Oh well. At least there were those last few stolen days of blue skies and bright sunlight, when sounds and voices carried clear and sparkling on the cold, crisp air and certain pieces of music sounded more magical than ever. This was mine. A festive gift from my brother last Christmas, bought on the strength of a good review in The Wire (I know, I know) I’d played The Mountain Record just the once and found it, well, wanting. You see, Fujimoto is one of an ever growing group of Japanese musicians like guitarist Taku Sugimoto or Daisuke Miyatani who give as much weight to silence as melody, using either field recordings, found sounds or the hiss and creak of their own overmiked surroundings to create new ‘rooms’: ie. soundtracks with the power to transform your listening environment into a space with another mood, and, erm, energy altogether. Approached with the wrong outlook, The Mountain Record can sound no more innovative and groundbreaking than somebody learning to play the guitar whilst listening to a BBC Sound Effects Record. However, at home the other night, with the back door open, the neighbours’ cat sprawled on the lawn, and a just-opened bottle of Bourgogne Chardonnay on-the-go this mix of lazy humming, electronic scratches, Orff-ic piano, acoustic guitar, children’s melodica, distant voices, rustling leaves and crunching gravel felt like the stored soundtrack of our missed summer. All that’s needed now is one of those sunrise simulator alarm clocks and the cavern of the coming winter can be approached with full emotional protection.
Andrew Male
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 30/09/2008
Further Listening
Taku Sugimoto – Opposite (HatHut, 1998)
Rachel’s – Systems/Layers (Quarterstick, 2003)
John Luther Adams – In The White Silence (New World, 2003)
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Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
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