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Lethe
/ Dry Ice On Steel Tables (CD, and/oar
USA 2011) |
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A
remarkable document of a live performance recorded on
September
11th, 2003 at No, 20 warehouse, Nagoya Port, Japan.
The sounds heard in
this recording were created by Kiyoharu's application
of dry ice to four steel
tables which were heated by candles. No electronic processing
or
post-production editing of the performance was done.
Kiyoharu has had his various work published by a number
of respected
recording labels such as Trente Oiseaux, Intransitive,
Locust, ICR, Alluvial
Recordings, Monochrome Vision, Invisible Birds, 20City,
among others.
Recorded at No 20 warehouse, , Nagoya Port September
11th, 2003
http://www.and-oar.org
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Lethe - Dry Ice on Steel
Tables [either/OAR - 2011]
Kuwayama Kiyoharu, also known as Lethe, has an impressive
discography of non-music dating back to the late 90's,
although this new release, "Dry Ice on Steel Tables",
is my first time listening to his material. The release
is a single track (actually recorded in 2003), which
portrays the title of the album quite directly: it's
an unedited and unhurried 43 minute improvisation, in
which Kiyoharu coaxes as many different contact sounds
as possible from the two materials, resulting in what
often sounds like a sort of metalized whalesong.
Upon pressing play, we are dropped into the dusty, tranquil
openness of "no. 20 warehouse", sonically
illuminated by the diffusion of the unintrusive sounds
of distant ventilation systems. The sound of the room
in this hushed baseline state ultimately accounts for
most of this recording, as oftentimes pauses between
the harmonic moans of the tables stretch on for several
seconds. The space was well chosen, and it is the desire
to return to it that keeps me listening to this recording.
The shrill, razor-sharp groans of protest dragged from
the steel tables are embalmed in a coccoon of dream-like
natural reverb, and the result is significantly more
pleasant on the ear than it could've been, as well as
deeply ethereal and even quasi-melodic. The shifting
and twisting sounds created have occasional similarities
to the squeaking of a mistreated saxophone or clarinet,
or the warm tones of a conch shell, and at times the
tables even resonate with a sonority nearly comparable
to those instruments.
Listening to this album is peaceful, yet uneventful
and lonely. The experience of meditative solitude is
primarily what is expressed here, through the mournful,
unfeeling voices of mass-manufactured objects. In order
to enjoy this album, patience and the ability to enjoy
loosely structured sound for its own sake are required.
Though a consistent tone and acoustic space are present
throughout the recording, no attempts at rhythmic patterns
or compositional development are made.
Ultimately, "Dry Ice on Steel Tables" is quite
the rewarding release, full of unique, complex sounds,
thick reverbs and a sort of performative whimsicality.
It's the rare album of field recordings that already
feels like a complete soundspace without the addition
of any editing. Those not used to intensely sparse,
formless ambience will likely be confounded and bored
by this recording, but fans of slow moving 'dream ambient'
music like Troum or Nurse With Wound's "Soliloquy
for Lilith" should eat this up.
- Musique Machine
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Lethe - Dry Ice on Steel
Tables [either/OAR - 2011]
Lethe is the nom de plume of Japanese sound specialist
Kuwayama Kiyoharu, whose long running Catastrophe
Point series and fruitful collaborative albums (alongside
Kapotte Muziek and Jonathan Coleclough to name two)
have piqued my interest over the last couple of years.
The majority of Lethe albums | if not all of them
| were recorded in emptied or abandoned architectural
spaces, such as warehouses and airplane hangers, where
by a variety of ephemera was usually agitated, bowed,
scraped, rustled or in some way, shape or form manipulated
to create a sound that resonated within the vast walls
of Kiyoharu's chosen infrastructure. The results that
Lethe achieves after carefully overdubbing his compositions
are often a potent crossbreeding of Musique Concre`te,
Acousmatic, and Impressionistic musical sensibility.
Dry Ice on Steel Tables veers from the Lethe paradigm
slightly, as what we have here is a live, unaltered
piece culled from a 2003 performance, as opposed to
the usual post-production assemblage of kiyoharu's
acoustic recordings. Remarkably, the stammering ebb
and flow of buzzing metallic scrapes and bellowing
drones that characterized the performance were sounds
sourced entirely from three very non-musical materials:
tables, dry ice, and candles. As the album cover reveals,
Lethe positioned himself in the center of four small
steel tables that were all being heated by candles,
and maneuvered from one table to the next placing
pieces of dry ice on them with a gloved hand. The
sonic properties of the metal tables shrieked to life
using this process and Lethe was able to manipulate
all the materials in such a way as to coax interesting
variations in the durations of tones and pitches in
the shrieking steel, all the while leaving plenty
of silent gaps to accentuate the isolated movements.
Yes, quite a bold, creative and brilliant performance.
-The Scrapyard Forecast
Lethe - Dry Ice on Steel Tables [either/OAR - 2011]
Its interesting to note that whenever some music by
Lethe, nom de plume for Japanese Kuwayama Kiyoharu,
is released it is always years old, or so it seems.
I have no idea why that is, but surely its like whiskey:
it gets better when its older. This particular recording
is made at the No. 20 warehouse, Nagoya Port, Japan
on September 11th 2003. The cover tells us that the
sound materials are steel tables, dry ice and candles.
I saw Lethe doing this, not this concert, but at a
visit at his studio, but that was before 2003, so
I am no longer able to tell you how that works, soundwise.
The backside of the cover shows us also sixteen small
photographs of the concert: a small table in the middle,
surrounded by three other small tables with the candles.
It looks like a ritual being performed. No doubt the
warehouse space was empty and the large hall is used
to reverb the music. Its like scraping metal sheets,
like Organum did in his early days, but then much,
much more slower, with
more time between each attack of the sheets, making
the piece more 'silent', although each scrape of metal
is quite intense. Both as an attack and intensified.
Probably a DVD of the concert would have been more
appropriate, so you could see the action, and judge
for yourself if this a performed ritual, but instead,
by putting it on CD, one is forced to consider this
in pure musical terms, which I guess is the whole
notion of it. It has an odd orchestral feel to it,
like a Xenakis piece, scraping, reverberating and
intense. An excellent piece of music.
- Vital Weekly 781(FdW)
Lethe - Dry ice on steel tables (either/OAR, 2011)
J'ai deLja` chroniqueL Lethe, Kuwayama Kiyoharu
de son vrai nom, pour ses deux incroyables duos en
compagnie du saxophoniste Masayoshi Urabe. Dry ice
on steel tables a eLgalement eLteL enregistreL
en 2003 dans le me^me hangar abandonneL sur le port
de Nagoya. Pour qui a eLcouteL les deux duos Kuwayama/Urabe
parus chez Intransitive, difficile d'oublier ce vaste
espace hautement reLsonnant. Ici, Lethe est seul,
seul au milieu de quatre tables meLtalliques chauffeLes
par une petite bougie, quatre surfaces sur lesquelles
il frotte des pains de glace seLcheLe. Comme d'habitude,
tout est entie`rement acoustique, il n'y a pas d'effets
eLlectroniques, et l'enregistrement n'est pas retravailleL
au mastering ou au mixage.
Les performances de Lethe ne passent pas inapercues,
l'espace choisi pour ses qualiteLs acoustiques posse`de
toujours une sorte d'aura mystique ou magique propre
a` litteLralement envouter les spectateurs/auditeurs.
C'est peut-e^tre pourquoi Frans de Waard se demande
si cette performance ne peut pas e^tre qualifieLe
ou apparenteLe a` un rite. Personnellement, je n'y
crois pas, d'une parce qu'un rite est essentiellement
collectif et communautaire, et demande la participation
de plusieurs personnes, mais surtout parce qu'il me
semble que Lethe fait avant tout de la musique, qu'on
peut certes qualifier de non-musique pour faciliter
le catalogage, mais qui n'en reste pas moins une organisation
sonore du temps, une mise en forme acoustique de la
dureLe.
Pour cette performance, Lethe frotte un a` un ses
blocs de glace, un grincement surgit et vole et se
reLpercute contre les parois gigantesques du ba^timent
portuaire. Lethe posse`de ce talent qui consiste a`
creLer un son et a` donner l'impression que le son
vit par lui-me^me immeLdiatement apre`s sa production,
chaque bruit est produit puis il est comme laisseL
a` son sort deLtermineL par les proprieLteLs physiques
et acoustiques de l'espace reLsonnant. Mais le son
ne vit pas vraiment par lui-me^me, car c'est toujours
Lethe qui choisit bel et bien de le laisser reLsonner
seul et de contempler son eLvolution a` travers l'espace,
ou bien de produire plusieurs sons simultaneLment
qui se meLlangent et en forment de nouveaux, de produire
ces meLlanges faits de grincements et de frottements,
de reLsonances qui s'entreme^lent, s'entrechoquent
et s'eLvitent selon l'instant.
En tout cas, cette manie`re de travailler la reLsonance
est parfaitement adeLquate a` une mise en forme singulie`re
de la dureLe, le meLlange de nappes sonores et la
succession de cris espaceLs par un silence qui n'en
est pas un, un silence rempli de reLsonances fantomatiques
et spectrales, cette structure propose une perception
de la dureLe neuve et singulie`re, une perception
deLtermineLe autant par les caracteLristiques spatiales
du lieu d'enregistrement que par les caracteLristiques
acoustiques des sons produits et de l'espace de la
performance. Une mise en forme du temps eLtrange
et un timbre unique, puissant, eLpais et eLtheLreL
en me^me temps, oppressant et eLvanescent. Car oui,
les sons produits par Lethe ne ressemblent eLvidemment
a` rien de connu, et me^me si on pouvait les reconnaitre,
cette reconnaissance serait fausseLe par l'espace
au sein duquel ils sont produits. Une performance
toujours aussi spectaculaire et originale, ou` l'extre^me
sensibiliteL acoustique permet l'eLmergence d'une
musique extre^me et radicale, radicale dans sa forme
et extre^me dans sa deLlicatesse. Dry ice on steel
tables forme ainsi un long poe`me acoustique et spatial,
une poeLsie qui reLsulte encore une fois de l'interdeLpendance
entre l'espace et l'acoustique, car Lethe nous dit
encore une fois que si l'espace met en forme le son,
l'acoustique peut eLgalement rendre preLsent l'espace,
ainsi que la dureLe.
DIMANCHE 9 OCTOBRE 2011 Improv Sphere
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