Review
LETHE - CATASTROPHE POINT #9 & #10 (2CD by Oral)
Rather than being a composer of music, or someone who
does field recordings, or someone who builds installation
pieces, Kiyoharu Kuwayama, also known as Lethe, is a
man who creates site specific music. For him the space
in which he is to create music is as important as anything
else. Well, perhaps besides having a pair great microphones.
But drag Lethe into an abandoned industrial site, an
empty metro station, tunnels or something equally cavernous,
and he will produce some music. I gather he takes very
little with him in terms of tools, but a bow or two
might surely one of them. In June 2012 he was in Montreal
and performed on two different locations.
The first is at Silo no. 5 where we find a permanent
installation by Emmanuel Madan (of The User) in the
harbor of Montreal, where Lethe choose to play the upper
floor. The microphone is somewhere so we hear the large
reverb of this space. The sound sources were found on
the spot, and consist of metal sheets and rubber detritus.
Number ten of the Catastrophe Series was recorded in
a tunnel, built in 1931, but closed since long. It was,
despite the hot weather, very cold inside. It's not
clear what he plays here. In both of these pieces (#9
consists of two parts) we hear the large reverb of the
spaces, and Lethe playing around with sound proportions
of these places, by using waste material.
It may sound like there is a fair portion of reverb
used, but such is not the case. It's hard to classify
this as field recordings, I think. Perhaps, in a way,
it is field recordings, but of course it's someone playing
sounds in a large hall, so perhaps 'music' is a better
word. If nothing would happen in these spaces, then
surely not much have been recorded? So, sound art perhaps,
acoustic space research? I would rather think of this
in musical terms: here we have two pieces, of around
forty-five minutes, which sound great. Highly mysterious,
almost like the soundtrack of a horror movie (especially
in 'Catastrophe Point #10'),and moving very slowly around
the place, but never leaps into mere repeating of sounds.
Very much like a continuous stream this, and maybe its
a cliche, but also very zen like. Excellent release,
once again. (FdW)
VITAL WEEKLY 897
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