A mAtter of perspectives on sound and design
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Label: mAtter
Format: CD
It is one of those sought-after moments, when you come across a new finding and rub your hands together in glee and anticipation, and I am experiencing such a moment after now establishing a relationship with the cross-disciplinary label for sound and design matters (sic), mAtter from Japan. mAtter is curated by Yukitomo Hamasaki and features works centered around his own projects, with interpretations of various concepts such as sound design, architecture, and product design to create dense spaces. Yukitomo himself began his music career in late teens as a DJ in Tokyo and through mix tape and debut releases under various monikers (“DJ Hamasaki”, “Nothing’s Clear”), he has slowly and gradually grown a name for himself and joined in events revolving experimental music and sound art, and with the inauguration of his own label has taken the step into product and architectural design. Going by the label’s diverse output so far, ranging from audio music CDs to sound installations and architectural and graphic design, mAtter has fast become a key contribution and steady platform on which these subcultures of Tokyo can build and grow.
These concepts at the heart of mAtter immediately become evident as you hold the label’s musical output in your hands, sleek and elegant, minimalistic yet glossy gatefold digipack packaging that shout aesthetic sense and in their near-monochromatic tendency, an apparent parallel may be drawn to Germany’s well-known Raster Noton , though where the stellar German imprint has a tendency towards machine-like approximation to music and its binary qualities of distinctly and mathematically precise beats, Hamasaki’s mAtter delves into more moving bodies of sound and spaces, still minimalistic and sprinkled with static and high frequency noises and low, droning bass sounds to colour the canvas – albeit in isolated and desolate surroundings, space and the somewhat secluded and enigmatic springing to mind as descriptive qualities.
Once you get past the covers to the music contained therein, we find that the label’s concepts are tightly connected and through expansive, experimental music we transgress into the areas of architecture and design. Looking briefly at the label catalogue so far, its inauguration was spear-headed by curator Yukitomo Hamasaki for his dense d+p endeavour. mAtter002 brought us a new Japanese name in Go Koyashiki with slit, followed by mAtter003 with sound artist Andy Graydon and his Geomancy. To wrap up two years of releases, the last month of 2009 saw the collaboration of Shinkei and mise_en_scene faze us with their puzzling Scytale which also saw reworkings by their peers (most notably Shinkei’s label collaborator luigi turra, mAtter-head Hamasaki, and Michael Hartman) for three extra tracks.
On closer listen, d+p hits the listener with an oppressive and staggering force, creating a density of enveloping static, high-frequency noises that pan out in incredible soundscapes that are firmly grounded in low-frequency drones. Imaginary dotted and linear shapes strike out in three, easily envisioned dimensions to produce various environments in which the listener can fathom the various aspects of Hamasaki’s sounds. Over the course of seven numbered tracks, the listener is transported between different spaces, and both low and high frequencies are explored to full effect and possibly with even bigger impact when they suddenly fade to silence. In such a way, Hamasaki achieves to constantly shifting the focus of the listener and keep their attention piqued, as both the experimental is given room to intrigue while sounds in the form of bells, trains and airplanes, insects, birds, voices and the presence of filtered winds provide a familiarity that aid in creating natural and relateable environments.
As we move on to Go Koyashiki’s debut release, slit hits off from the first tone in less fluid, and more rhythmic, stabbing accuracy to reminisce aforementioned Raster Noton-output. Jagged and stuttery, clicks and beeps, sliding and sweeping electronics on a glitchy tip are part of Koyashiki’s 10-track album that will definitely tick your fancy if you like Alva Noto, Autechre, Byetone, Ryoji Ikeda, early Taylor Deupree, SND, to name a few. Go Koyashiki himself has his background firmly rooted in music theory and history and works both with composition for film and solo. Albeit starting out on guitar, he now relies on programming language and computer-based approach to music to process field recordings and manipulate electronic signals into cleverly wrought minimalistic works that are both machine-danceable at times and other times verging on fleeting, ambient with alarming, high frequencies stretched out in the distant with recurring static hissing or drones taking the lead. Still, given the cold sonic qualities, Koyashiki’s work for stage and screen shines through to lend the compositions a somewhat intimate and cinematic aspect. As a result the album sounds accomplished and has the momentum to continously keep the listener tuned in and is a remarkable debut.
Hawaiian-born Andy Graydon is a musician and film-maker now currently based in Berlin. Graydon’s focus lays in the interaction of sound, image and environment, and his resulting work take shapes either as videos, sound compositions or installations. Such is the result in the CD+DVD for mAtter’s third album, namely Graydon’s Geomancy, titled after the ancient Middle-Eastern system of divination where interpretations are read based on the transformation and position of sand or earth on the ground. Listening to the CD with sound compositions predominantly series of high frequency noises and deep, rumbling drones to spell out the various geomantic figures and the recording as such – supplemented by spaciousness and voices in a grand hall – add to an air of spirituality. The various field recordings which make up the basis for this composition are the result of both material and digital transformations, and over the course of the piece grow and dissipate in volume and presence, and overall the brief pauses between each recurrence challenges the listener to remain focused. The long-form work is demanding, yet interesting with each new repetition of sounds changing gradually from the previous, and many of these little bursts of lingering drones and high frequency tones create new experiences for the listener. The DVD comes with 4 of Graydon’s Super-8 films created between 2005 and 2009 (click for clip) that couple slowly-changing series of triptychs with shimmering, warm electronic music developed in relation to the films. The presiding theme is one of identity, with respect to place and the retention of this in the occurrence of displacement. This series of films also makes you rethink your interpretation of the music CD of Geomancy and adds an extra level of depth to the music as you imagine the befitting moving imagery.
Scytale is the fourth mAtter release and sees Italian David Sani (aka Shinkei) pair up with Israelian Shay Nassi (mise_en_scene) for a cryptic music recording, both with respect to the tracks entitled accordingly “cryptology”, “cuts” and the two-part “remodelled”, but also the album title which refers to an ancient Greek cryptological tool. The scytale was a leather strip which would act as a transposition cipher for a message – commonly in war to pass messages – and which would become readable to the recipient if wound around a rod of the same diameter used by the sender. Well, enough history on the tool, the music of Shinkei and mise_en_scene is immediately appealing and remains close in theme with the previous mAtter releases, with field recordings of various devices and both ambient and static noises laying out alien but beautiful soundscapes to simply sit back and revel. The sounds change from the microscopically detailed to ear-popping clicks and glitch to the more expansive and floating, pounding drones with accentuated beats, often coming together to create constantly evolving textures of sound – almost as if witnessing an ongoing process of encryption or decryption and the near-unlimited number of combinations being tried out. The CD also features Shinkei’s label colleague (Koyuki) and long-time collaborator, Luigi Turra, who delivers a long-form, minimalistic remix of one track, and also two more remixes provided by Chicago-based composer and improviser Michael Hartman as well as mAtter curator Yukitomo Hamasaki himself.
In conclusion, I would like to revisit my opening words, and the joy experienced coming across mAtter and hopefully you’ve just come to the conclusion that so should you and give this label the credit it deserves, not just in the confines of Tokyo’s subculture but on the international stage.
Web resources:
mAtter official website
mAtter on myspace
Go Koyashiki
Go Koyashiki on myspace
Andy Graydon
Shinkei
Shinkei on myspace
mise_en_scene on myspace
Luigi Turra on myspace
