Label: Erstwhile Records

研ぎ澄まされた極上の物音録音!!主にラップトップとギターを使いRadu Malfatti 、Eric La Casa、Graham Lambkinら国外のベテラン勢との共演、またマスタリング・エンジニアとしても活動し多くの作品を手掛けて来た宇波拓氏。ここErstwhileからリリース依頼があったものの長年実現していなかったソロ・アルバムが遂に3CDフォーマットでリリース!!特別な技術や資金を必要とせず誰にでも出来る事/手に入るものを使い徹底したDIY精神で作り上げた音源で、即興演奏に真正面から取り組んだという意欲作。16時間で3つの長尺セットを録音、新聞紙と段ボール箱というまさに正真正銘"物音"アプローチで完成させた傑作。





6 panel gatefold wallet. photography by Taku Unami, design by Yuko Zama.

"After several years of not doing anything since Erstwhile first asked me to do a solo album, I suddenly had the idea to record it last week and it was released within a week or so.

I know some of you are thinking "Anyone can do this...", but in the DIY spirit of doing what anyone can do with what anyone can get, and without any special skills or funds, I tackled improvisation head on, using mostly newspapers and cardboard boxes, which turned out to be this triple CD set."

-- Taku Unami

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for the last few years, Taku Unami and I have periodically discussed potential approaches for his ErstSolo, and he explored some of these approaches deeply at times before eventually deciding he wasn't happy with any of the results. in late August 2023, Taku had a breakthrough and recorded three lengthy pieces in a sixteen hour period, all of which appear here in full, unedited and unmixed. the track titles give clues to the three distinct approaches:

bot uses small robots
box a single box
boxes several boxes

also I’d like to suggest two things:

1) approach this as a one day Taku Unami festival, three solo sets, recorded by one binaural microphone. if you were in his room, this is exactly what you would have heard.

2) the title ‘bot box boxes’ can also be read as a small section of a library’s card catalog, thus the contents here (3 CDs/162 minutes) represent just a tiny fraction of all of the recordings (potentially) stored there.

also it should be noted that Taku began working with cardboard boxes around 15 years ago, with his first all-box sets coming in the Sept 2011 AMPLIFY in NYC, so he has been exploring these types of palettes for many years now.

— Jon Abbey