Label: Full Spectrum

100部限定、お見逃しなく!!80年代から東京のエクスペリメンタル、フリーインプロヴィゼーション界で活動、自身のレーベルSlub Musicを軸に国内外に多くの音源を残している大ベテラン杉本拓氏。米Full Spectrum Records が2024年1月に出版した、恐らく個人名義のLP作品としては1st[Mienai Tenshi]以来と思われる新作[Since 2016]。タイトル通り2016年から2022年に掛けて東京の様々な場所で録音、日常のサウンドスケープを使用しつつ、点描的な爪弾きと佐伯美波氏のボイスが限られたトーンとメロディーで進行する、非常に絞り込まれた極上のミニマム録音。この内容で100部限定は非常に勿体無い。大推薦。







edition of 100, artwork by Gretchen Korsmo

Full Spectrum welcomes the legendary guitarist and Japanese free improvisation heavyweight Taku Sugimoto into the fold for an album that we are absolutely honored to present as our first LP release of the new year – ’Since 2016.’

Captured at various sites across Tokyo between 2016 and 2022, this new body of work serves as an informal “best of” that compiles versions of some of Taku’s favorite compositions from this time. Across these nine sonic miniatures, his signature unprocessed, hyper-minimalist guitar playing takes center stage – recorded, naturally, at outdoor locations – while Minami Saeki [voice] and Christian Kobi [soprano saxophone] shade additional color into the album’s skeletal performances.

Each composition on the album consists of modal melodies, using only limited tones. Neither chordal structure nor steady rhythm is present. Some pieces are as simple as an unadorned melody, accompanied only by the aleatoric backdrop of whatever park Taku has chosen for the session, while others include subtle gestures towards counterpoint and more intricate structure. On “Vertical Modulation 2,” for instance, each of three players [soprano sax, voice, and guitar] perform different fragments of melody based on a 6-tone scale in different registers, while tracks like “More #1” and “A Chant by Oto-tachibana” are intended for two [or more] players.

The effect is a stunning exercise in focus and restraint, weaving microscopic musical events into a hushed latticework – the sort of quiet, spare music that stakes a claim for itself against the ever-rising din of our accelerating civilization and says, “be still.”