My initial reaction upon learning of the "Garden" CD was that the twocomposers are an unlikely pairing. Menche is known for his malevolent,very physical noise. Mizutani, who came to many listeners' attention asan original member of Merzbow, has focused on documentary recordings ofbirds and natural environments in recent years. Even stranger is theirdecision to divide the tonal specturm in half for their album together,with Menche producing only the low sounds and Mizutani the high ones.What on earth could this be? To be honest, after repeated listens, I'mstill unsure. The music is one hour-long piece, with the divisionbetween the artists' contributions quite pronounced throughout. I foundthis distracting, as I attempted to resolve in my mind the deepsub-bass rumble (from Menche) and the twittering birds and insects(Mizutani), which certainly seems to have been produced in isolation ofone another and simply grafted together. Not that some lovely momentsdon't occour; the initial eleven minutes are riveting, the oddjuxtaposition of elements creating a tension that just doesn't sustainitself for the hour. I was never able to forget the conceptual conceitand hear "Garden" as a single piece of music. Perhaps this was anintentional decision by the artists, but it does not work for me. samples:
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