Recorded inside a 100-year-old Washington state church, this duo of Japanese residents Corey Fuller and Tomoyoshi Date, utilizes the natural reverberations and ambience of the space in which it was recorded to craft a melancholy, emotional work that uses electronic and acoustic instruments together seamlessly.
Recorded after a tumultuous year in both artists' lives, exacerbated by the Tokyo earthquake and subsequent nuclear concerns, Shizuku clearly is a work tinted with a sense of sadness and depression, though in a powerful, creative way.It is instead an essential piece that fleshes out this album perfectly.
"Rokuu" opens with surges of water and soft synthesizer tones, with the addition of field recording elements that, when combined, create a familiar, yet unidentifiable world of sound.While the first half of the piece is characterized by abstract passages, the latter is more familiar, bringing in acoustic and electric guitar, along with cello, creating a more conventional outro.
The cello reappears within "Aikou," and with the clear piano notes mixed with clinking improvised sounds and electronic textures to become something else entirely.Never clearly musical nor abstract, it is instead a unique hybrid of the two.The use of piano becomes a recurring theme, leading the slow, mournful "Saika" and the more textural "Kie."
Additionally, oddly clipped guitar notes appear with drawn out tones on "Guuzai," with distant, echoed percussive noises and unidentifiable field recordings.While the sustained tones are the focus, the distant percussive sounds and ambient sounds balance things out nicely.
The one misstep, which I don’t even think qualifies as one, is the use of spoken word on "Seiya" by the poet Tadahito Ichinoseki.While it is entirely in Japanese (a language I do not speak nor understand), his careful, deliberate method of speaking conveys an emotion that is beyond language.However, the use of voice is such a drastic change compared to the subtle melodies and mysterious sounds that surround it, causing it to stand out noticeably.It's just very unexpected within the context of the album, but not something I'd consider to be a mistake at all.
The blend of electronic and organic sounds on Shizuku is a compelling one, and the use of natural reverb and spaces makes it all the more powerful.While it has a bleak, sad overcast to it, it adds to the mood and emotion conveyed. Pensive, yet compelling, it is a wonderful combination.
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