Slowdown Records has released a new album by Merzbow. This is his solo release on the label (excluding the archive series) since 2019's "Kaerutope" and "Indigo Dada", and once again, two works, "Sparrow Color 1" and "Sparrow Color 2", will be released simultaneously. In recent years, Merzbow has been actively collaborating with others, and has also been attracting attention with his archive works and reissues of past masterpieces (including unreleased material). One of the main features of the two new releases is that the synthesizers (EMS SYNTHI 'A', Moog Mother 32, Behringer Model D) are controlled by a keyboard (Korg Monologue). In Merzbow's work, Synthesizers were frequently used in the 1990s, but it was rare for them to be fitted with a keyboard and played through a MIDI grid, and this is the first recording in which this performance method is used to any great extent. The title "Sparrow Color" came to Mr. Akita when he was thinking about dusk. The artwork features the silver grass of Mukojima Hyakkaen in the background and the sparrows of Ueno Shinobazu Pond in the foreground.
This album "Sparrow Color 2" has many elements in common with "Sparrow Color 1", such as the strong presence of electronic sounds. However, there are large swings between sparse and dense, with multiple materials uniting like a wall, or leaving one material behind and retreating into the background, resulting in a finished product where differences in the relationship between the individual sounds can be heard. And within these dynamic swings, flexible wild swings in pitch are expressed (for example, in the first half of the first track and in the second track) that give a direct sense that the performance is by keyboard. Also, in the third track, the arrangement of the ever-changing electronic sounds in the center and the abstract acoustics surrounding them creates a somewhat slowed-down atmosphere, allowing us to appreciate sounds and compositions that are not often at the forefront of Merzbow's solo work. The use of sounds reminiscent of instruments in a narrow sense, the arrangement of sounds that give a sense of space, and the range of sound density in the performance can be seen as feedback from the various instrumentalists Merzbow has encountered in recent years, considering that he has performed with a variety of artists with different musical styles. On the other hand, in the early days of Merzbow, the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani worked mainly in sessions using instruments, and it is clear that his vision of juxtaposing instrumental sounds and abstract acoustics has been accumulated over a long period of time. Merzbow has changed their equipment and style many times, and this album "Sparrow Color 2" not only shows their current form, but also has a wide range that allows us to think about the mysterious link with their early works.

yorosz (aka Shuta Hiraki)