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Environmental Percussion Vol​.​2

by Merzbow

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Tom Bowden
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cassedonia
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1.
Storage Variation 23:19
2.
Raw Material DP 23:58

about

The idea of "Environmental Percussion", which is the main focus of this series, has existed since 1982, when "Material Action for 2 microphones" was released. In concrete terms, it refers to acoustics obtained by tapping on the floor or walls of a room, or by picking up the sounds of various objects and small objects around us with contact microphones, amplifying them, and adding spatial effects such as reverb and delay.
The main materials used in this approach are Styrofoam chunks (used to hit the floor, etc.), plastic cassette cases and cards (played with a violin bow), rubber bands (pinched), toilet paper wicks (blown), gas stoves and table lamps (metal percussion), etc. Unplugged noises with subtleties and textures different from distorted effects processing noises are produced.
In "Material Action for 2 microphones", this technique was used to achieve a noisy sound, but in later works such as "Ecobondage" (1987) and "Storage" (1988), it was used in a more musical way, and most of the materials released in this series were recorded in 1987.
In addition, recordings from this period were made with a new home-made instrument, piano wire, guitar strings and springs inside a tin wardrobea, plucked by violin bow.
This instrument can be used to make metal junk sounds by placing various objects inside the tin box and shaking it, but in this period of recording, it was mainly used to produce string-like sounds. The final product is a timely mix of this sound, environmental percussion, electric kokyu, transverse flute, and vertical flute.
This album "Environmental Percussion Vol. 2" is a rare recording that is one of the few separate mixes of "Storage," one of the most representative works from this period. The accumulation of miscellaneous acoustics with many unplugged elements gives us a direct and strong reminder of the perspective of observing and collecting sounds through junk performances and microphones that have always existed behind the overly distorted sounds that are synonymous with Merzbow.

yorosz (aka Shuta Hiraki)

credits

released July 28, 2021

All Music by Masami Akita
Recorded & Mixed at ZSF Produkt Studio, Tokyo 1986-88
Mastered at Munemihouse, Tokyo 2018
Yasuyuki Nakamura (slowdown records) : A&R

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Merzbow Tokyo, Japan

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