Sound Work: Sounds From The Island (2024)
自身初のカセットテープ音源となるこのアルバムは、家族が寝静まった後で、寝室と壁一枚を挟んだ小さな自室でライブ録音された曲から構成。
本作で河野は、金属製タッチ・センサーを搭載したシンセサイザーを演奏している。このセンサーは、触れることで微弱な電流が体を通過する構造となっており、演奏者の身体的／精神的状態や録音環境により、生まれる音はその都度変化する。
シンセサイザーの音像は日常の環境音と混ざり合い、時に阻害し、静かに消えていく。自らの身体と精神、そして自室を島に見立てた、セルフポートレートのような生の記録でありながら、環境音楽として視聴者に思索のための空間を提供する作品となっている。
作家がカセットテープをキャンバスや印画紙のように捉えて制作した作品をリリースするシリーズ、「Under Rated UR」の第1作目。電気屋で気軽に買えるテープを製造し続けてきた「Maxell」に敬意を込めてURのみを使用し、音源制作からアートワーク、パッケージングまで、あらゆる工程は業者を介さずひとつひとつ手作業で制作される。今回は河野による楽曲とデザイン。
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"Sounds From The Island", his first cassette-tape recordings, consists of seven songs recorded live in his own small room, one wall away from his bedroom, after his family had gone to bed. Kono has been performing and composing live using the guitar for over 20 years. However, in this work, he plays a synthesiser equipped with a metal touch sensor in order to explore new expressive possibilities by abandoning his obsession with equipment. The structure of this sensor allows a weak electric current to flow through the body when touched, and the sound it produces varies based on the performer's physical and mental state, as well as the recording environment.
As a photographer, Kono typically captures the traces of objects through optical means. However, with this sound work, he aims to achieve an expression that only music can achieve, rooting it in his own artistic perspective as a photographer, which is distinct from those of musicians at the same time. The synthesiser's sound image occasionally obscures and blends with the ambient noise before gradually dissipating. The work is a raw, self-portrait-like record of his own body and mind, as well as his room as an island. It also offers the listeners a space for contemplation as environmental music.
This marks the debut of Gerk Comics' "Under Rated UR" series, a series in which the artist creates works by interpreting cassette tapes as photographic paper or canvases. In honour of Maxell, which has been producing tapes that are easily accessible at electronics stores, only UR is employed. Each process, including sound production, artwork, and packaging, is executed manually, one by one, without the involvement of any contractors. Kono is responsible for the music and design this time.
All songs written and played by Yukihito Kono
Art work by Yukihito Kono
Mastering by Masayoshi Suzuki
©️Yukihito Kono & Gerk Comics
Limited edition cassette tape is available from IACK online/physical store, or via bandcamp.
https://www.iack.online/products/sounds-from-the-island-by-yukihito-kono
https://yukihitokono.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-from-the-island
Digital album is also available from bandcamp.
https://yukihitokono.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-from-the-island