New ISO

15 Dec 2003

      The new ISO CD is now out, and it's terrific.  A 41 minute live recording
housed in an ivory digipack with raised engraving of interweaving diagonal
lines by Keita Egami.  It's released on the Sound Tectonics label of the
Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, so it might be difficult to come by
outside of Japan.  It was recorded live at the Sesshu-tei Garden in
Yamaguchi and is unique for its inclusion of outside sounds.  Here are the
brief liner notes:

"It is said that Sesshu-tei Garden of Joeiji Temple in Yamaguchi city was
built by Sesshu, a priest and artist, about five hundred years ago.  The
garden is positioned on the north of the main temple, and in the center of
the inner garden of about 30 acres is a pond, which is shaped in the Chinese
character of "heart," surrounded by many vertically-standing stones.  The
woods on the east, west, and north sides of the garden make up the shape of
a horseshoe, which creates a special space for vision and sound.  For this
live performance, three performers were positioned around the garden apart
enough not to see each other to present their music over the garden.
(ISO/left side: Yoshihide Otomo, center: Sachiko M, right side: Yoshimitsu
Ichiraku).

Note:  this CD was recorded through one-point stereo recording in the center
of the main temple.  The surrounding sounds such as animals around the
garden, wind, and visitors were kept as they were at the mastering, because
if they had been mechanically removed, delicate feelings generated by the
extremely subtle sounds penetrating the whole garden would have been
ruined."

Indeed, there is a perpetually barking dog in the background throughout the
first ten or so minutes of the recording and occasionally the wind picks up
into the microphones, but the music itself is very, very understated and
quiet.  Think Ensemble Cathode for comparisons, with a more stripped down
ensemble of course.  Sachiko M starts with a quiet sine wave at first and
moves into using contact microphones around the middle of the performance
before going back to sine waves in the latter part.  Ichiraku's playing is
particularly outstanding here on amplified bowed cymbal.  At about the
sixteen minute mark, a duck intervenes in the proceedings, but the animal
sounds are not at all annoying, in fact rather interesting.  By this point
in the performance, the dog has receded out of ear-shot.  Ichiraku raises
the intensity before dropping out briefly and then the sine waves once again
emerge rather prominently.  Otomo works almost exclusively on guitar here (I
think), using feedback at times or gently plucking the strings or scraping
them with a bow.  And the wind provides lower register interventions, with
full pops filling up the right channel.

I'd strongly recommend this.  Probably ISO's most delicate piece of work to
date in an otherwise novel recording.

------ End of Forwarded Message

Bill Ashline

Olivier Borzeix

Jan-wen Lu

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