"When it looks broken, that means it's new"
Akira Sakata, from the liner notes.
Akira Sakata certainly gets around. His discography goes back to at least 1975, and includes recordings with Jim O'Rourke, Last Exit and Andrea Centazzo. Here we find him ensconced in the recording studio with Japan's elder statesmen of noise, Hijokaidan. If you know anything at all about either of these entities, you can probably guess what this disc sounds like, and you might even be right. I know my assumptions were pretty close to the mark, but then I started listening.
Each track on Made In Studio was recorded by a different grouping of the principal players, so there is some difference of sonic palette, if not much of a difference in approach, in each of the four pieces. The first track, "NJQ Noise Jazz Quartet" sets up the modus with guitar, voice, clarinet and drums. A ten minute plus assault to be sure, but pay attention and you'll probably notice that this isn't "just noise", these people are listening to each other, and there's quite a bit of interplay and attention to textural opposition. The moniker JazzHijokaidan, alluded to in the liner notes but not so stated on the disc's sleeve, becomes apt. It's been a long time since I've listened to any Hijokaidan records, so I'm not sure just how far from the norm these recordings are, except for the sound quality, which is top-notch.
On "Copper Median Co." Akira's alto sax and percussion are situated between electronic technicians T.Mikawa and Kosakai Fumio. One wonders if these guys wouldn't drown out an acoustic instrument in real life, which brings me to thoughts of how the recordings were made. (Was anyone wearing headphones? The accompanying photos suggest that they were. I can't imagine listening to this on headphones!)
"Uroboros (sic) In A Klein Bottle" is a short duet by Akira and screamer Junko during which it's often hard to tell who's doing what. The brevity of the track might be a comment on just how difficult it is to scream for any length of time. Or it could be an example of "less is more".
The final "auto-noda-fe" includes everyone, and so is the most dense and longest exercise here. One difference between these players' music and out-and-out jazz is that here, people don't generally ever "lay out". It's a constant swirling mass of sounds, with an occasional melodic fragment emerging.
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