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IA.releases The music on this Web site is brought
to you by Intervall-audio and the respective artists. Some tracks
are free for download under Creative Commons Licenses and offered
to you for your pure listening pleasure and entertainment.
[IA.003] Kumiko Okamura: MDDA 
Broken Composer —
Kumiko Okamura, a current resident of the megalopolis of Tokyo
but born in the snowy regions of Niigata prefecture, is a self-proclaimed
'broken composer' and 'accident life player'. Her MDDA
album, a collection of improvised first-takes recorded onto four-track
tape, is full of elegy, poetry and violence — a dream-world
that does not serve to prevent, but rather to invite, shock. Sound Country — Similar
to the narrative in novels by Japanese writer and Nobel Laureate,
Kawabata Yasunari, the 'sound country' on MDDA is constantly on
the verge of disintegration. This landscape is raw and unrefined,
full of sound debris, random use of instruments, frantic arrangements,
excessive hum, hiss & tape saturation, almost as if the tracks
meant nothing at all. Aesthetization of Shock —
Unlike in Kawabata's novels, however, shock on MDDA is not lurking
behind the sounds, things and occurrences of an elegiac everyday
life. Rather, sound is treated as found objects, objects which in
the poetic act become vulnerable themselves. Sound thus turns into
a symbol of both the immediacy of shock and the reunion with one's
inner nature — because the painful experience of disintegration
may just as well be liberating. Lo-Fi? Oh no, not again!
— MDDA is far from opening up new ways in tape music. Instead,
the overt disinterestedness in recording technology serves to describe
the transience of being, and a gentle sadness at its passing.
Kumiko Okamura's tracks make us aware of the fullness of life.
And they do so informed by a strong musical instinct. MDDA is more
than 1980s underground tape avant-garde music and its re-emergence
in recent pop electronica. Liberation — MDDA is
a therapeutic, eclectic and liberating mix of musical influences.
One hears K.H. Stockhausen making contact, Yoko Ono singing from
inside a closet, Pierre Schaeffer manipulating reels, alongside
borrowings from Cologne techno, Group Ongaku, Brian Eno's music
for airports, and many other vanguard musics — all mashed
together into a subconscious image of a sound country that is hard
for us to travel if we lack a willingness to be vulnerable and insist
that music has to be soothing. Sound Debris — The
recordings on MDDA, engineered by the artist herself, have undergone
almost no post-production in order to preserve the original expression
and charm of the performances. [IA.003] Kumiko Okamura:
MDDA Preview samples: Artwork
(260 KB)
[IA.002] Sora: Live at Metro 
Sora
is the alias of Kyoto-based electronic musician Takeshi Kurosawa.
The Japanese word sora (?) means 'sky', 'the blue' or 'the
heavens'. But the Japanese character also means 'empty', and the
tracks on Live at Metro indeed evoke the peacefully relaxing
atmosphere and emptiness of mind that an entire day, from sunrise
to sunset, of a summer holiday spent at the beach brings. We see the first rays of the morning sun flicker
through the trees. The air, shimmering and blurred by the heat,
gently touches the skin as we walk to the beach. We lie down in
the sand's tender warmth and take a nap full of dreams and faint
memories, before swimming submersed in the joyful play of bubbles
in a glistening sea. By late afternoon, we no longer hear but actually
feel the breeze coming in from the sea. And the evening rejoices
in the promise of sitting around a beach fire until the last melody
disappears into the dark open night over the sea. Live at Metro is a richly textured, playfully
arranged, crisply analogue-sounding electronica opus that testifies
to the fine taste of early Plop releases and defined the image and
future direction of the label back in 2003. Live at Metro also demonstrates
the exceptional talent of a young Japanese artist who, in 2006,
played the Plop label showcase at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona
as well as Sonar Sound Tokyo. Originally recorded in 2003, Live at Metro
features remixes from Sora's
first full-length album re.sort (Plop 2003), as well as
hitherto unreleased material. The tracks are skilfully interwoven
to form a continuous sound event and therefore are provided in one
full-length gapless file for download. With Live at Metro Sora
gives us a deeply satisfying 32 minutes of audio exploration that
stays with us because it echoes a half-remembered state of bliss,
perfect peace and innermost contentment. [IA.002] Sora:
Live at Metro [IA.002] Sora:
Live at Metro Preview samples at 128kbps: Artwork
(113 KB)
[IA.001] Legofriendly: Form EP (2006) 
Far from 'traditional' dance-oriented electronic
music, the six tracks on Form EP (2006) smoothly merge
intricately funky rhythms with melodically focussed tunes —
from the playfully eccentric 'Jump & Run' and the evocative,
slightly pensive 'Autopilot', to the almost prototypical electronica
track, 'Milc'. While 'Know-how' is more minimal, bubbling with heavily
warped sounds, Form also features 'Slipstream', a track that perhaps
best exemplifies
Legofriendly's music of this period. Based on live and laptop jamming sessions
for a live concert in Tokyo, Form had defined the musical directions
of
Legofriendly shortly after its formation in 2002. The original
limited release CD-R (2003) has been long out of stock, and since
there has been quite some demand for it, Form is now made available
again as a partly re-recorded and entirely re-mastered, free downloadable
net label release. With a playing time of almost 34 minutes, Form
EP (2006) embodies quirky but determinedly accessible electronic
music with some highly catchy tunes, many rhythmic bends & funky
edges. [IA.001] Legofriendly:
Form EP (2006) Individual tracks at 192kbps: Artwork
(367 KB)
|01| Jump & Run
|02| Know-how NOTE: The music on this Web site is copyrighted material. It is brought to you by Intervall-audio in collaboration with the respective artists and is free for download under creative commons licenses. You may listen to the music as often as you like and wherever you go, and you are free to share, distribute, display, and perform it (Noncommercial-No Derivative) whenever you like. However, the sound recordings may not be sampled and the work may not be used for commercial purposes without the licensor's permission. If you want to perform the music in any other than the form specified above (i.e., use it for commercial purposes or in derivative form), you must get a written permission from the artist(s). You can contact Intervall-audio via the suggest form in the main navigation bar and we will be happy to put you in touch. Thank you! |
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