Ikuro Takahashi
"ANOYONODEKIGOTO"
The LP is an edition of 300. It's pressed on white vinyl and comes in a
3 color silkscreened cover. Siwa U.S. SIWA#10.
Anoyonodekigoto is a duo performance unit, consisting of dance by Yoko
Muronoi and music by Ikuro Takahashi. The project has existed for four
or five years, but this is their first release with any substantial physical
footprint on this corporeal plane.
Takahashi has a lengthy history in the Japanese rock underground, dating
back to his involvement with no-wavers Akebonoizu during the late seventies
and early eighties. Since then he has been the drummer of choice for virtually
everyone who's anyone on the scene. High Rise, Fushitsusha, Tamio Shiraishi,
Kosokuya, Che-SHIZU, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, and Nagisa Ni Te amongst others
have all benefited from his propulsive, dynamic mastery of space. Solo,
duo and more expansive projects under a variety of names including Aura
Nihilitica, Lamones Young, and Of Dogstarman have revealed a hitherto unsuspected
facility for environment-altering improvised drone and electronic drift.
Muronoi too has a long CV of experimental dance work behind her, ranging from solo butoh pieces to multi-media collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers and musicians.
The name Anoyo no dekigoto means something like Happenings in the Other
World, an entirely appropriate moniker for the indeterminate, non-linear
and metaphysical nature of the communication between Muronoi and Takahashi
during their improvised performances. The music is not simply a background
score for the dancer's movements. Takahashi even shies away from the description
of what they do as communication. Rather, he refers to a complex series
of "negotiations" between dancer, musician, environment, and
audience that serve to create a sense of enveloping, trembling communal
space. On these recordings, Takahashi takes his interest in electronics
to another level. On one track he deploys over thirty tiny oscillators
to create a constantly moving, deeply immersive field of higher-function
insect chatter. Even without Muronoi's wraith-like physical presence, the
music on this album exerts an eerie and oblique dominance over any room
in which it is played. It subtly modifies the listener's perception of
time and space, leaving behind a tangible and mournful reminder of its
presence, like the luminescent tracks of some passing phantom slowly decaying
back into incorporeality.