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Absurd Summer

by Koji Asano
Solstice, Barcelona, 2003
audio cd, 11 tracks, 30'49", US$ 14.95
Solstice 030

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium

stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be

Japanese composer Koji Asano (currently based in Barcelona) has documented his musical journeys in a series of over 30 self-produced recordings.

Absurd Summer is a suite of eleven carefully arranged parts, each in its own mood and character, but sharing filtered and distorted piano figures driftig in and out of a background of almost white noise. Sometimes an abstract melody peeks out from under the cover, hiding again as soon as it takes form and shape. Sometimes there are bells or metal plates. Sometimes the wind seems to be moving loose parts of some long forgotten metalworks, playing a rhythm of its own. It is summer after all, and it is, as the title suggests, absurdly hot or threatening or languishing. Then again, in the background, a melody is played, in the right hand, gravely accompanied by a repeated note in the left hand.

At the level of the composition, there is no unifying mood or overarching structure apart from the sheer consecutiveness of the different sounds. Only the second and the very last part show a resemblance in texture and melody. So, Asano is exploring the different shades of the distorted piano, sent through seriously mangled speakers and augmented with a choice of electronically generated hisses, scratches, screaches and unnameable sounds. The overall effect of these thirty minutes is to raise the listeners eyebrows, make her or him shift uneasily and ask the very old question: why should I listen to this? Why is this ever recorded? Why should I bother to listen to this again? There is no reason apart from the exploration of the extended sound palette. It is a cd to be scavenged by sampling wizards and professional sound effect hunters.

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