音楽 ： 小杉武久-New York, August 14, 1991

Takehisa Kosugi - New York, August 14, 1991

Artist:
Takehisa Kosugi
Label:
Slowscan
Format:
LP
Year:
2019
Edition:
Ltd.300
Detail:
Reissue from an audiocassette published in 1993 in Fluxus wooden box with 8 tapes, sound slighltly modified by Kosugi a year later. Recorded live in Kosugi's former apartment in New York City. To be played loud!
Condition:
SEALED

Edition of 300 copies, historical recordings from 1991, as the composer wrote "the music was performed by myself, solo. Recorded live at my former apartment in New York". Composer, per former, conceptualist, improvisor, installation artist and violinist Takehisa Kosugi has been an important, though shadowy presence in the world of avant garde music since the beginning of the 1960s. This is one of the few authorized 'live' recordings - Kosugi has long been ambivalent about the value of audio documentation. Consequently, many of his most important and representative recordings have remained stubbornly out of print, much whispered about but unavailable save to those blessed with inordinate luck or very deep pockets. Albums like Catch Wave (1975), or those by his peripatetic multimedia improvisation group The Taj Mahal Travellers assumed the status of legend among collectors of rock esoterica.
Slipping between genre, media and continents, raising and transcending borders and boundaries has been one of Kosugi’s raisons d’être. His music, for example in the longform and distinctly psychedelic improvisations of The Taj Mahal Travellers collective, blurs the lines of demarcation between composition and per formance, aural and the visual, acoustic and electric, between academic conceptualisation and physical experience. Kosugi’s work has always been driven by an unchanging desire to realign and revitalise human sensibility, to jolt the mind out of its ruts through the operations of chance and spontaneity. The strategies he has devised to achieve his ends are core to the experience of the 20th century avant garde – chance, multiplicity, improvisation, indeterminacy, mixed media, the importance of environment and place.
The live prerformance documented here is made using pre-recorded environmental sounds (birds) recorded in the city of Ferrara, in Italy, various noises [live broadcasting sound on WCbs Radio, New York], sounds from the actual performance [a plastic bottle in which a small microphone is installed for pick up voice & other sounds], Electronics [Audio Generator], effects [Time-delay Machine, Pitch Shifter]

Slowscanから1993年に出版されたフルクサス作家を集めた超入手困難&幻の8枚組の木箱製カセット・コンピレーションである「Fluxus Anthology 30th Anniversary 1962-1992 Sound Events」に収録されていた、グループ音楽、タージマハル旅行団等の活動でも知られる日本が誇るサウンドアート巨匠、小杉武久(1938-2018)の1991年激レア音源が初再発ヴァイナル化.
オリジナルは一生に一度出逢えるか分からないほどの超鬼レア音源であり、小杉本人が公式に認めた数少ないライブレコーディングの一つです。本作に収録の音源は、ニューヨークの小杉のアパートでライブ録音された30分越えの大曲。テープ処理された鳥の声やタイム・ディレイ・マシーン、ピッチ・シフターなどを様々な仕掛けと素材を駆使し、まるで虚無の森へと迷い込むような不可思議な響きを顕現させる、驚異的な音の彫刻へと練り上げています。限定300枚。（引用）

SlowscanがFluxus 30周年（1992年）に制作したカセット8本組木箱入りという豪華エディションの内の一つで、1991年の演奏を収録。内容についての許諾が当時すでに得られているから再発も話が早いわけだが、それなら存命中に復刻させればよかったのに。80年代に頻繁にやっていた、即興系の人たちとのセッションから離れ、テーブル上でのエレクトロニクス演奏にシフトした時期。Play Loudとの注記がある割には爆音ではなく、David Tudorの演奏に近い。ラジオが使われるのも珍しい。限定300。（引用）