http://ujikaji.bigcartel.com/product/awk-wah-ava-vinyl-lp

Catalogue No: UJI-003LP
Translucent redwood vinyl LP in deluxe die cut jacket and numbered tangerine dream insert + digital download code
Numbered edition of 110
Duration: 40 min
Release date: 20 September 2013
Leaping away from the twisted monolithic vision forged in his noisy 2011 debut Opera Box, Awk Wah returns with an exquisite new work. Listening to Ava is akin to trekking through unknown territory, each track a different region of alien environment, like a grittier, more turbulent version of the Future of Sound of London’s 1994 ambient classic, Lifeforms. There is a sense of sonic adventurism that charts the meeting points of avant garde, experimental, and techno music – comparable to what contemporary artist-producers like Raime, Helm, Lee Gamble and Jar Moff are doing.

On Ava, tracks like “Rhea”, “Oneiros” and “Dazzling Spinoza” evoke ceremonial drums in a dark, primordial jungle; “Spineless”, “Hello On-tik”, and “Thex” raise the spectre of a dystopian industrial landscape littered with roaring furnaces; “Making Happy” and “Ominhex” are weirder still, their electronic beats an uneasy sort of dance, marking an ambiguous space between the pleasure of a groove and the ticking of a bomb. The big shifts in sound can be attributed to Awk Wah’s newfound use of the Roland SP-555 sampler in addition to his, by now, signature spider-like percussion work. Sound elements both synthetic and organic are sparsely overlaid; free rolling percussion, clangorous cymbals, nihilistic techno beats are used to compelling effect. At times, Awk Wah’s use of repetition in electronic beats, acoustic percussion – even the rhythmic feedback of a sampled radio in “Thex” – has the curious similarity to the echolocation function of sonar systems in search of an invisible intruder; there is something hypnotic about it, but equally a sense of imminent danger.

Conceptually, the album is named after Avalokitasvara – the sanskrit form of Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy – and a word that literally means ‘perceiver of the sounds (cries) of the world’. What on a mytho-spiritual level evokes the compassion of a deity for humankind, is transposed in Ava into the sensitive act of keen listening to create vast and looming sound worlds – ones of ritualistic beats, distressed squelches, and powerful distortion. With his second album, Awk Wah cements his place as an outsider music genius, with rich insights to share with those willing to listen in to the cosmos with him.

Tracklisting:
A1. Rhea
A2. Making Happy
A3. Spineless
A4. Oneiros
A5. Hyal
B1. Hello On-Tik
B2. Dazzling Spinoza
B3. Thex
B4. Ominhex

Album preview: https://soundcloud.com/ujikaji/awk-wah-ava-album-preview

Awk Wah - Ava (album preview)

Ujikaji means experiment in Malay (Bahasa Melayu). Ujikaji Records is an independent music label and mail order store. Our interests lie in the curation of fiercely experimental works falling loosely in the realms of power electronics, lowercase, free jazz, freak folk, modern composition, glitch electronics, psych rock and/or avant pop. We are physically based in Singapore.

This podcast is produced by Ujikaji specially for the SEA Artsfest 2013, a London festival which champions and develops the work of the artists of South East Asia and those inspired by South East Asia. Ujikaji Radio hopes to introduce music of the region to an international audience, focusing on contemporary music of an experimental, off-kilter bent, but also occasionally taking a dip in the historical and traditional.

Got comments? Suggestions? Email ujikajirecords@gmail.com with UJIKAJI RADIO in the subject field.

Links:
SEA Artsfest: http://seaartsfest.org/
Ujikaji Radio: http://seaartsfest.org/ujikaji/
Ujikaji: http://ujikaji.net


Playlist with notes

[0:33] Timpun (chant) sung on the lansaran by Muruts of Semanbi tribe (North Borneo) (from Murut Music of North Borneo LP, Folkways FW04459/FE 4459, 1961) - "Men of the Semambu tribe of the Muruts chant together on a single tone. The pitch never varies, even when the chant and dance last all night. The percussion tone is made by the lansaran. The floor of houses is flexible, the houses are high up on stilts. The lasaran is built up under the floor so that when the dancers step hard on the floor, it touches the lasaras and makes the percussion sound heard in the record. This dance step is uniform in rhythm, so that the lasaran sounds an equal beat (beats all about equally loud) about what we would write down as a quarter note apart, or 1/4 meter. Thus both the pitch and the meter are as simple as it is possible to find." Recorded by Ivan Polunin.

[2:32] Untitled by Yong Yandsen (from Disillusion LP, Doubtful Sounds doubt10, 2013) - A pioneer of the Malaysian Chinese rock scene until he gave it up for experimental music and free jazz. A member of cult band Klangmutationen.

[7:30] Gonekid by Swirling Light (from The World is Full of Noise CDR, self-released, 2009) - Swirling Light is a shoegaze and alternative rock band from Bangkok, Thailand. They are inspired by My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, and other bands from the 1980s and 1990s.

[12:07] Layar Maya by Sawi Lieu (from Pasaraya cassette, Constellation Tatsu PURR 0032, 2013) - Coming from Jakarta, Indonesia, Sawi's brand of trippy hypnagogic electronics have begun to stream to little corners around the world. His latest work on the Oakland, California tape label Constellation Tatsu, is his best yet.

[17:05] Ominhex by Awk Wah (from Ava LP, Ujikaji UJI-003LP, 2013) - Ujikaji is proud to work with this outsider genius from Singapore. His new work charts the meeting points of avant garde, experimental, and techno.

[20:10] Khen Le Molam by Unknown Artist (from Ethnic Minority Music of Southern Laos CD, Sublime Frequencies SF036, 2007) - This soulful performance was recorded by ethnomusicologist Laurent Jeanneau, who documented the music of the Harak and various Brao ethnic groups in Southern Laos. This music forms the roots of Molam, a sort of folk-blues music that is indigenous to the regions of Laos and Thailand.

[25:30] They're Not Musicians by Elemento (from As It Is CDR, self-released, 2011) - Elemento was a project led by Lirio Salvador, a prolific sculptor who created numerous experimental instruments based on his own concept of ethno-industrial art/music. Sadly, Salvador was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in December 2011 and remains in a coma today.

[29:54] Tu Dai Oán by The Six Tones (from Signal in Noise CD, dB Production, 2013) - The Six Tones are made up of Nguyen Thanh Thuy, Ngo Tra My and Swedish guitarist Stefan Ostersj. Tu Dai Oán is their performance of a traditional Vietnamese piece... in a non-traditional way! Played on dan tranh, 10-string guitar and live electronics.

[41:22] Don't Run Away by Nan Su Yati Soe feat. Kyaw Htut Swe (from Moe Ma Myin Lay Ma Myin CD, 2008?) - Nan Su Yati Soe is a popular singer, actress and model from Myanmar. This song is the only English song on her album Moe Ma Myin Lay Ma Myin.

[44:22] Tek Tum (Big Water) by Cambodian Space Project (from 2011: A Space Odyssey CD, Metal Postcard METAL 030CD, 2011) - The Cambodian Space Project is a cross-cultural project of Australian and French musicians and the distinctive Khmer vocals of Cambodian chanteuse Srey Channthy. They have been huge festival favourites internationally with their repertoire of classic Khmer rock 'n roll. Tek Tum is their psychedelic take on a traditional Khmer tune.

Ujikaji Radio for SEA Artsfest 7 Oct 2013

Two years after the release of The Observatory's Catacombs comes the Singapore band's first remix album. Widely regarded as The Observatory's darkest and angriest release, Catacombs is a texturally complex and viscerally emotional album, a study in delusion, insanity and obsession. Now, 11 respected artists from Singapore, China, Norway, Thailand/Japan, and the US, have been invited to enter the vortex of The Observatory and rebuild their own sonic worlds from the detritus of that landmark album. Titled after a key lyric from Catacombs, Behind These Eyes sees these 11 visionaries steering the trajectories of the original album in different directions, resulting in a sprawling double LP that is by turns more violent, calming, morose, euphoric, abstract, and elegiac. While listeners new to The Observatory will find in these disparate tracks a strange but certain unity of spirit borne from passionate experimentalism, fans of the band may find, over the four vinyl sides, a lingering sensation of familiar displacement and the uncanny. An album forged out of friendships and collaborations, Behind These Eyes is jointly released by The Observatory and Ujikaji.

Evan Tan is a sound designer for TV and film and has been involved in the local music scene since 1998. He was also a member of The Observatory from 2003 to 2011. Since 2002, he has been active in laptop music and the sound art scene, exploring field recordings, digital noise, electro-acoustic and electronic music.

"I wanted to remix 'Headworm' but it was already taken so I chose 'The Argument' for its fast tempo. I wanted it to be an abstract noisy affair at first but it was going nowhere so I changed the idea to a more beat-centric remix. I was listening to some new wave and industrial music and wanted some of the tacky elements like in Laibach, a Slovenian band."

Evan Tan - The Argument (Hard Truth Remix) (sample)

Two years after the release of The Observatory's Catacombs comes the Singapore band's first remix album. Widely regarded as The Observatory's darkest and angriest release, Catacombs is a texturally complex and viscerally emotional album, a study in delusion, insanity and obsession. Now, 11 respected artists from Singapore, China, Norway, Thailand/Japan, and the US, have been invited to enter the vortex of The Observatory and rebuild their own sonic worlds from the detritus of that landmark album. Titled after a key lyric from Catacombs, Behind These Eyes sees these 11 visionaries steering the trajectories of the original album in different directions, resulting in a sprawling double LP that is by turns more violent, calming, morose, euphoric, abstract, and elegiac. While listeners new to The Observatory will find in these disparate tracks a strange but certain unity of spirit borne from passionate experimentalism, fans of the band may find, over the four vinyl sides, a lingering sensation of familiar displacement and the uncanny. An album forged out of friendships and collaborations, Behind These Eyes is jointly released by The Observatory and Ujikaji.

Koichi Shimizu is a sound and multimedia artist as well as an event organiser based in Bangkok, Thailand. Born in Japan, Koichi studied sound engineering in New York. In 2003, he moved to Bangkok. As a sound designer and music composer for film, Shimizu has worked with international award winning directors, scoring for films such as Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves, Ploy, Nymph, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Syndromes and a Century, and Aditya Assarat's Wonderful Town. His latest work is Apichatpong's Uncle Boonmee, which won Palm d'Or at 2010's Cannes film festival. He also won Best Composer award for best music score for Nymph at 2010's Dubai International Film Festival. Currently, he also runs an independent record label SO::ON DRY FLOWER.

"First reason I picked this track 'Accidentagram' is I love this song. Another reason is that this song has simple but strong rhythm patterns. So I thought it is easier for me to approach with 'pattern and loop-based composition' which I normally do."

Koichi Shimizu - Accidentagram (Actified Mix) (sample)

Two years after the release of The Observatory's Catacombs comes the Singapore band's first remix album. Widely regarded as The Observatory's darkest and angriest release, Catacombs is a texturally complex and viscerally emotional album, a study in delusion, insanity and obsession. Now, 11 respected artists from Singapore, China, Norway, Thailand/Japan, and the US, have been invited to enter the vortex of The Observatory and rebuild their own sonic worlds from the detritus of that landmark album. Titled after a key lyric from Catacombs, Behind These Eyes sees these 11 visionaries steering the trajectories of the original album in different directions, resulting in a sprawling double LP that is by turns more violent, calming, morose, euphoric, abstract, and elegiac. While listeners new to The Observatory will find in these disparate tracks a strange but certain unity of spirit borne from passionate experimentalism, fans of the band may find, over the four vinyl sides, a lingering sensation of familiar displacement and the uncanny. An album forged out of friendships and collaborations, Behind These Eyes is jointly released by The Observatory and Ujikaji.

Long-time stalwart of Singapore's underground electronic music scene, Kiat has been championing the dark side of electronica for over 17 years. From the decks to the studio, it has always been about quality breaks, heavy bass lines and left-field influences. With tunes sought after by the top shelf DJs in the scene such as Goldie, Doc Scott, and Marky, just to name a few, Kiat has been featured as the Leader of the "Nu-Skool" in international drum & bass magazines, KNOWLEDGE and ATM.

In 2009, Kiat took it a level higher by launching a digital music label, Qilin, together with stablemate, The Vortex. He also co-founded Syndicate, the most forward thinking music+visual super-collective in Singapore, set to deconstruct and reassemble sound concepts and visual ideas with live performances and installation sets in various spaces and contexts. With Qilin and Syndicate rolling out nicely for the sugar addict, Kiat is currently finding inspiration from blending his primary love for experimental hip hop together with other progressive electronic sounds from the world over.

Kiat - Catacombs (Chamber Mix) (sample)

Two years after the release of The Observatory's Catacombs comes the Singapore band's first remix album. Widely regarded as The Observatory's darkest and angriest release, Catacombs is a texturally complex and viscerally emotional album, a study in delusion, insanity and obsession. Now, 11 respected artists from Singapore, China, Norway, Thailand/Japan, and the US, have been invited to enter the vortex of The Observatory and rebuild their own sonic worlds from the detritus of that landmark album. Titled after a key lyric from Catacombs, Behind These Eyes sees these 11 visionaries steering the trajectories of the original album in different directions, resulting in a sprawling double LP that is by turns more violent, calming, morose, euphoric, abstract, and elegiac. While listeners new to The Observatory will find in these disparate tracks a strange but certain unity of spirit borne from passionate experimentalism, fans of the band may find, over the four vinyl sides, a lingering sensation of familiar displacement and the uncanny. An album forged out of friendships and collaborations, Behind These Eyes is jointly released by The Observatory and Ujikaji.

Lasse Marhaug (b. 1974) has since the early 1990s been one of the most active artists in the Norwegian noise/experimental music scene. As a performer and composer he has contributed to well over 300 CD, vinyl, and cassette releases over the years, as well as extensive touring and performing live on all continents of the world. Marhaug was born in the northern regions above the arctic circle of Norway, but currently lives in Oslo.

"I chose this track 'Ends to No Means', because it was the first track that hit me when I first heard the Catacombs demos. In the mix I used both the demo and the album versions. Catacombs is a dark album, even for The Observatory, so my approach for the remix was to go venture further into the darkness. I wanted to obscure the melodies and rhythms and to liquefy the pale skulls of the dusty catacombs into a hallucinogenic elixir. I didn't want the remix to simply be a friendly gesture towards a group of musicians I admire. It needed to be a proper musical statement, built on the foundations of The Observatory's ideas. That's why the track became a 17-minute monster that fills an entire side of this double vinyl set. I'm sorry if I went too far and take up too music space, but some things you just have to go with all the way. (I would have cut the track down had I been asked to, but I'm humbly grateful that The Observatory chose to include the full version for this release). I worked on the track on two trips to North America - first in Mexico, and then a month later when I went to USA (New York). Both sessions were done in a fevered haze of jetlag, which always hits me hard when I travel west. Listening to it now it almost feels like it's the work of someone else."

Lasse Marhaug - Ends to No Means (sample)

Two years after the release of The Observatory's Catacombs comes the Singapore band's first remix album. Widely regarded as The Observatory's darkest and angriest release, Catacombs is a texturally complex and viscerally emotional album, a study in delusion, insanity and obsession. Now, 11 respected artists from Singapore, China, Norway, Thailand/Japan, and the US, have been invited to enter the vortex of The Observatory and rebuild their own sonic worlds from the detritus of that landmark album. Titled after a key lyric from Catacombs, Behind These Eyes sees these 11 visionaries steering the trajectories of the original album in different directions, resulting in a sprawling double LP that is by turns more violent, calming, morose, euphoric, abstract, and elegiac. While listeners new to The Observatory will find in these disparate tracks a strange but certain unity of spirit borne from passionate experimentalism, fans of the band may find, over the four vinyl sides, a lingering sensation of familiar displacement and the uncanny. An album forged out of friendships and collaborations, Behind These Eyes is jointly released by The Observatory and Ujikaji.

VAVABOND is an improvised laptop noise artist. Member of band VagusNerve (psychedelic noise) and duo Mind Fiber (environment improvise). Enthusiast of all the humming of the unknown signals such as electromagnetism, insect buzzing, and messages from the cosmos. Her interests include time-based practice, machine drones, sound glitches and improvisational structures. VAVABOND is based in Beijing, China.

"I chose this track 'One-dimensional One' because it gives a dark feeling, which is my favourite part of The Observatory's music. I met them two years after I remixed this track in Beijing. I really enjoyed their performances and appreciate them as musicians."

VAVABOND - One-dimensional One (sample)

http://ujikaji.bigcartel.com/product/pan-gu-the-people-are-panthers-cs

Artist: Pan Gu 
Title: The People are Panthers
Label: Ujikaji
Catalogue No: UJI-006CS
Format: C-30 Cassette Tape
Edition: 80
Release date: 7.7.2015

In October 2013, Singapore’s Leslie Low and Norway’s Lasse Marhaug, as Pan Gu, embarked on a 10-day tour of Southeast Asia in support of their debut LP, Primeval Man Born of the Cosmic Egg, released earlier that year on Utech Records (US). The music contained on the two sides of The People are Panthers is a documentation of two shows in Myanmar and Thailand, and demonstrates well the fluidity, tension, and intensity of Pan Gu’s inspired live interplay. The music, performed in venues and to audiences not necessarily initiated to experimental sound, nevertheless forges primal connections through elemental uses of sound – Leslie Low’s diaphanous guitar melodies sparkle then combust and melt into the viscous primordial soup of Lasse Marhaug’s live electronics, finding perfect peace within a relentless storm, and achieving an improvised music of profound meditative quality.

Pan Gu - The People are Panthers (album preview)

http://ujikaji.bigcartel.com/product/tim-o-dwyer-hysteresis-cd

Tim O’Dwyer makes his debut on Ujikaji Records with his third solo album, Hysteresis. Recorded in Cologne, Germany, while in residence at the Academy of the Arts of the World, the album features the 'meta-sax', a self-constructed hybrid instrument. By mounting controllers on the body of a playable alto saxophone, O'Dwyer processes his playing in real time to "extend the extended techniques of the saxophone".

Hysteresis is the memory of movement found within an object after the shifting forces have left. As French philosopher Gilles Deleuze describes how painter Francis Bacon prepared his work without sketches:

"This preparatory work is invisible and silent, yet extremely intense, and the act of painting itself appears as an afterward, an après-coup ('hysteresis') in relation to this work."

O'Dwyer uses hysteresis as a metaphor for the relationship between the acoustic and electronically processed sound of the saxophone.

Tim O'Dwyer - Hysteresis (album preview)

Artist: Marco Fusinato 
Title: Spectral Arrows: Singapore
Label: Ujikaji
Catalogue No: UJI-004LP
Format: Vinyl LP
Edition: 150
Release date: 22.4.2017

In Singapore, the year 2015 will for evermore be remembered as “SG50” – the state-led yearlong celebrations of Singapore’s 50th year of independence, marked by scores of heritage projects, commemorative merchandise (SG50 fish cakes, anyone?), festivals and more. 2015 was also a big year for Marco Fusinato. The sound and visual artist was selected to exhibit at the prestigious Venice Biennale’s headline international art exhibition, All the World’s Futures. Right smack in the middle of his Venice stint, Fusinato’s path intersected with that of Singapore’s, as the Australian artist installed his first major solo exhibition, Constellations, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS). This also brought Fusinato’s by-now legendary Spectral Arrows series of performances to the city-state, which saw the artist in an improvised durational performance using guitar and electronics. This LP-length documentation captures the immense energy and emotions of the 8-hour performance, marked by passages of eviscerating noise, abrupt shifts of tact, and tension-filled silence. Recorded live at the ICAS in the same month of Singapore’s national day and the culmination of SG50 festivities, Fusinato’s performance mirrored, and yet shattered, the relentless noise of the city-state’s yearlong golden jubilee celebrations. Locked grooves on both sides of this vinyl release mean that the audio can repeat ad infinitum.

Marco Fusinato - Spectral Arrows: Singapore (album preview)

Artist: Yan Jun & Yuen Chee Wai 
Title: Crows that have no eyes
Label: Ujikaji
Catalogue No: UJI-011CD
Format: CD
Edition: 300
Release date: 22.4.2017

Created from the non-standard use of electronics, hydrophone microphone and feedback, Crows that have no eyes is a patient and masterful 40-minute eai (electroacoustic improvisation) piece by two of Asia’s most exciting improvisers today. There is nothing close to a straightforward musical narrative here, only oblique strategies and a display of wits, curiosity and risk-taking; where the artists have opted for subtle but extreme frequencies that push against the limits of listening. This isn’t so much harsh noise as a harsh attitude – the music here is largely “quiet”, but still unsettling, as if king-of-noise Merzbow had decided to cover Morton Feldman by pricking your cochlea with a hairpin. 

The album title comes from one of Yan Jun’s old poems. He ruminates on this image: “what if a black crow has no eyes to be aware of his blackness? what if a crow receives his blackness from the dark, the essential void? […] what if the music comes from the void we call ‘silence’?” In his desultory liner notes, Yan Jun jumps across topical affairs, from the government-sanctioned culling of crows and the regulation of live music during the Hindu Thaipusam festival in Singapore, to the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. He notes when “protestors keep silent, making the streets a breathless whirlpool. it’s a tactic of calling out the invisible power.” For Yuen, the album takes on a much more personal meaning, a meditation on the relationship between desire and memory. The music of Crows that have no eyes is abstract and resists easy interpretation, an open work which one could read both the political and the personal into.

This is the debut recording of Yan Jun (China) and Yuen Chee Wai (Singapore). Yan Jun is a musician and poet, a key figure of Chinese experimental music. Yuen is a musician and artist working with sound, presently a member of avant-rock band The Observatory. Both are members of the improv group FEN (Far East Network), which also consists of Otomo Yoshihide (Japan) and Ryu Hankil (S. Korea).

Yan Jun & Yuen Chee Wai - Crows that have no eyes (album preview)

Purchase a copy at ujikaji.bandcamp.com

Yuen Chee Wai is a musician, artist, designer and curator based in Singapore. Often inspired by ideas drawn from philosophical and literary texts, and perspectives glimpsed through the filmic eye and photographic lens, Yuen’s stylistic oeuvre in improvised music is marked by internalised reflections on memory and loss, invisibility and indeterminacy. In 2008, he teamed with Otomo Yoshihide (Japan), Ryu Hankil (South Korea), and Yan Jun (China) to form FEN (Far East Network), a music quartet that continues to work with multifaceted networks and collaborations between musicians and artists across Asian countries. He is also a member of the avant-rock band The Observatory, with whom he plays guitar, synth and electronics. 

Lasse Marhaug has since the early 1990s been one of the most active artists in the Norwegian noise/experimental music scene. As a performer and composer he has contributed to well over 300 CD, vinyl and cassette releases over the years, as well as extensive touring and performing live on all continents of the world. In addition to his solo work, Marhaug has collaborated with many artists in the fields of noise, experimental, improv, jazz, rock and metal, as well as working with music and sound for theatre, dance, installations, cinema and video. 

In 2006, the two spent a full night recording together at the now defunct FluxUs record store in Singapore. The material for the sessions were partially mixed, but remained unfinished. Ten years later, in 2016, the two met again to record in Marhaug’s Oslo studio. The previous recording wasn’t thought of during the new session, but in the course of the mixing it was discovered that the two recordings fit together like a glove. The long-form droney 2006 sessions, recorded late at night in the humid heat of Singapore, complimented the more angular electronic 2016 recording, which was captured in daytime during the brutally cold January winter of Norway. The opposing qualities of the sessions complemented each other, and now the result is available as “In Praise of Shadows”. Sometimes it takes ten years to make an album. 

“In Praise of Shadows” is co-released by Pica Disk (PICA045) and Ujikaji Records (UJI-010LP) as a vinyl LP, as well as streaming/download via Bandcamp. The LP features liner notes by Marhaug, as well as photography by Philipp Aldrup.

Yuen Chee Wai & Lasse Marhaug - In Praise of Shadows (album preview)

LP / DL at ujikaji.bandcamp.com

“Authority is alive!”

Recorded live at the Playfreely Festival in Singapore, November 2019, Authority is Alive is a potent performance mixed from an intoxicating brew of poetry, philosophy and sonic alchemy. Bearing the theme “The Transparency of Turbulence”, the festival featured a strong line-up of East Asian and Southeast Asian artists and bore the ambition to be “an alternative to how we coalesce and navigate a region that is continuously torn apart by words, egos, greed and ideologies.”  

“Everything... living... breathe...”

In an unannounced coupling, Japan’s psychedelic and avant-garde legend Haino Keiji teamed up with Singapore’s art rock veterans The Observatory to deliver a visceral performance. Both have a history of using collaboration as method and it is evident that this meeting pushed all musicians to their creative and emotional limits. Haino, alternating between voice and guitar, was sonic shaman, channelling the raw forces of nature through his entire body. Ad libbing from a self-penned poem, his expressionistic vocals spanned tortured shrieks and falsetto whispers on ideas such as the nature of power, the dissolution of the self and the notion of mu-i 無為 (wu wei, or effortless action). Elsewhere, his guitar workouts were wild and unhinged, pure propulsions of energy. 

“Do not find...”

The Observatory, pared down to a three-piece since 2019, showed off their new predilection for thrilling improvisation influenced by their Southeast Asian roots. Dharma’s use of a mallet to strike his guitar, prepared with metallic sheets and rods between its strings, created moving, gamelan-like melodies. At certain points, in call-and-response fashion, percussive polyrhythms would be exchanged with Cheryl Ong on drum kit; Ong’s background in traditional Chinese percussion brings a fresh take to an instrument typically employed in western rock and jazz idioms. Meanwhile, Yuen Chee Wai sat his guitar on a knife’s edge between control and excess, introducing beautifully resonant tone clusters and harsh, crunchy noise. 

“Be found!”

Under the dim lights of the mid-size black box venue, with audience members sitting cosily at their feet, Haino and The Observatory led an ecstatic communion. Mixed and mastered by Lasse Marhaug, the chance to lose – and find – ourselves in this otherworldly performance is now here.

Ujikaji Records

Popular tracks