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A Dirge of Knives

by Yutokaiomaru

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_takechiya
_takechiya thumbnail
_takechiya The multiplicity of sound experiments in this record makes it feel like a sparsely painted white canvas of silence.

Sparsely, but intricate - still the title track brings forth a narrative on the semiotics of surreptitious violence in folklore. The knife, the fire, the scissors. The metal and the blood. Favorite track: A Dirge of Knives.
Itamar Alves
Itamar Alves thumbnail
Itamar Alves Very demanding and rewarding ambient noise collages, like kabuki theater melting in your ears by way of faulty electricity.

Does it make sense? Hell, yeah. It pays to let it wash over you.
Miguel Ángel Espinel
Miguel Ángel Espinel thumbnail
Miguel Ángel Espinel great storytelling starting with the longer track featuring reverberated harsh knife sounds, background ambiance, noise, beautiful koto passages, and much more, leading into shorter pieces with very individual characteristics invoking a wide range of emotions and states
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Tombo Dama 02:56
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Ojeriza 03:51

about

"A Dirge of Knives", the avant-garde project Yutokaiomaru's debut, is a sound piece inspired by the story of ABE SADA. Track IV was inspired and titled after Hiroaki Samura's book of the same name.


I - A DIRGE OF KNIVES [27:36]
knives, shamisen, eggs, drums/perc, fire, electronics, koto, voice, scissors, watermelon, guitar, hammer on concrete, keys/synth, pedals, feedback, nails, power tools, tape manipulation, bass, field recording, amplified objects, cook, flute, etc

II - TOMBO DAMA [2:56]
drum tone, bird

III - PREDICTING THE WORST [2:40]
microphone, amplified ceramic pot, touch,
2 pedalboard combo

IV - LOVE OF THE BRUTE [2:15]
guitar, bass, electric piano

V - OJERIZA [3:51]
electronics, contacts, amplified household objects, computer, pedals

"The album was conceived in a way I felt it's following a storyline. The main sonic concept I had in mind when I started working on it was the relevance of silence, then I tried to use it in a way it could enhance further aggresion. For example, most musicians focus on notes and beats, of course you need to write it down and play it, but the silence between each hit stabilishes and defines, it's part of the composition as much as any melodic idea. In fact, you would learn much about reading space and the interval of time if you want to deal with music scores. So I always appreciated quieter ambient/industrial/electroacoustic pieces, the idea of something rhythmic and the lack of proper melodies, textures, ghost notes... But there is something else about the use of breaks when it comes to give the listener time to digest a punch, while the hush intensifies the expectation and impact of what's coming next. Japanese folk/theater music is mostly based on this strike/stop dynamic, as if the music is divided into short blocks of vocal choruses, instrumental and.. emptiness. I certainly used the idea of music blocks - frames - scenes thousand of times before. But what I wanted to reach in here, well succeeded or not, was not what I did before, often cartoonesque jazz to grind to random noise to something ridiculous. The goal was, without much thought and more feeling-driven, to arrange the right flow of minimalistic sounds among higher frequencies and explosions. I'm not talking about 4:33", there is barely a full silence moment in the piece, but quieter blocks waiting for something unexpected. In the end, I enjoyed the idea of proportioning an extreme version of Kabuki, so the sparseness of it all got pretty unique (for good, in my opinion), but the perfect example of what I was looking for to begin with is the atmosphere I get from Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck's "Ho" record. Also, movies without soundtrack and how they can be even deeper than incidental music accompanied ones. I remember the intro of Haneke's Amour, the guys breaking into the apartment killed me, I wanted to put some strategical blast like that on record!

In the title track you can hear the sound of: knives (!), scissors and other blades; japanese folk instruments and a few samplers captured from noh and kabuki theater performances; eggs being fried, fire and broken shells processed; a watermelon; percussion interplaying with me breaking a wall with a hammer; edited guitar/bass/drum (original and mine, as 98% of audio source I work with - people still think Cult of Dementia was mostly made of collage samplers I got from elsewhere when it was the opposite); keys/synth + pedals + mic feedback; nails and power tools; tape manipulation, field recording and an ugly ceramic dog amplified as well as other household objects and weird noises from random machines.

The remaining tracks are pretty different from each other, from a percussive experiment to jazz/fusion to harsh noise, but they're all part of the composition and its scenarios."

credits

released August 2, 2021

writen, directed and produced by YUTOKAIOMARU
released by ULTRA GASH RECORDS, 2021
UGR-18

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Ultra Gash Records Osaka, Japan

CONTACT: INSTAGRAM (link below)

Obscure, extreme and avant/experimental non-profit label & publishing co. founded in Japan, 2019 and currently based in Brazil. Enthusiastically working with DIY media - anything rare, noisy or bizarre. GET SKRONKY! ... more

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