» Press »  Yui Onodera | Entropy

Two releases on Tokyo's neophyte Trumn label each with their own peculiarly Japanese take on ambiance. In the case of Yui Onodera's, label head, Hideho Takemasa, describes Entropy as "the most sought-after item of all his releases," partly a consequence of a highly limited first release (on Onodera's own Critical Path), but, to be fair, also due to its compelling quality. Still a relative youngster at 27, he's lately made increasing incursions, with a series of albums on taâem, Mystery Sea, and/OAR, and Gears of Sand. Entropy betrays no signs of age despite its 5-year vintage, sounding fresh as ever; the kind of work that's blazed (or rather 'lightly singed') a trail for the small-gesture large-affect micro-symphonics of a new wave of cosy-drone cottage industrialites - labels like Home Normal, Low Point, Under the Spire and Hibernate. And also led the way for fellow rising sun 'scapers like Chihei Hatekayama and Hakobune.

Entropy's parts - a layering of harmony from guitars, streaks of field-found noises off and signal processing - will be familiar (see all of the above labels). It's a familiarity that breeds admiration not contempt; not that Onodera does it better so much as he has the touch. And touch is what endows music of this stripe with the compelling quality mentioned earlier - what separates this soundscape sheep from the goaty herd. Entropy's constituents, once established, are then variously configured and held up to the light, or maneuvered gently through the shade. If there is a Japanese aspect discernible in these elegant compositions, it's their uncluttered nature that leaves space for still substantial bounty. Simple chordal shifts, a delicate reticence of melody playing at the edges, frequency inflections and timbral tweakage. As the border between surface and depth is navigated, Onodera's locus/focus ranges from the geo-spatial mysteries of Biosphere to the stunned-bliss stargazing of SotL, taking in the more intimate microscopics of Celer. The intricacy of the minutiae hidden in the folds and rhizomes of sound open up to scrutiny, like snowflakes through the lens of Onodera's focus-shifting micro-viewer. A certain density no sooner develops than it cedes into more minimal tonal terrain, where pacific streams emerge then resurge into more ambiguous, though ultimately benign, waters. As movements progress, immersion creeps, seeps more immanently, till "09" opens beyond the light into harmonic radiance, the chafings of field recordings below submerged by a mounting melody of expansion lifting us into "10." Here the sensations of tone suffuse the listener with serenity, in a final dissolution of tensions. Entropy - a measure for the proportion of disorder in the universe - is always rising. Onodera's construct is of a different order - an antidote, in fact, in aural form.

If guitar is the star of Onodera's firmament, bass is the place for Tokyo-based improv-minimalist, Shuichi Tamaru. His Figure is leaner, even consumptive - a spartan ethnography of his lugubrious instrument's tonality. A simple process system involving footpedals and real-time processing is set in train. Bass tones are drawn out via volume pedals, and fed to processors set to generate long-interval delays. Then further tones are spread over the seams. A head-achey bass hum that sometimes thrums with subtle shifts of processing intervention. Tamaru keeps it clean and close to first bass/base, the object of his ear's desire residing in the natural overtone layers of the instrument's resonances. Here is a drone redolent of faraway planes passing over. There is a long dark vector snaking through evacuated terrain. Between the expanses of lowflow, off-chords peek through, now and then a rumble and a crumble. A shadowy Zen Garden-like mood prevails, pebbles and the odd rock, raking sounds relieving otherwise sparse expanses, Tamaru's palette deliberately reined in on these lowlight tone sketches. "Torso" starts, a single string plucked and re-plucked, its decay fed to delay and captured in frozen fluidity. "Juju," almost dynamic by comparison, growls quietly, mysterious microtonal ripples triggered by delay overlay in a dialogue with the aleatory. Tamaru's musical philosophy of asceticism means gesture is subsumed to gaze, alternately rapt and stunned by tonal slippage and elision. The music of chance is given little voice, as improv incursions come in spurts, small timbral tweaks and frequency flickers - the short discontinuous inciding in the long continuous. And though Figure is thin gruel for those used to wallowing in textural transport, deep listeners may find here a certain elliptical beauty in these twilight tones as they arc and tilt, fade away and resonate.

Alan Lockett

Initialement paru en 2004 sous format cd-r et et édition limitée, Entropy se voit ici republié dans une version plus aboutie et avec un packaging qui a autrement plus de classe. Indisponible depuis un moment, cette nouvelle édition va nous permettre de découvrir un artiste Japonais qui, pour l’instant, n’était connu que par une poignée de personnes. Il faut dire que le genre qui mêle ambiant et drone sort difficilement du cercle des initiés. Ou alors il faut être signé sur une structure à haute renommée comme Touch pour voir son nom apparaitre ailleurs que dans des médias plus que ciblés. Il faut alors espérer que son passage chez le label Trumn amorce pour le Japonais un nouveau départ. Quoi qu’il en soit le thème de ce premier album est un sujet tout à fait universel : l’entropie. En dix pièces Onodera tente de donner une image, sans doute imparfaite, de ce que suscite le terme. Cependant, le caractère abstrait de sa musique laisse libre court à l’interprétation de l’auditeur. Onodera ne fait qu’ouvrir des pistes, amorce un début de réponse mais c’est bien à nous de nous poser les bonnes questions et d’adapter ces formes sonores à notre vision des choses. On pourra y croiser nos propres fantômes et s’imposer un questionnement profond sur ce qui nous entoure.

La musique apaisante d’Onodera n’est sans doute qu’un leurre. Implicitement elle cherche autre chose. Froidement, méthodiquement, tour à tour ambiant, dronesque et incluant un click’n’cut discret, Onodera développe cliniquement ses pièces monolithiques qui, à l’image de la pochette, sont à portée de vue de la brume, se plaçant au-dessus d’un paysage accidenté mais rassurant par sa beauté naturelle. Ainsi, Entropy, au-delà des belles qualités sonores qu’il nous propose, est un album avec qui on a une réelle familiarité. Cette notion d’introspection et d’apesanteur n’est sans doute pas nouvelle et Onodera ne fait sans doute que creuser un sillon déjà existant, mais notre homme fait les choses d’une belle manière, poursuivant son idée tout en essayant de se montrer aussi doué que ceux qui l’ont précédé. Au vu des 47 minutes que dure Entropy le pari semble être gagné haut la main. Rien ne semble altérer la musique du Japonais. Belle, assurée et hors de tout maniérisme. Nous n’avons besoin de rien d’autre.

Pondard Fabien

A welcome reissue of the debut release from Tokyo based drone musician Onodera suffers from a terrible misnomer. This is anything but the sound of entropy. While the range of sounds on offer may be sparse, the ideas cementing them together, the clarity of the conception and the quality of the execution imbues his music with both life and movement, languid life and gentle movement admittedly, but life and movement nonetheless.

Onodera's compositional techniques marries amorphous tone with occasional flurries of grittier textures. His music draws from a broader palette than simple drone as loops, swirls, pulses and eddies all contribute to the heady psychedelic swell. It's difficult to really pin down Onodera's compositions as they have a deceptively nebulous quality that avoids detailed listening which is a quality I like very much as it gives the music a longevity that is easily lost in music that one can pin down and analyse. It's intrinsic nature is to drift across your attention allowing itself to be glanced at but not watched.

Beautiful music.

Ian Holloway

Originally released in scant quantities in 2005, this stunning work from the wonderful Yui Onodera gets a timely re-issue here on the newly formed Trumn imprint out of Tokyo. What this proves (as if it needed proving) is that Onodera has been ploughing his own furrow in a low-key way and, in a lot of respects, is only receiving the plaudits he deserves. I know that I feel like I came to the party a little late. But, I'm here now and 'Entropy' is exactly the kind of album that I love to sit back and collapse to, or work to, or just sit and daydream to.

It has an ethereal, drifting quality and the variety of the pieces is lovely. Once again, it's the sort of album that you could call drone, and indeed there are plenty of subaquatic textures and muted chords here, but there's more in the shape of more experimental sounds and recordings that punctuate those more ambient moments. That's the beauty of this – one moment you're submerged in a filtered down, bubbling sound and the next there's an uplifting, sublime chord awaiting you before adding in a gentle guitar and then something a little more abstract. Predominantly, though, Onodera is all about the feeling and mood and the one thing that's common throughout every track on this album is the fact that there's always a delicate and fragile beauty residing within each piece.

The combination of music and absolutely wonderful oversized packaging with beautiful printing mean this is an item you'll be enjoying for years to come. A big warm welcome to Trumn here at Smallfish – and what a way to kick things off. Highly recommended for fans of the deep side.

Remote_

Plenty of artists we love have mustered beautiful, droney compositions through the act of decay. Look no further than the AQ favorites from William Basinski's sublime Disintegration Loops, the crumbling digitalia of Tim Hecker, and even our own Jim Haynes has his special rusting techniques with sound and image. So when it comes to an album called Entropy which comes from the Japanese drone 'n' field recordist Yui Onodera, we have to wonder how it measures up.

We gotta say this is a beautiful piece of grey-smeared ambience, but we're scratching our head over how this sounds like the world falling apart. This would be a perfect rainy day, contemplative soundtrack, but not exactly a meditation on entropy. Well, maybe except for the Loren Chasse-like crumbling of soil, pebbles, and leaves on the untitled second track which quietly tumbles into a series of evolving loops that blur into a sleep-inducing drone of oceanic waves and shimmering tones. The way this track progresses is how the entire record is situated -- a very calm, sedate, yet hypnotizing collection of drones and tones that float out of stacked guitars and processed field recordings. The fourth track is pure drone bliss straight out of the Chalk / Coleclough axis of smeared dronemaking precision; and the sixth has more of a Popul Vuh two-note melody oozing out of Onodera's shoegazing guitar chords, which have been filtered, layered, re-recorded, layered again, echoed, reverbed, and back again. Onodera has produced some great recordings for Mystery Sea and And/OAR, but this one was actually something he released back in 2005 through his Critical Path imprint. Even if this doesn't inspire the idea of entropy for us, Onodera has still made a fantastic and beautiful drone record here. Check it out!

Yui Onodera est un artiste japonais de 27 ans, déjà auteur de plusieurs albums CD-R et un CD, (Suisei) chez And/OAR. Sa première référence était l'album Entropy, alors publié sur son propre label, Critical Path, créé pour l'occasion. Aujourd'hui épuisé, ce premier album CD-R voit aujourd'hui le jour en format CD via cette réédition par Trumn. On retrouve le même type d'objet que pour l'album de Tamaru, carton épais au format DVD dans une pochette plastique, toujours sous la direction du label/studio Singapourien Kitchen..

Ce deuxième album du label Trumn nous permet aussi d'avoir une idée un peu plus précise de l'orientation musicale de celui-ci qui semble jusque là conforter sa position dans un registre minimal-ambient-drone qui n'est pas pour nous déplaire. Ici le Japonais joue l'alternance entre une ambient où s'emmêlent et se croisent nappes et drones, et une ambient organique avec des pièces envahies de crépitements, bruitages granuleux (piste 5), peut-être parfois des sons concrets traités si l'on se fie à notre impression d'entendre des frottements de bouts de bois sur la deuxième piste.

l'image de la pochette, photo d'un paysage perdu dans la brume, Entropy joue sur des contours flous, sur le mystère, avec des sonorités parfois marquées d'un certain souffle ou de résonances métalliques (piste 1), pouvant même aller jusqu'à susciter une certaine inquiétude dans les passages les plus sombres, lorsque des drones graves et oscillants se font dominants (piste 3) alors que juste après c'est un sentiment de clarté et sérénité qui reprend le dessus (piste 4).

Le minimalisme qui domine, une certaine linéarité aussi, pourront orienter cet album dans le registre ambient lunaire/polaire, effectivement pas si éloigné parfois des ambiances de Biosphere, et ce même si les deux artistes ont des approches complètement différentes au niveau de la composition. Ce serait aussi cataloguer un peu rapidement le Japonais qui délivre parfois de magnifiques mélodies (toujours à base de nappes) sur le superbe sixième titre. Enfin, sur les derniers morceaux, l'origine même des sons, se fait plus claire, laissant apparaître l'acoustique qui se cachait derrière les effets électroniques. Moins de traitements peut-être, et du coup on apprécie les fins frottements métalliques (bol tibétain ? cymbales ?) sur la piste 9, pour réaliser piste 10 que toutes ces nappes et drones proviennent d'une classique guitare.

Pour amateur d'ambient et autres musiques horizontales, Entropy est un superbe album flottant, quelque part entre ciel et terre.

Fabrice Allard

The artwork of this reissue of Yui Onodera's self-released CD-R features a handsome Jon Wozencroft-style photograph of a fogbound landscape, and the sounds within aspire to the dreamtime electronica of Lawrence English, Biosphere, BJ Nilsen and plenty of others on Touch. The title is a little misleading, as many of the sounds are caught in an Ambient stasis. Field recordings present traces of rust soon to be consumed in the next vaporous drone. Shoegazing melodies from Onodera's guitar push to the foreground throughout; it's best heard on the untitled sixth track, which should have stretched out longer to give its mournful two note melody room to grow.

Jim Haynes

Das japanische Trumn Records legt den uprünglich 2005 erschienenen „Entropy“-Longplayer von YUI ONODERA neu auf. Der in Tokio lebende Soundtüftler ist in seinem Schaffen dem gelebten und blanken Minimalismus verschrieben. Zwischen Ambient, Drone und experimenteller Elektronik entwickelt er sterile Soundscapes unter Einsatz von Gitarre und Computer/Noise-Maschine. Interessant ist dabei die Tatsache, dass es dem Japaner gelingt, trotz eines fast nicht existenten Tempos und marginalem Input eine kontinuierliche Entwicklung zu vertonen, die das Interesse des sehr aufgschlossenen Hörers wachhält. Bisweilen gibt es allein elektronische Geräusche zu hören, die ungute Gefühle hervorrufen und direkt aufs Unterbewusstsein zielen. Als Geräuschkulisse für fernöstliche Horror-Shocker taugt das zumeist nihilsistisch und destruktiv wirkende „Entropy“ allemal. Um seine Hörer nicht zu sehr zu verschrecken, setzt YUI ONODERA aber auch gelegentlich auf „verträumte“ Passagen, die sich mit etwas mehr Input entwickeln und das entfachte Gefühlschaos kurzzeitig wieder ordnen. Die Co-Existenz halbwegs nachvollziehbarer Strukturen und experimenteller LoFi-Improvisation, wie sie auf „Entropy“ umgesetzt ist, ist alles andere als leichte Kost. Ambient-Drone-Fans werden davon begeistert sein.

Arne Kupetz

Entropy was originally released on Yui Onodera's Critical Path label in 2005 and consists of ten minimal ambient pieces constructed in 2004-2005. Onodera's highly processed use of field recordings, electronics and guitar constructs these electro-acoustic environments which elicit and reflect a meditative state. ‘Track one’ builds its sonic texture into a threshold pulse drone affair. ‘Track two’ is more concerned with the manipulation of field recordings and their acoustic possibilities, gradually building resonant trails. ‘Track Three’ is a wavering intense microtonal piece bordering on reverent postures. ‘Track Four’ opens up a lighter space with its sharp high tones and the play of their longevity as bright sonic planes. ‘Track Five’ opens up more sonic static and glitch domains. A brief description of all the other tracks on the album would reveal them to be of the order of complex minimal microsound environments familiar to listeners of contemporary electronic ambient. The packaging on this release is excellent as well, hard stock card printed with photography by Erica Lai, holds to the minimal aesthetic presenting maximum content. Yui Onodera clearly demonstrates here his ability to create impressive sonic effect with a quiet presence of subtle variations and control.

Innerversitysound

Still relatively young at 27, Yui Onodera has recently made a discreetly decisive impact on the scene of modern-day ambient with a series of absorbing outings on labels such as And/OAR and Mystery Sea. Entropy is described by Trumn head honcho Hideho Takemasa as "the most sought-after item of all his releases" and this reissue of the 2005 Critical Path album comes in a gorgeous gatefold package adorned by a splendid photograph of a remote mountain area immersed in mist. The pieces were entirely realized using electric guitars, field recordings and electronics, all subtly yet effectively treated. What I've always liked in this artist's work is its absolute lack of that arrogance which transforms much of this music into pretentious "look-at-my-holiness" void. Onodera makes undemanding suggestions, eradicating the bell-and-whistle factor from the approach to the composition and deploying his materials more or less as they are, leaving us to contemplate them in their almost total nudity, Jesus on the cross barely touched by the sunrays. Certain segments vaguely recall another master distiller of six-stringed perfumes, Paul Bradley, whose methodical seriousness the Japanese shares, but the evocative two-chord sequence of the sixth and the seventh chapters of this cycle is pure Onodera, a mixture of childlikeness and dedication that makes me smile in acceptance.

Massimo Ricci

Over the last months, a plethora of drone-related albums have piled up on our desk. Several of them have been of exceptional quality: Imaginative, personal, pristinely realised, daring even. And yet few artists have been able to sustain their ambitions over a prolonged series of releases like Yui Onodera. The three albums he churned out in 2007 alone would have fueled the career of other artists for at least a decade: „Substrateﾒ on Mystery Sea revealed a pure and hypnotic world of overtones, „Suisei“ (AND/OAR) constituted an epic journey into the heart of Tokyo, while „Rhizome“ (Gears of Sand) was a colourful, multistylistic effort with a strong melodic underpinning. Onodera, it seemed, had discovered a foolproof creative formula and the way he was lavishly applying its ardent arithmetics to a string of continuously immaculate albums implied there were more and possibly even greater things to come.

This, of course, is the main trait of all leading artists: Never holding anything back from their audiences in fear of having nothing left to say one day. And yet, for a second there, it seemed as though the well had indeed dried up. After being administered the accolade of the genre by releasing a 7inch on seminal label Drone Records, Onodera lapsed into silence. „Radiance“, a collaboration with The Beautiful Schizophonic and officially published only a couple of days ago, is his first new full-length in almost one and a half years and its shimmering harmonies and glowing production are sure to again raise attention. „Entropy“, meanwhile, is an older work, Onodera's first in fact, and it takes listeners back all the way to 2005, when he was just setting up his Critical Path imprint and assembling a circle of like-minded young Japanese Sound Artists. His relative fame was restricted to his homeland back then, withholding the music from most of the world's ears. Re-released on nascent record company Trumn, it however sounds as fresh as ever today and demonstrates just how mature he had already been when debuting on the scene.

It also underlines that a combination of solid craftsmanship and good-old inspiration can still yield impressive results which are „characterized by values and concepts that are different from everything so far“ (as he himself put it): Onodera uses a typical setup of Guitar, field recordings and electronics here and most pieces on „Entropy“ consist of a recognisable amalgamation of various layers of harmonics, noises and micro-sounds. Still, the record is capable of evoking insistent images of burning intensity. Each track is like a psychedelic still-life, like gazing through a cosmic caleidoscope with shardes of stardust gracefully creating shifting patterns at the pace of planetational rotation. The music reveals its constituents early on – simple two-chord loops, melodic movements, frequential pulsation and timbral friction – and then allows the audience to observe them from various angles and in slightly different constellations over the course of their brief four- to five-minute duration. Effectively, listening to this album feels a little bit like walking through an exposition of holographic sculptures electrically flickering in serene darkness to the beat of random fluctuations in power supply.

On the one hand, the accuracy of his vision is astounding: Each scene is carved out with utmost precision and a great sensitivity for mood: In the best of Japanese traditions, his compositions are the most immediate realisation of a single idea imaginable. They should not be seen as symbols but as strikingly vivid expressions of life. On the other, Onodera is constructing a greater picture from these small-scale miracles as well. Juxtaposition is the main creative tool on „Entropy“, with dense ambiances taking turns with minimalistic microtonal sketches and light-filled amniotic soundscapes seaguing into the foreboding waters of a dark sonic river. With each new piece, the immersive character of the album grows, culminating in a sensation of immense tranquility when tension finally dissolves into the calm final movement.

Despite constant claims that it no longer had anything new to say, the Drone genre has only grown more prolific and seminal labels like Drone Records and Mystery Sea are planning their release schedules years rather than months ahead. As similar as some of its techniques and approaches have necessarily been by default, the allure of this kind of music has always been its unique ability of voicing a vast and indiscribable mystery in an immediate and emotionally direct vocabulary. As the market becomes saturated, artists like Yui Onodera are thus becoming ever-more important: Even the sound of small stones and subtle tones rubbed against each other sounds spooky and enigmatic with him and there seem to be lightyears of whispering dark matter separating tonal layers in his tracks. His work always goes that one decisive step deeper, his sounds touching the very chakral points of your synapses. As imaginative and daring as many of his colleagues may be, only few can match that.

Tobias Fischer

'Entropy', by Japanese artist Yui Onodera, is the second release by the new label Trumn. It was released simultaneously with T01, Tamaru's 'Figure', but explores an entirely different scope of artistry through listening and composition. Packaged in a tall, 3-panel vertical case, with heavy cardboard, and high-quality printing, these are more than just albums, they are reminders of just how beautiful and special the full spectrum of experiencing an album can be. With cover photography by Erica Lai, spanning the entire front and back of the album, and design by Ricks Ang and April Lee of Kitchen, the artwork is another testament to the superb quality of design.

'Entropy' was originally released on Yui Onodera's own label, Critical Path, in 2005. It was his first release, and was created when he was only 22 years old. While the original release on Critical Path sold out very quickly, Trumn has given it a larger, and more expansive focus these 4 years later. One remarkable and surprising fact about 'Entropy', is that it was not changed in any way from the original that was released in 2005. Even though the option to remaster, change or tweak was available, it was decided that it would remain the same. In these current times when there are so many re-mixes, re-masters, or small changes that artists use to improve their works, it is refreshing to see an album remain in its original, untouched form. A classic remains so.

From the first sounds that appear in 'Entropy', in Track 01 (all tracks are untilted), I am reminded of the unique reactions that I have each time I listen to a release by Yui Onodera. These sounds glide into audibility with a gentleness and grace that remind me of snapshots of moments from another world, somewhere isolated and distant, and void of decipherable notions. Track 01 is no exception, creating a dark and grey open expanse, characterized by a whirring chorus of faint voice-like sound, undercurrents of rising high-pitch particles, and swelling motions that eclipse vision and leave the track in a faint, distant echo.

Track 02 represents an altogether different phase of inversed reality, presenting field recordings that have a recollection of truth, but also the crisp and altered misrepresentation of imagination. The sounds have a contained extent, as if inside of a rusted-over kitchen crawling with crisp dysfunction, and an almost insect-like frequency of movement. Track 03 opens with a gentle hum, reminiscent of an outdoor sound of humming industries nearby. Wallowed waves of guitar glide inside, opening up a glistening but completely pure harmonic stream that pulls tightly to the sounds, expanding but restrained to the final moments of silence. This track represents examples of Onodera's unique compositional methods, where multiple movements enter the whole of music at different stages, allowing for evolution of a buildup, but while remaining direct and entirely emotive. Alternations are omnipresent, and gliding.

Track 04, a particular favorite, continues in a similar, yet more gentle form from Track 03. With its full bell-like tone throughout, the gentle stream is never broken, and travels gently and solely across a barren space of time, with small sparkles of pops and purrs beneath the surface, while the main tone rises and with a turn, displays such a moment of emotional impact that its almost impossible to listen on repeat. The turns happen before you are aware, and with precision that leaves you with questions. Complication is so impressive, here. In Track 05, there is a domination of bubbling pops, far-off echoes, and a whistling that highly mimics a train passing in the distance, separated by buildings. If I was to imagine another scene, it would be the greyness of empty city streets, hidden by the haze of the afternoon, with trains passing in the distance, their lights the sole illumination from a single apartment window. The perfect soundtrack for the futurism of modernity.

Track 06 is a full flush of beauty, with an inner exploration of deep organs, channeling lopping feedback of high frequency static, playing with corners of the stereo field. Nature makes rings of sound here, transporting those brilliant deep pools of sound further into the deepest tunnels of the city. The last time I listened to this, was on a subway train. It seemed to last for the duration of each station to station, and to match the shakes of the car. With an almost airy sound, Track 07 floats through its entire length with a peacefulness of perception and humanity. Sounds are given great care for duration, and for circumstance. There is attention given to tenderness, and it is most apparent here. Laying down a depth similar to Track 06, Track 08 pushes the listener into an even deeper, full environment of pulsing tones, smoothed deep sounds, almost bubbling and exploding in distant earshot. The melodies are slowly approaching, and always changing with a stretched fervor.

With a slowly cascading opening, Track 09 enters similarly to Track 06, but instead opening to lightness, through beautiful harmonics. Pressures are released, and the scratching sounds of field recordings are apparent below, but always soundtracked by that climbing melody of expansion. It is lifting, transcendent, and indeterminate. With Track 10, we come to the finale, and for this it was perfectly picked. With a gently rising melody of guitar, the sound is most entrancing, absolutely warming, and as emotive as ever. To say it is beautiful through optimism is too much, because of the gentle tenderness that is present, and seems just as representative of sadness. What comes to mind to me, is the word entropy, through my own interpretations, and relations here. How do we fit in these situations and lives that we have? In a way, to me, 'Entropy' is more about understanding the divisions, and how we continue and experience passing these barriers.

Will Thomas Long / Floor Sugar   *Review also available in Floor Sugar store blog

Юи Онодера – молодой японский композитор, успевший за последние годы заявить о себе, издав несколько альбомов на известных независимых лейблах, таких, как Drone records, and/OAR, Mystery Sea. Данный релиз – переиздание его дебютного диска, выпущенного когда-то силами собственного лейбла.

Музыка Юи, по-восточному задумчивая и созерцательная, создана при помощи электрогитар, электроники и полевых записей, и, если вы знакомы с продукцией вышеупомянутых рекорд-компаний, то без труда сможете представить себе, как она звучит. Гитарные звуки, прошедшие через вереницу эффектов, порождают мягкие гулы, иногда плотные и нерушимые, иногда дрожащие и неустойчивые. Использование электронных инструментов привносит в звучание элементы «космического» саунда. Трансформированные звуки окружающего мира, когда-то принадлежавшие камням, ветру, деревьям, людям и зданиям, теперь разложены на молекулы, мельчайшие перетекающие и шуршащие элементы. Эти прерывистые структуры идеально сочетаются с малоподвижными облаками гитарных звуков, создавая в целом музыку отстраненную и малозаметную, не выдающуюся, на первый взгляд, яркими мелодиями или интересными созвучиями. Однако, как и следует из древней мудрости, великое по прежнему находится в малом, и эти десять безымянных композиций, если прислушаться, содержат гораздо больше, чем может показаться на первый взгляд. Кажется, не смотря на название диска, японский музыкант не старается приблизить энтропию, а наоборот, оказывает ей посильное сопротивление, атакуя пусть и нестабильной, но Гармонией.

maeror3

From Japan we are this year happy to see the inauguration of a new label, Trumn – a label specialised in purveying exciting projects into electronic music with its focus on materialising works by artists exploring in the field of sound on a solo basis. Trumn is owned and run by Hideho Takemasa – a busy Japanese salary-man with a great love for music. Takemasa puts great time and money into his passion – an interest which also has seen him take on promotion and tour manager roles in the Japanese electronic music scene – recently working with our newfound, favourite Singaporean imprint Kitchen.

We are well into 2009 now, and Trumn released their first two catalogue releases in March – Figure from experimental bassist Tamaru and Entropy from composer and multi-instrumentalist Yui Onodera. On Entropy we find a rich and diverse collection of compositions – ranging from outer space-like vacuum soundscapes as those of Biosphere in early recordings on Patashnik, to lovely, microscopic details telling of minute variations of organic life, much in the same vein as Jasper Leyland, BJ Nilsen, and aspirations to long-form compositions in the vein of Stars of The Lid and Celer, the latter of which he collaborates with and on Entropy we see glimpses of droning, long-form compositions where the listener can revel in shimmering, wallowing space of enduring hummed noise, processed field recordings and electronics reduced to sound. Then, on other tracks we find Onodera give way to tracks of low, crackling microsounds and glitchy bleeps and electronics in the vein of 12k, Room40 and Spekk. This diversity makes for highly enjoyable listening and through the course of the album new details are discovered on repeated listening.

Tamaru is a bass player who delivers a record of challenge to the listener. Across a collection of 8 tracks on Figure, he plays bass sounds, modulated by delay and volume pedals, handling his trained instrument adeptly and processing its sounds beyond recognition at times, centering on long-stretched tones of a bass, alternating, fading, evolving, trembling chords and reduced to longer tones of droning, repetitive sound. It is quite meditational – sometimes taking on the hue of the engine noise of planes passing above you in the sky. Other times it shifts in force and feels like a fluid body edging its way through a terrain, yet other times again feeling very lofty with dark bass tones allowed a light shade by lingering in the open or flickering. Tamaru’s release feels physical and exerting; this is no electronic composition for the novice listener, but on the other hand a rewarding study of the bass to those who are persistent and are not daunted by the outset of a single instrument making up an entire composition. But given the warm and dark drone of the bass tone there is also a counter-balance in the noise given life in between the short-lived tones, and the result is interesting to say the least.

With two such diverse releases to mark the start of Trumn – not to mention their stunning, over-sized packaging in thick cardboard made by Hideho Takemasa himself – we believe Trumn is a brilliant new addition to Japanese label flora and we look forward to several more releases from them in the future.

Trym Asserson

L'entropia è una sorta di dannazione che la musica di ricerca porta con sé, irreversibile processo di disordine e dissolvimento molecolare che spesso aleggia sopra e dentro i dischi che siamo soliti recensire.

"Entropy" è proprio il titolo dell'album di Yui Onodera, classe 1982, autore non ancora famoso ma già parecchio attivo (il suo stato di servizio annovera ben tre album, un 7" e un 3" nel solo 2007, mentre sono arrivo lavori in collaborazione con Celer, The Beautiful Schizophonic e Exit in Gray). Questo disco d'esordio era uscito originariamente nel 2005 per l'etichetta personale Critical Path e ora riedito dalla neonata Trumn. Un mormorio neutro e immobile, un ondeggiamento statico, il suono dell'entropia appunto, per realizzare il quale il nipponico si serve di varia elettronica, chitarre elettriche efield recordings di rigore. Messa così sembrerebbe ci sia poco da stare allegri, eppure Onodera riesce imperterrito a riacciuffare l'equilibrio dinamico dei propri pensieri acustici e ad offrire, sebbene occasionalmente, pagine di grande fascino.

Stessa lunghezza d'onda per il nuovo album del redivivo Tamaru (a lui dedicammo un esteso articolo nel lontano 2000). Armato del fido basso e di pedaliera per il controllo del volume e il processing del delay, il buon vecchio Shuichi realizza una manciata di improvvisazioni a base di dronesronzanti e ostinati, continui flutti di rimbombi sotterranei da cui si percepisce la disciplina tutta orientale del mantenimento senza fine del tono puro, a renderlo quasi immacolato segno spirituale.

Ultima nota va alle eleganti confezioni dei CD progettate daidesigner dello studio grafico Kitchen. di Singapore.

Nicola Catalano

Entropy is the physical measure for the proportion of disorder in the universe and by definition it is always rising. So much for the science. Yui Onodera’s “entropy” has nothing to do with this, but it is rather an auditive meditation on form and the relation between surface and depth. Culled from an endless stream of manipulated guitar, field recordings and electronics and two years in the making Onodera released this album in 2005 on Critical Path records amongst two other albums and a bunch of smaller releases. Thanks to Trumn it is now available again (Trumn, it should be noted is a new label from Japan who also released the great “Figure” by Tamaru reviewed some weeks ago) and a pleasure as it is. Gentle layers of sound wash against subtly or not so subtly manipulated noise, weaving a pastiche of sounds breathtakingly beautiful and warm despite all its manipulated and distorted basics.

Indeed, it keeps on fascinating me how noise, which is by definition distorted frequencies or at least in-harmonic frequencies of sound, can be treated into encompassing and organic warmth that feels like the spring sunshine on the skin or the light afternoon breeze on a beach. Moreover, the ten tracks on here do show at the one hand a variety of sounds quite big, on the other hand seem to form a unity as for instance ten solid chapters of a book on a specific subject would. A subject like breathing techniques, zen meditation, the beauty of nature or how the imponderabilities and chaos of modern life will finally be washed away by the endless cycles of nature itself.

Something in me detests the idea of calling this music ambient or drone. I feel there is much more to it than trying to form the surroundings of the listener without him realising, because I guess this music wants to be listened to for real. There is also more to it than the idea to wash over the listener with either transcendental displacement or elemental force, because of the same reason as before and also because of the intricacy of the minute details hidden in the layers of sound presented. What sounds like a mono-thematic or simple affair in the beginning, can be discovered as a multiverse of smallest soundparts carefully construed together after some time. Like looking at snowflakes through a microscope as a child and discovering the endless fractal structures down to the level of frozen molecules. The same beauty and the same sense of discovery of these aesthetics seems to prevail here.

But also the same incongruent structure of random order as looking into softly falling snow, when the flakes seem to come down in a special formation, each particle somehow related to the next and dilligently directed by some powerful force showing itself in this so soft and gentle phenomenon that fills the space all around you. Sorry, if you live in quarters of the globe where it never snows and you never have seen the snow falling from the sky. Maybe you should save your earning money and book a travel to some part in the winter to experience this. The first, fresh, falling snow of winter is about the most peaceful moment nature can present you. Everything is muffled and much more silent than before. And it is somehow magically the same with this record. The softness, the structures and dynamics seemingly non-existent rationally but to be felt via the skin on your hands as if by a natural force so big and allencompassing because it does not work by power or violence, but by softly grabbing all parts of nature and carrying them along.

Georg Gartlgruber

Yui Onodera's first solo work, Entropy, first appeared on the Tokyo-based producer's own Critical Path label in 2005 but quickly sold out, making it thereafter a much sought-after item. We can therefore thank Hideho Takemasa for making it one of the first releases on his newly-created Trumn imprint. Onodera generated the album's ten micro-ambient settings (all untitled) between 2004 and 2005 using field recordings, electronics, and electric guitar as sound sources that subsequently were subjected to computer processing. The resultant electro-acoustic pieces are soothing and serene and very much reminiscent of releases by 12k and Line. The opening track is dominated by blurry cloud-like fields of electric guitar, while others feature soft whistling drones, shimmering organ-like pools, wavering wind tones, and clusters of tiny percussive rattles and speckled noises. Entropy also will appeal to fans of Celer's work (apparently, during the past couple of years, Onodera has been collaborating respectively with Celer, The Beautiful Schizophonic, and Exit in Grey, no results of which have yet been made public). Mention must be made of the presentation of the release. Designed by Ricks Ang and April Lee (aka aspidistrafly), Entropy comes in a large-format, tri-fold sleeve graced by landscape photos taken in South Africa by Erica Lai. The distinctive packaging is a fitting visual complement to the equally distinctive musical content.

» Spanish

Este álbum fue originalmente editado en 2005 en el sello Critical Path de Yui Onodera, un músico japonés que nació en Iwate y que ahora vive y trabaja en Tokio. La discografía de Onodera consiste en tres álbumes, un vinilo de 7” y un CD-R de 3 pulgadas editados en distintos sellos fuera de Japón. La edición CD ofrece una elegante presentación de un tríptico de una sola pieza diseñado por Hideho Takemasa, quien es director del Trumn records. Las fotos fueron sacadas en Sudáfrica por Erica Lai y la dirección de arte correspondió al dúo musical de Singapur Aspidistrafly, compuesto por Ricks Ang y April Lee (comentados en loop.cl). Onodera toca las guitarras, electrónica y registros de campo entregando micro sonidos, ambientación y ondas sonoras. “Entropy” ofrece una profunda escucha entre expansiones cinemáticas sacadas de los microsonidos a extensos drones. Mi tema favorito es el último, en el que se despliegan las cuerdas de las guitarras formando celestiales espirales y quietud.

Guillermo Escudero

» English

This album was originally released in 2005 on the Critical Path imprint owned by Yui Onodera a Japanese artist born in Iwate and now based in Tokyo. Onodera’s discography consists in three albums, a 7 inch vinyl and a 3 inch CD-R released in different labels abroad. The CD edition offers a glossy presentation of a tri-fold one piece sleeve designed by Hideho Takemasa who is the founder member of Trumn records. The photos were taken in South Africa by Erica Lai and the art direction is from Singaporean’s Aspidistrafly, a musical project comprised by Ricks Ang and April Lee (reviewed it on loop.cl). Onodera plays electric guitars, electronics and field recordings delivering micro sounds, ambience and sound waves. “Entropy” offers a deep listening between cinematic expansions from delicately rendered microsounds to extensive drones. My favourite cut is the last one in which soft swirling guitars shape mesmerizing spirals and quietness.

Guillermo Escudero

Originally released on Critical Path in 2005, Entropy is yet one more release on a seemingly endless conveyor belt of static distillations of guitar and electronics, transposed into saccharine galaxies of purple-pink cumulus. Imprints such as Touch, 12k and Baskaru have made their names with music such as this, but the constructs of Tokyo’s Onodera possess enough poise and finesse to rank them alongside works by Christian Fennesz, Lawrence English and Ethan Rose.

Like those aforementioned artists, Onodera is a sculptor in total control of his materials, deploying the timbre and tempo (or absence thereof) of a minimalist palette for maximum effect. The introduction of snippets of environmental recording serve to create the occasional, welcome bookmark during an album of often disorientating uniformity; 10 untitled drones forming a monolithic constant, losing the listener to its hex.

Yeah, maybe there are too many albums like this floating around but, if from the over-populated crop-fields jewels such as this can be harvested, then we’d be fools to really care.

Spencer Grady

Typisch japanisch, dieser Ästhetizismus, zumal neben der feinen Klangwelt von Hideho Takemasas neuem Label auch die überformatigen Faltcover an die Spekk-Releases von Nao Sugimoto, ebenfalls in Tokyo, erinnern. Zumindest ist es ein fernöstlicher Sinn für Schönheit, denn die Grau-in-Grau- und Foto-Kunst auf den Covern stammen von April Lee (aspidistrafly/Kitchen.) bzw. Erica Lai aus Singapore. Takemasa ist ein Vertreter des Prinzips ,Doppelleben', der neben seiner Existenz als Salaryman sich noch andere Wünsche erfüllt, als nur in einer Karaokebar oder Patchinkohalle zu versacken (um zwei weitere Japanklischees zu bemühen).

Shuichi Tamaru, kurz TAMARU, 1963 in Tokyo geboren, war in der zweiten Hälfte der 90er mit einer Reihe von elektronischen Releases auf Zero Gravity, der Feedbackpsychedelica-Kollaboration mit Hado-Ho aka Dub Sonic und hysterischen ,Spirituals' mit Ami Yoshida in Erscheinung getreten, bevor er 2000 mit Basso Continuo ein Dröhnding nur mit Bassgitarre einspielte. Dem folgte mit Winter 2007 ein Improduett mit dem Saxophonisten Yamauchi Katsura (der mit Signal To Noise schon in BA aufgetaucht ist) und nun mit Figure (T01) ein zweiter Bassmonolog. Per Volume Pedal und Delay Processors moduliert Tamaru seine Basstöne, die in brummiger, brütender, versonnener Sonorität schnurren und meditative Wellen aussenden. Der Klang wird als Stoff spürbar, als etwas Formbares, fließend weich wie Lava, als ein Kokon oder Iglu, der einen umhüllt, eng und warm, dann auch weiträumig und hochgewölbt wie eine gewaltige Höhle, oder stabil und so monoton, dass man darin sitzen und mitfliegen kann.

YUI ONODERA, Jahrgang 1982 und aus Iwate nach Tokyo gekommen, einem bereits Taâlem-, and/OAR- und Drone-einschlägigen Dröhnminimalisten und Ambientästhetizisten, wird mit Entropy (T02) das selbstverlegte CD-R-Debut von 2005 hier wiederveröffentlicht. Sein auf Gitarrenschwingungen und Fieldrecordings basierender Soundscape ist in 10 nicht weiter betitelte Passagen gegliedert, durch die man wie auf Samt schwebt. Es ist ein Summen und schimmerndes Dröhnen in der Luft, das wie ein weicher Nebel aufsteigt oder wie Licht einsickert. Die Schattierungen, die Nuancen sind mal heller, mal dunkler, aber immer mit der Impression von etwas Großem und Weitem verbunden, Landschaften bis jenseits des Horizont oder so in Dunst eingetaucht, dass sie entgrenzt und unermesslich wirken. Die Zeit dehnt sich zu langen Schwingungen, schwellende Haltetöne greifen Raum, der wie gesäumt wirkt mit Bronze-, Silber- oder Goldrand. Sonnenuntergang und Ausklang, nicht Morgenröte, nicht Anfang von etwas. Die Stimmung ist feierabendlich, der Beigeschmack, vom Titel nahegelegt, entsprechend entropisch. Aber statt zu enden, werden die Dinge nur unsichtbar, unhörbar.

Rigobert Dittmann

A new label from Japan, this Trumn and the presentation is nice: sturdy card stock, like a small folder. The first one is by Yui Onodera, no stranger in the land of the weekly (see for instance the weeklies 590, 608 and 611), with his carefully constructed sonic silence. He uses field recordings, electric guitars and computer processing for his music - lots of computer processing. The result is a work in ten parts, all untitled, all flowing right into eachother. Each is a block by itself - static without many moving around and each has a similar built up, fade in, fade in and stays where it is, so small gaps of silence appear between the songs, but essentially, I think, its a one unified work. Highly microsound, and nothing new as such in that particular line of music, but Onodera does things pretty well, I think. 'Entropy', in all its silence-ness is a great work.

Frans de Waard