Kuwayama-Kijima 01.05.10 CD

Kiyoharu Kuwayama (cello, violin) and Rina Kijima (violin, viola) have been creating rich, flowing live improvisations for some years. On previous efforts, they have recorded improvisational pieces under a highway interpass whereby the environmental sounds of the area are heard in the background of each piece. Much of this music is to be heard on the trente oiseaux, gg, and 20 City labels, to name a few. With this release, we hear a refinement of this sound as the improvisations found on this CD were recorded in the empty warehouse no.20. Gone are passing cars and other incidental sounds. This work gives us the chance to hear the beautiful interplay of these two gifted musicians that is flawlessly recorded and leaves no detail unheard or muffled. The CD is packaged between five beautiful double sided cards containing artwork from Kiyoharu that suggests alchemy and the melting of sound.

$8 post paid in North America, elsewhere see the Alluvial Shop for additional postage rates.

Reviews

Wire #230 April 2003, UK, Jim Haynes

Kuwayama Kiyoharu and Kijima Rina have adopted the habit of recording all of their improvisations for cello, violin and viola among the industrial wastelands of Japan. Thus, the rush of cars on a freeway overpass or the mechanical din of massive circulation fans often accompanies the expressive screeches, plucks, bangs and scrapes that the duo force from their instruments. Appartently the duo recorded these sessions at the No.20 Warehouse, although there are little, if any, aural suggestions of this specific environment. While previous recordings found the duo eagerly listening to the landscape for clues as to which gestural sound to make, this warehouse with its modicum of reverb remains a stately constant throughout the sessions, and Kuwayama and Kijima anxiously await any response that the building might have to their performance. Building sustained whines punctuated by erratic smears, the two accumulate a nervous energy that resonates powerfully within the warehouse.

Vital Weekly #356, Netherlands, Frans de Waard

A while ago I visited Kuwayama Kiyoharu in his studio in Japan and it was a wonderfully strange experience: a sort of dislocated bar space underneath the subway of Nagoya. Every once in a while the subway would pass, shaking the foundations of the small, intimate workspace.
Kuwayama has a wide variety of materials to work with. Self-built speakers, violins, guitars and electronica. But for this, his second CD outside Japan, he and Kjima Rina concentrate exclusively on the use of cello, violin and viola. As the date probably refers to the date it was recorded (like the track titles), one of course knows that we are dealing with improvised music here. These two string players work through their sounds in a serious manner. No really focussing on the possible drone character of stringed sounds, these sounds jumps around, but in a rather friendly way. Unlike say Agencement for instance, whose nervous hectic playing is of a totally different area. This is more in a serious classical mood then anywhere close to noise.