Albedo Gravitas is an extension of Albedo Fantastica (released on An’archives in 2018), the duo of Keiko Higuchi and Sachiko (Kousokuya, Overhang Party, Vava Kitora). Both of them are well known names to those who are evolving in the Japanese underground waters since each has been involved in many projects and each has a consisting discography on labels as Musik Atlach, Improvising Beings, Utech. Their respective backgrounds are maybe a little bit different but they share a common interest in different genres from jazz and rock to free improvisation and have collaborated with a cast of various musicians in the likes of Cris X, Fukuoka Rinji, Kawaguchi Masami, Shin-Ichiro Kanda… For Albedo Gravitas, Shizuo Uchida joins on bass. A peripatetic member of the Japanese underground, having played with groups such as Nord, Onna-Kodomo, Hasegawa-Shizuo, Kito Mizukumi Rouber and Keiji Haino’s Nijiumu, he most recently turned up on An’archives as one half of UH, alongside sax player Takayuki Hashimoto (of KMR and .es). While this is Albedo Gravitas’s first album, they play together with intelligence and sensitivity, but also with a strong capacity for the unexpected; there are many moments here where you’re wrongfooted, caught askance by the way the music comes together, and comes apart. Higuchi’s and Sachiko’s instrumental armory is multiple : piano, drums, melodica, electronics. Maybe their most remarkable presence, though, comes through voice – the glottal contortions, heart-rending sighs and moans, and chopped’n’screwed real-time vox improvs that soar across the album’s unpredictable musical terrain. Uchida works here with temporal disruption, there with heavyweight bass punctuation; drums plot out the most welcome rudimentary anti-rhythms, as electronics and melodica shoot arcs of white light through the air, lending an avant-chamber charm to the music here. Most startling are the dynamics of the two side-long pieces, and the way the group use silence and stilted landscapes to suggest all kinds of routes previously unnavigated. In its capacity for disorientation, it feels indeed like a surprising kind of psychedelia, one far from generic constraint, and much closer to the sidereal suspension that that most overused of terms should rend through your head.
Known overseas for the management and activities of Captain Trip Records, Marble sheep, etc. He has been playing solo guitar work under the name of Mickey Guitar since around 2000.. The sounds that is layered one by one is ambient and sometimes chaotic, creating a beautiful and holy space.
SACHIKO
While playing as a bassist of OVERHANG PARTY at Kousokuya, she started a solo unit centered on drones by voice and electronics.
After releasing her first album in 2006, she participated in several festivals and toured Europe. Other groups include "VAVA KITORA", "Tangerine Dream Syndicate" and "Albedo Fantastica". She is running a label "Musik Atlach". http://musikatlach-sachiko.tumblr.com/
MAI MAO (Shizuo Uchida × Kyosuke Terada)
Free improvised strings duo by Shizuo Uchida and Kyosuke Terada. Both has many activities and we never drunk, we think..
4.12.2020 Ordvician Flowers VOL.8@ Ikenoue Bar GARIGARI
open 18:30 start 19:00 charge 2000yen + drink
Ken Matsuani + SACHIKO
Yakouchu
mn(T.Mikawa+Jun Numata)
MAI MAO (Shizuo Uchida × Kyosuke Terada)
MAI MAO (Shizuo Uchida × Kyosuke Terada)
数々のユニットで勢力的に活動を行うShizuo UchidaとKyosuke Teradaによる弦楽インプロヴァイズドユニット。 Free improvised strings duo by Shizuo Uchida and Kyosuke Terada. Both has many activities and we never drunk, we think..
mn
非常階段、インキャパシタンツ etc. のT. 美川とdoubtmusicの沼田順による2014年結成のノイズ・インプロヴィゼイション・デュオ・ユニット。CD3作をリリース。ゲストを加えた"mn+"もそのうちリリース予定）
The new sounds of Italian virtuoso M. B. MAURIZIO BIANCHI, which has been active since 1979, is released again from musik atlach.
This time new sounds recorded in 2015. The crossing sounds are reminiscent of the viewer's own journey to the abyss. Sublime ambient drone 2 tracks playing mysterious space that makes time lapse forget.
artist: Maurizio Bianchi
title: T.P.T.M.B.T.D.
format: CD
label: Musik Atlach
number: MA-018
