*[music] Toshiya Tsunoda / Manfred Werder 'detour

Since Toshiya Tsunoda / Manfred Werder 'detour' was released last year, several people asked us about the concept and details of the collaboration, so I posted some text I wrote based on what Toshiya and Manfred told me about the piece. 

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On 'detour', Toshiya Tsunoda did all the recording himself (except for 10 minutes of the temple recording part, which was done by Manfred), but it was done by Tsunoda keeping Manfred's involvement deeply in mind, along with Werder's concept and score, and using Werder's method. 

They exchanged many long, involved e-mails before meeting in person, discussing concepts and how their perspectives overlapped and didn't overlap. They spent some time together in Tokyo in the spring of 2014, prior to production, to further develop the concept and the method of recording by making some test recordings together in Tokyo. This earlier stage of collaboration helped to structure the actual recordings later on. So Werder's contribution to the piece was crucial, even though he was not so much involved in the actual recordings.

Werder also told us: "The reason why I particularly like this collaborative piece with Toshiya is that it was able to avoid the conventional risk that many collaborative works tend to fall into - something like a patchwork of two or more musicians' material. Our collaboration certainly exists in the layers of the recordings, as well as in the realms of imagination and reality that might be evoked by those layers.

There are some parts of 'detour' (near the end) that sound like processed sounds, but they are all nature sounds, and Tsunoda did not add any processing to this work. He placed a stethoscope on the floor, which picked up unexpected sounds (like insect chirps) that are inaudible to the human ear, which may sound like electronics in the piece (but there are no actual electronics in 'detour').

英語と日本語

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この数日、iPhone 6 Plusの操作にすっかりなじんでしまっていたら、今日久々にMacBook Proを開いて操作しようとした時に、「おや、画面を何度タッチしても全然反応しないじゃないか」と慌てたけれど、ああそうだこれはタッチスクリーンじゃなかったんだったと気づくまでに１分もかかってしまった。

日常生活の中で、脳内の英語と日本語のシステムを切り替えるというのは、同じパソコン内でMacとWindowsのシステムを瞬時に切り替えるようなもので、ちょっと混乱を覚える。なので一度英語環境になじんでしまうと、日本語を使う機会がめっきり減ってしまう。

アメリカ社会の特定の分野である程度認められるためには、やはり一つでもいいから英語を使って公の場に何らかの業績を残さなければならない。そう思って、この数年はあえて日本語を使わずに、文章を発表する時はなるべく英語で書いてきた。その集大成として仕上げたヴァンデルヴァイザー関連の長い英文エッセイが、去年「surround」という音楽評論サイトに掲載され、それなりの評価を得ることができた（と思う）。とりあえず、英語圏に向けて何かを発信するという渡米以来の大きな目的は達成できたので、そろそろまた日本語を使い始めてもいい頃かなと思っている。

それにしても、このsurroundというサイト、重すぎてスマホ画面で見るのがつらい。早くさくさくしたスマホ版に切り替えてほしいものだ（と管理者にも依頼中）。

久々のブログとPB2400の話

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はてなの有料オプションの期限がしばらく前に切れたのでそのままにしておいたら、いつの間にか広告バナーが雑草のようにはびこって見苦しくなっていたので、再びはてなプラスを申し込んで広告を非表示にしました。これですっきり見られます。

このブログも放置しっぱなしでなく何とかしなくては…と思って読み返していたら、今年はなんとたった３回しか投稿していなかったと知って唖然。この数年、英語圏で生活していく便宜上、どうしても英語を使うのがメインになっていたのですが、ふと気がつくともうずいぶん長いこと日本語で文章を書いたり日本語を話したりしていなかったなと、これも唖然。このままでは日本語の使い方を忘れてしまいそうなので、これからは時々リハビリのためにも日本語で書くようにします。日々の発信はツイッターなどの方が便利なので、ついそっちでつぶやきがちですが、このブログに投稿してきた過去のエントリーは、そのうち取り出してどこかにまとめておこうと思います。


上の写真は、15年前に初めてニューヨークに音楽取材に来た頃に使っていたPowerBook 2400c。久しぶりに取り出して起動してみたら、なんとまだ生きていた。確か中古の機種で35万円位したように思う。よくマンハッタンのスターバックスやカフェに持ち込んで、CDウォークマンで音楽を聴きながら、前の日に取材したライブのリポートを書いたり、翻訳の仕事をしたりしていた。小振りで曲線のきれいなデザインとキーボードの軽いタッチが気に入っていて、このPowerBookで文章を書くのがとても楽しかった。デジカメで撮影した画像をPowerBookに取り込んで、書きたてのライブ評をメールで雑誌社に送ったり、世の中、なんて便利になったんだろう…と当時は感動したものだけれど、今はiPhoneひとつでほとんどの仕事が済んでしまうのだからもっとすごい。

時代が変わっても一生心の中で愛し続けるデザインというものがあるとしたら、私の場合は、90年代に乗っていたホンダのビートと、このPowerBook 2400cかもしれない。iPhone 6 Plusも、いずれその殿堂入りを果たす日が来るかも。

Michael Pisaro 'Continuum Unbound' (GW011-013) box set has released!

music michael pisaro wandelweiser

Michael Pisaro's new and the most ambitious works: 3CD box set 'Continuum Unbound' (GW011-013) just came out from our Gravity Wave label. The box set contains 3 CDs and a 12-page full color booklet of Michael Pisaro's essay. You can see the details of the box set and can order from here.

Limited edition of 500 copies. ($50 plus shipping)


My new baking blog started

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I started a new blog about my recent obsession with baking artisan breads, inspired by the master bakers/authors Chad Robertson and Ken Forkish. The URL is here:

http://bakingartisanbread.blogspot.com

I may still post about music or some other topics once in a while here, but the above new blog will have more frequent updates. In the future, I will launch another new blog about music, where I will move all my writings on music from here (so the music fans will not be confused with my other food-related posts).

Homemade Kouign Amann (DKA)

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Inspired (and obsessed) with Dominique Ansel's signature pastry DKA, I made homemade kouign amann for the first time with his recipe from Food Arts. (You may have to register to be a member of the website, but the recipe is so great, it will worth that.)

The original recipe on the above website says "for 80 kouign amanns", but it is actually for 8-12 kouign amanns. I made four with the half amount of the recipe, and baked two of them while keeping the other two in the fridge for baking tomorrow. (This recipe is for 8 large kouign amanns, or 12 small ones.)

The changes I added were: Instead of using fleur de del, I used a half amount of sea salt. I rested the dough in the fridge for overnight before folding the butter block. I also made a butter block mixed with 1 tablespoon of flour in a food processor, then shaped it to 5x5 square on plastic wrap, then put in the fridge for 30 minutes before folding (this is Peter Reinhart's method to make croissants). I used a muffin pan instead of round rings for baking.

The amount and ratio of all the ingredients seem to be just right, so my kouign amann tasted almost exactly like Dominique Ansel's DKA - really delicious. It is almost like a miracle or a magic that you can make such an incredibly tasty pastry with just simple 6 ingredients (flour, water, salt, yeast, sugar, salted butter). For me, it was like a life-changing experience to encounter this deliciousness - DKA is the best pastry I have ever had in my life.

You can see the video of Dominique Ansel making DKA here.

The following website is also helpful for making DKA at home (though I recommend you to find Dominique Ansel's original recipe, which is much better than the ones mentioned in this website.)
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/kouign-amann_n_3767933....



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■1/13/2014

My second try of making Kouign Amann (DKA)

Still obsessed with DKA (Dominique's Kouign Amann), I made another batch today for the second time. This time, I used the same Dominique Ansel's DKA recipe from Food Arts, but made 8 smaller kouign amanns instead of 6 large ones. I baked 4 of them today, and saved the rest in the freezer before shaping.

I used a muffin pan for baking, but I think it must be better if I use 3-inch pastry rings like this (which Dominique Ansel seems to be using for his DKA), since more surface of the dough should be exposed to be caramelized enough in the oven, so the outside shells will get more crispy. I will try to use pastry rings next time.

This time, I rested the final individual doughs in the fridge overnight before shaping and baking, but it made the pastry a little bit sticky with melted sugar on the surface. The actual Ansel's DKA has more crispy surface with some sugar grains left on, which must have resulted from immediate baking after shaping the dough with some extra sugar that are rubbed on both sides of the individual dough and proofing for not longer than 30 minutes.

I baked them at 350F for 25 minutes, but the baking time should be longer like 30 minutes for a better caramelization.

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■1/14/2014

My third try of making Kouign Amann (DKA)

I baked the rest of the DKA dough which I have kept in the freezer. I used the same method as my previous post, but baked them 5 minutes longer (30 minutes in total) inside the pastry rings instead of muffin pan. This time, the caramelization on the bottom and the top worked really well, and the inside layers were baked perfectly. Very happy with the result, which was closer to Dominique Ansel's DKA. The bottom was slightly burnt this time, so next time I will bake them for 28 minutes in 3-inch pastry rings to make them more perfect.

My year-end list of top 20 releases of 2013

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Top 20 Releases of 2013

1. Michael Pisaro / Greg Stuart - Closed Categories in Cartesian Worlds (Gravity Wave) 
2. Dennis Johnson - November (by R. Andrew Lee)  (Irritable Hedgehog/Penultimate Press)
3. Eva-Maria Houben - Piano Music (by R. Andrew Lee) (Irritable Hedgehog)
4. Antoine Beuger - 24 petits préludes pour la guitare (by Cristián Alvear Montecino) (Edition Wandelweiser)
5. Toshiya Tsunoda - The Temple Recording (edition.t)
6. Olivia Block - Karren (LP / Sedimental)
7. Haco / Toshiya Tsunoda - TramVibration (skiti)
8. Toshiya Tsunoda - O Kokos Tis Anixis (Grains of Spring) (edition.t)
9. Manfred Werder - 5 ausführende seiten 22 bis 29 (actualized by Santiago Astaburuaga, Nicolás Carrasco Díaz, Sebastián Jatz, Álvaro Ortega, and Edén Carrasco) (cassette / Copy For Your Records)
10. Joe Panzner / Greg Stuart - Dystonia Duos (ErstAEU)
11. Johnny Chang / Stefan Thut - Two Strings and Boxes (Flexion)
12. Christoph Korn - SIMEON (Edition Wandelweiser)
13. Michael Pisaro - The Middle of Life (Die ganze Zeit) (Gravity Wave)
14. Michael Pisaro - The Punishment of the Tribe by its Elders (Gravity Wave)
15. Antoine Beuger / Michael Pisaro - this place / is love (Erstwhile)
16. Ricardo Guerreiro / Radu Malfatti / Ernesto Rodrigues - Shimosaki (B-Boim)
17. Graham Lambkin / Jason Lescalleet - Photographs (Erstwhile)
18. Devin Disanto - Tracing a Boundary (Task)
19. James Rushford & Joe Talia - Manhunter (LP / Kye)
20. Grisha Shakhnes - Leave/Trace (LP / Glistening Examples)

Best Live Concert of 2013

Toshiya Tsunoda's solo performance (first section) at Issue Project Room NYC (8/9/13), using a custom-made oscillator, piezo discs and tableware objects (glasses, tea cups, plates, utensils, etc.). He set a piezo disc inside or around each object on a table, and sent different frequencies from the oscillator to the piezo discs, which vibrated the surface of each object in a very subtle way. He played extremely quietly, creating an almost inaudible acoustic wave of sounds with the slight gradual changes of the frequencies as the set progressed. It was the most eye-opening, original, unique, impressive performance that I saw this year. 

Other things that deeply impressed me this year:

Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Room (at Matsumoto City Museum of Art in Japan)
Earl Howard and Christoph Amann (for their incredible instincts for mastering CDs)
David Kirby (for his remarkable brain for programming)
Royal Albert China, designed in the 1960's (for its authenticity and amazing durability coupled with its delicacy)
Dominique Ansel Bakery (for his signature pastry DKA)
surround (for its launch)

Graham Lambkin / Jason Lescalleet 「Photographs」 (Erstwhile 070-2)

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グレアム・ラムキンとジェイソン・レスカリートは、エッジのある大胆な音作りとアナログサウンドの温かみを絶妙のバランスで融合させたコラボ作品を、2006年頃から作り続けている。２枚組の本作は、過去にアーストワイルから出た2008年の「The Breadwinner」と2010年の「Air Supply」に続く第３弾完結編。

今回の作品では、ラムキンとレスカリートの出生地や子供時代に親しんでいた場所、悟りの瞬間が訪れた場所、絶望に打ちのめされた場所など、各々の人生における重大な転機を物語る音を随所に挿入し、家族や友人に囲まれる時間、時と共に変わりゆく街の音、静止したまま消えていく過去のシーンなどが走馬灯のように立ち現れる中、アルバムの写真をめくるように、２人の歴史の中へと聴き手を招き入れる。録音は、ラムキンの出生地である英国のフォークストンと、レスカリートの出生地である米国マサチューセッツ州ウースターで行われた。単にノスタルジックに過去を振り返るだけの作品ではなく、現在のラムキンとレスカリートという２人のアーティストの複雑でユニークな個性を鋭く多角的に表現した意欲作でもある。

本作では、２人のコラボ作第３弾完結編を記念し、UV加工を施した12枚パネルの豪華仕様デジパックの中に、２人の人生における重要な場所で撮られた過去の写真数枚が、アルバム写真のように収められている。

http://www.erstwhilerecords.com/catalog/070.html


左から「The Breadwinner」「Air Supply」「Photographs」（Erstwhile Records）


「The Breadwinner」「Air Supply」「Photographs」の三部作に収められたCD4枚。