Okura Müller Yoshida
tanker CD 1759 Masahiko Okura - as, tubes cover: Barbara Hediger released 1.6.2006 
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«…It’s a monumental recording, the trio virtually tearing a wormhole in time as they shift the location of the music dramatically up and down.» «Does vocal improvisation have to sound as if it has been created by a homo sapient? The question may seem oxymoronic, yet when applied to this session and the mouth-work of Japanese vocalist Ami Yoshida is become more than academic» «This trio release on Günter Müller's label is a wonderful piece of work, and would make a reasonable point of entry for anyone unfamiliar with this area of improv.» «A very strong release with a constant and high standard quality.» «Wandel und Kontinuität zugleich beweist Günter Müller mit seinen ständigen Kollaborationen, im aktuellen Fall mit Masahiko Okura und Ami Yoshida, ein Trio, das einen Eindruck von den radikalen Formen jüngerer japanischer Improvisation gibt – und von deren Kunst des Weglassens. Gesang und Blasinstrumente sind als solche fast gar nicht mehr identifizierbar, sie werden mittels maximaler Introvertiertheit sozusagen weg-geblasen und weg-gesungen, auf ein Minimum an Volumen reduziert, was Günter Müller mit seinen Electronics hervorragend zurückhaltend begleitet.» «Unico, incantato, straordinario, ai limiti del surreale» «Intenso e post-umano.» «…The Japanese vocalist Ami Yoshida is one of those rare improvising musicians whose presence at a session invariably pushes the music into unexpected directions, no matter what the context. Yoshida has evolved an entire vocabulary utterly divorced from the normal sounds of the human vocal cords: a catalog of whines, squeaks, clicks, and gargles that only rarely betray their origins. On this trio set with saxophonist Masahiko Okura and always-reliable electronics wizard Günter Müller, Yoshida’s disconcerting bird-call squeals and whistling howls push her collaborators towards a corresponding sonic landscape strange enough to house such inhuman noises. It’s apparent early on that Okura and Müller are among the small number of collaborators able to respond appropriately to the unique demands of playing with Yoshida. … he fact that Tanker works so well is a tribute to the trio’s inventiveness and its willingness to compromise, work outside established boundaries, and mostly avoid the kind of showboating that would distance one player from the others. Instead, all three find a sympathetic common ground where each of their talents can be added together into well more than the sum of the parts.» «…The remaining tracks were constructed by Müller himself, as he assembled different materials sent by his companions while adding new studio soundfiles. If possible, the results are even more impressive. Yoshida's unbelievable throat-splitting harmonics find a comfortable nest, so to speak, in the rational randomness of Müller and Okura's undercurrents; overall, these studio creations figure as a chain of collective rituals made of scattered reflections and sudden decencies, the musicians nurturing a gradual sameness which is the thermometer of an increasing compaction between their three outstanding personalities; all the more incredible, considering how these improvisations never happened in reality. This coherence of intents is the best ingredient in the well-dressed electroacoustic plate which is "Tanker", certainly one of the best For 4 Ears releases so far.» «This disc has two sections: the first section is a live recording made in 2004, while the other three pieces were made in a studio by the two Japanese musicians, sending of this work to Müller who completed the pieces by adding his own sound material. … Here the very presence of sound is the main focus. It has deep end bass sounds, much more electronica and on top we find the sounds produced by the Japanese: sparse, but always upfront, present when sounding. The result are three highly tense and intense pieces of music. Great stuff.» |
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