The Future Eve feturing Robert Wyatt KiTsuNe / Brian The Fox

CAT No. FLAU61
Release Date: Japan - Mar 6th / Overseas - Mar 22th, 2019
Format: 2CD/2LP/DIGITAL

KiTsuNe / Brian The Foxは、Tomo Akikawabayaとして80年代より活動し、Minimal Waveからのリイシューによって近年世界的な再評価が高まる日本人アーティストThが、ロバート・ワイアットから1998年に受け取った1本のDATテープから始まったコラボレーション作品。録音された一篇の詩とベーシックなトラックがThのギター、半谷高明によるシンセサイザー、ミックスによって拡張され、膨大なワイアットのコラボレーションの中でも最もオブスキュアな作品となったオリジナル・バージョン(Disc1)。無常を見るかのように繰り返されるワイアットの声と詩、テープのMIDI変換によってプリミティヴな音階を獲得し、まるでアクションペインティングのように特異な動きへと変貌を遂げ、生命の輪廻が表現されたというリング・バージョン(Disc2)。電子エスノ・アンビエントともコールドウェイヴの極北とも呼べるかのような強烈な密度を持ったこの作品は、成長と増幅を遂げ、様々なプロジェクトが現在も派生している「KiTsuNe」の広大な世界の端緒となる貴重なドキュメントといえます。

DISC1「02.03」はワイアットのアルバムCuckoolandに収録された「Tom Hay’s Fox」の原曲。マスタリングをTaylor Deupreeが担当、アートワークにはTh自らが撮り下ろした写真が使用され、デザインをModern Love諸作を手がけるRadu Prepeleacが手がけています。

 

20世紀も終わりが近づいてきた頃、Thからこんなメッセージが届く‐
「僕たちが作業を出来るような新しい素材がありますか?」
素材はあった。Brian the Foxだ。宙に浮いていてまだ手の入っていない、ベーシックなアイデアのままだった。
私の曲には珍しく、厳格なテンポは無く、俳句よりも短い詩!を書こうとしたものだった。
曲の最後は即興だった‐間をおいてから最後の和音になるのは、どの和音にするか決めかねていたからだ…(自宅のカセットを使いテープに直接録音、「作品」ではなかった。)
彼らは私のアイデアを美しく高めていった。
– Robert Wyatt

Japanese producer The Future Eve (fka Tomo Akikawabaya) has announced a landmark collaboration spanning continents and planes of existence. Going under the new name of The Future Eve, he has worked together with the legendary Robert Wyatt to create an electronic journey of sound. But it isn’t the usual musical cooperative.

Robert Wyatt retired from music in 2014, stating “there is a pride in (stopping), I don’t want (the music) to go off.”

But let’s rewind to 1998.

Leftfield electronic producer Th – known for his minimalist, synthesised pieces under the moniker Tomo Akikawabaya such as The Castle (1984), reissued alongside other works on New York’s Minimal Wave Records as The Invitation of The Dead in 2015 – contacted Robert Wyatt.

Wyatt recalls,

“towards the end of the 20th century, Th sent me a message asking something like;
“do you have any piece of new material we could work on”—–?
I did have. Brian the Fox was an un-placed,
un-worked basic idea I had.
unusual for me in that it had no strict tempo, and the words were an attempt to write a text even shorter than a Haiku! (I just recorded it directly onto tape at home, on cassette, no ‘production’.)
the music ending was improvised – the delay before the final chords was me trying to choose the final few chords…
I sent this to Th and Rinko.
they have enhanced the idea beautifully.”

The DAT tape reached its destination.

“I received a tape from Robert Wyatt in 1998,” says Th. “The title was “Brian The Fox” and four takes were recorded. I first dubbed layers of sounds to it and Takaaki Han-ya [fellow member of duo Beata Beatrix] took over the piece afterwards. It was dramatically changed and completed after a total of two years.”

But it didn’t stop there.

“I became aware of more possibilities for the piece sometime after we finished the work,” admits Th. “That was the beginning of this long journey.

“When I read the lyrics for the first time, I felt as if they were like Japanese haiku poetry because of the tight, simple expressionism. Also by seeing within something similar to the impermanence of Buddhism, I was more and more attracted to the tape.”

KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox changes dramatically between its first and second discs. The second – the “Ring Version” – reflects this change of mind, this Buddhist inflection. It combines cinematic, introspective drone and frustrated circuitry electronics for an odyssey of uncertainty vs. eternity.

Indeed, Th explains: “At that time I just lost my mother so I thought I would make this work with the thought and the structure of reincarnation.”

All-encompassing walls of warm sound feel instantly womblike yet empty and expansive at the same time. MIDI converters forge music like “an action painting” unable to be created by a human. These random sounds figure as the frustration, doubt and confusion Th was feeling, as much as they display the uncontrollable, automatic universe at work.

“This [Ring Version] work is not music formatted by using musical scales or instruments,” explains Th. “For this work I wanted to try to capture the mind behind the tape more than the music itself.”

Of course, as well as being an exploration of Th’s own emotion and spirituality, KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox exists as a collabroation and an extension of Wyatt’s own efforts.

“The tape itself and the time Mr. Wyatt spent in his room working is the prototype (substance) of this work,” Th says. “I have decided that the thought of this time, and the space where it was created, is the concept of this production.”

With a sense of detachment and almost scientific intrigue into excavating the depths of what can be done with mechanical processes, reverberations and resonance, Th simultaneously creates an intimate audio comfort blanket; it’s farflung but heartfelt. Laboratory calculations crossed with temple reflections.

He concludes:

“This work is dedicated to my late mother and the world.”

It was a great pleasure to work on music from such a legend as Robert Wyatt that has been so cleverly adorned by The Future Eve. – Taylor Deupree

KEEP READING

Track List

DISC1 Original Version

01.01

02.01

02.02*

02.03

03.01

 

Disc2 Ring Version

04.01

04.02

04.03

04.04

04.05

04.06

04.07

04.08

*vinyl only

Press Quotes

vaporous farewell drones – Popmatters

truly innovative journey through sound – Soul Jazz Records

“Brian” becomes the shapeshifting kitsune of Japanese legend as each iteration finds something new in Wyatt’s major-minor lilts.  WIRE

incredible piece of work – Clash

experimental album of epicJapan Times

a fascinating electronic journeyBandcamp

stark drones morph into bubbling electronics and vocals are smudged into spectral after-images Toneshift

desperate transmissions from another galaxyTextura

an emotive synth soundscape which can be equal parts haunting and beautiful Norman Records

voice and drone intertwine, each complimenting the other – A Closer Listen

extremely warm and flat, the emptiness at the end of a Buddhist meditation hintingwhispering out of a deep ocean. It’s good –
Skug

the artful high Wyatt wowl trains the bridge over whirlwinds of slow-motion / gentle drones (5/5!) – Westzeit

special and special music…Musical rebirth – Yle

another electronic journey into sound – comes out of buzzing ambient noise (7.5 out of 10) – Nachtmix, RadioBayern 2

rather intriguingPopgruppen

sounds like the breath of some alien life form…another world without specific geographical coordinates – Nowamuzyka

otherworldly waves…something elusive and tenuous – The Brightly Off-Coloured Discophile

The Future Eve have employed a tightly conceptualized approach to uncover the hidden places and ghosts inside the original…Robert Wyatt’s plangent voice rings out with a spiritual intensity as a chorus of vocals seem to pillow his with golden resonance – Live Eye TV

all photo by Th.

mastered by Taylor Deupree.

‘02.03’ is a prototype of ‘Tom Hay’s Fox’ on Robert Wyatt’s 2003 album Cuckooland.

The Future Eve feturing Robert Wyatt KiTsuNe / Brian The Fox

CAT No. FLAU61
Release Date: Japan - Mar 6th / Overseas - Mar 22th, 2019
Format: 2CD/2LP/DIGITAL

Track List

DISC1 Original Version

01.01

02.01

02.02*

02.03

03.01

 

Disc2 Ring Version

04.01

04.02

04.03

04.04

04.05

04.06

04.07

04.08

*vinyl only

KiTsuNe / Brian The Foxは、Tomo Akikawabayaとして80年代より活動し、Minimal Waveからのリイシューによって近年世界的な再評価が高まる日本人アーティストThが、ロバート・ワイアットから1998年に受け取った1本のDATテープから始まったコラボレーション作品。録音された一篇の詩とベーシックなトラックがThのギター、半谷高明によるシンセサイザー、ミックスによって拡張され、膨大なワイアットのコラボレーションの中でも最もオブスキュアな作品となったオリジナル・バージョン(Disc1)。無常を見るかのように繰り返されるワイアットの声と詩、テープのMIDI変換によってプリミティヴな音階を獲得し、まるでアクションペインティングのように特異な動きへと変貌を遂げ、生命の輪廻が表現されたというリング・バージョン(Disc2)。電子エスノ・アンビエントともコールドウェイヴの極北とも呼べるかのような強烈な密度を持ったこの作品は、成長と増幅を遂げ、様々なプロジェクトが現在も派生している「KiTsuNe」の広大な世界の端緒となる貴重なドキュメントといえます。

DISC1「02.03」はワイアットのアルバムCuckoolandに収録された「Tom Hay’s Fox」の原曲。マスタリングをTaylor Deupreeが担当、アートワークにはTh自らが撮り下ろした写真が使用され、デザインをModern Love諸作を手がけるRadu Prepeleacが手がけています。

 

20世紀も終わりが近づいてきた頃、Thからこんなメッセージが届く‐
「僕たちが作業を出来るような新しい素材がありますか?」
素材はあった。Brian the Foxだ。宙に浮いていてまだ手の入っていない、ベーシックなアイデアのままだった。
私の曲には珍しく、厳格なテンポは無く、俳句よりも短い詩!を書こうとしたものだった。
曲の最後は即興だった‐間をおいてから最後の和音になるのは、どの和音にするか決めかねていたからだ…(自宅のカセットを使いテープに直接録音、「作品」ではなかった。)
彼らは私のアイデアを美しく高めていった。
– Robert Wyatt

Japanese producer The Future Eve (fka Tomo Akikawabaya) has announced a landmark collaboration spanning continents and planes of existence. Going under the new name of The Future Eve, he has worked together with the legendary Robert Wyatt to create an electronic journey of sound. But it isn’t the usual musical cooperative.

Robert Wyatt retired from music in 2014, stating “there is a pride in (stopping), I don’t want (the music) to go off.”

But let’s rewind to 1998.

Leftfield electronic producer Th – known for his minimalist, synthesised pieces under the moniker Tomo Akikawabaya such as The Castle (1984), reissued alongside other works on New York’s Minimal Wave Records as The Invitation of The Dead in 2015 – contacted Robert Wyatt.

Wyatt recalls,

“towards the end of the 20th century, Th sent me a message asking something like;
“do you have any piece of new material we could work on”—–?
I did have. Brian the Fox was an un-placed,
un-worked basic idea I had.
unusual for me in that it had no strict tempo, and the words were an attempt to write a text even shorter than a Haiku! (I just recorded it directly onto tape at home, on cassette, no ‘production’.)
the music ending was improvised – the delay before the final chords was me trying to choose the final few chords…
I sent this to Th and Rinko.
they have enhanced the idea beautifully.”

The DAT tape reached its destination.

“I received a tape from Robert Wyatt in 1998,” says Th. “The title was “Brian The Fox” and four takes were recorded. I first dubbed layers of sounds to it and Takaaki Han-ya [fellow member of duo Beata Beatrix] took over the piece afterwards. It was dramatically changed and completed after a total of two years.”

But it didn’t stop there.

“I became aware of more possibilities for the piece sometime after we finished the work,” admits Th. “That was the beginning of this long journey.

“When I read the lyrics for the first time, I felt as if they were like Japanese haiku poetry because of the tight, simple expressionism. Also by seeing within something similar to the impermanence of Buddhism, I was more and more attracted to the tape.”

KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox changes dramatically between its first and second discs. The second – the “Ring Version” – reflects this change of mind, this Buddhist inflection. It combines cinematic, introspective drone and frustrated circuitry electronics for an odyssey of uncertainty vs. eternity.

Indeed, Th explains: “At that time I just lost my mother so I thought I would make this work with the thought and the structure of reincarnation.”

All-encompassing walls of warm sound feel instantly womblike yet empty and expansive at the same time. MIDI converters forge music like “an action painting” unable to be created by a human. These random sounds figure as the frustration, doubt and confusion Th was feeling, as much as they display the uncontrollable, automatic universe at work.

“This [Ring Version] work is not music formatted by using musical scales or instruments,” explains Th. “For this work I wanted to try to capture the mind behind the tape more than the music itself.”

Of course, as well as being an exploration of Th’s own emotion and spirituality, KiTsuNe – Brian the Fox exists as a collabroation and an extension of Wyatt’s own efforts.

“The tape itself and the time Mr. Wyatt spent in his room working is the prototype (substance) of this work,” Th says. “I have decided that the thought of this time, and the space where it was created, is the concept of this production.”

With a sense of detachment and almost scientific intrigue into excavating the depths of what can be done with mechanical processes, reverberations and resonance, Th simultaneously creates an intimate audio comfort blanket; it’s farflung but heartfelt. Laboratory calculations crossed with temple reflections.

He concludes:

“This work is dedicated to my late mother and the world.”

It was a great pleasure to work on music from such a legend as Robert Wyatt that has been so cleverly adorned by The Future Eve. – Taylor Deupree

KEEP READING

all photo by Th.

mastered by Taylor Deupree.

‘02.03’ is a prototype of ‘Tom Hay’s Fox’ on Robert Wyatt’s 2003 album Cuckooland.