How did renowned Japanese noisemaker Merzbow (aka Masami
Akita), Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Hungarian drummer Balazs Pandi
follow up their majorly intense statement made on their tumultuous debut album,
Cuts, which was released in 2013? By adding another ingredient to the volatile
mix, in the person of skronking guitar hero and Sonic Youth founder Thurston
Moore they've taken things up a notch or two on the Richter scale on their
RareNoise Records follow-up recording. With Gustaffson's roaring baritone sax
blending with Moore's shriekback guitar, Pandi's intensely throbbing beats and
Merzbow's subversive white noise barrages, it all adds up to a sonic pummeling
of epic proportions on the remarkable two CD-set, Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper.
In a
post-Cage-ian world where there are no wrong notes - in fact, no notes at all,
just silence and the absence of silence - the enigmatic Merzbow is a Magellan
of sound, fearlessly traveling uncharted waters on each new project he
undertakes (he has made over 350 recordings since 1979). Born on December 19,
1956 in Tokyo, he was originally attracted to rock guitarists like Jimi
Hendrix, Lou Reed and Robert Fripp, and later was influenced by free jazz icons
Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor and Frank Wright as well as electronic music
pioneers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. "Then I found the
forum for mixing these influences into pure electronic noise," he said in
a 1999 interview with EsoTerra Magazine: The Journal of Extreme Culture. "I
was trying to create an extreme form of music."
Merzbow
has found true kindred spirits in Pandi, who has collaborated with him since
2009, and Gustafsson, a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. Pandi's
explosive drumming has propelled such other experimental bands as Blood of
Heroes, Red Hill featuring Wadada Leo Smith (on RareNoiseRecords), Zu and two
other groups also from the RareNoise roster - Obake (featuring guitarist and
vocalist Lorenzo Fornasari) and Metallic Taste of Blood (featuring guitarist
Eraldo Bernocchi, Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin and keyboardist Jamie
Saft). Gustafsson is a member of theFire! Orchestra, the Barry Guy New
Orchestra and The Thing with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and bassist Ingebrigt
Håker Flaten. He has also worked with many free jazz musicians including German
drummer Paul Lovens, Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg, Chicago-based saxophonist
Ken Vandermark, New York-based trumpeter/saxophonist Joe McPhee, New York-based
drummer Hamid Drake and the Italian experimental band Zu. He claims Little
Richard, The Cramps and Entombed as early inspirations in his musical
development. "I started off playing electric piano in a local punk band in
my home town Umeå when I was 13," he says. "I was lucky to grow up in
northern Sweden in a small university town that actually had a jazz club and a
very active music scene. I heard Steve Lacy, Sonny Rollins, Derek Bailey and
Per Henrik Wallin really early as my main jazz kicks. But as Evan Parker used
to say, 'My roots are in my record player.'
Thurston
Moore, a ferocious axe-mangler from the Sonny Sharrock "shards of
splintered glass" school, formed the alternative rock group Sonic Youth
with bassist-vocalist Kim Gordon in 1981. They were later married in 1984.
Alongside fellow guitarist Lee Ranaldo, Moore made extensive use of unusual
tunings and feedback, straddling the inside-outside divide on 16 studio albums,
including influential recordings like 1990's Goo, 1992's Dirty, 1994's
Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star and 2004's Sonic Nurse.
Since
disbanding Sonic Youth in 2011, Moore has recorded solo projects, including
2011's Demolished Thoughts and 2014's The Best Day. In 2014, he performed a
searing duet with fellow experimental guitarist Nels Cline as part of an
Ornette Coleman 84th birthday celebration in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.
"The
original trio was initiated by Balazs," says Gustafsson. "He and
Masami have played some together before. I played together with Masami and
Sonic Youth and also made various recordings with him and Jim O'Rourke in
Japan. I had never played with Balazs before, so I was delighted to work with
him on the first Cuts project." The three free spirits forged an indelible
chemistry on a tour together prior to recording Cuts. "This group really hit
something amazing during that tour and we took that energy into the
studio."
For Cuts
of Guilt, Cuts Deeper, the four kindred spirits went into the studio and came
up with four extended tracks. CD 1 is comprised of the 20-minute "replaced
by shame, only two left" and the 18-minute "divided by steel, falling
gracefully." CD 2 contains the dynamic 21-minute jam "too late, too
sharp -- it is over" and the extreme anthem "all his teeth in hand,
asking her once more."
Drummer
Pandi calls it 'mystery in sound.' As saxophonist Gustafsson said of their
purely improvised session, "We had no game plan. That usually does not
work so well. It all depends on the day, the energy and of course the room. And
oh boy, that room was freakin' spectacular! It actually had a skateboard ramp!
It was a truly spectacular recording. It went super-fast -- just a wall of
noise-poetry with layers and perspectives changing all the time. And to have
Thurston Moore in the mix just added colours, layers, energies and sound. It was
a very inspired sharing with the others."
Pandi
provides a bit of history on the evolution of this Cuts quartet. "There is
a legendary Roskilde live recording of Sonic Youth with Mats and Masami called
'Andre Sider of Sonic Youth' and as a combination of that record and my
longstanding duo with Masami, the idea came to try and play a quartet. Those
were the days of the last couple Sonic Youth shows in South America, around
2012. Following that, Masami, Mats and I continued to work as a trio.
Meanwhile, in 2013 I got invited to join Porn for a string of gigs. Porn
masterminded by Tim Moss and Bill Gould from Faith No More and for the London
shows Thurston joined us on stage - it was great fun to play together.
When we
hung out backstage, we were talking about trying to hook up a quartet session
sometime with Mats and Masami again. We already had a gig planned with the trio
in London, where Thurston currently lives, so we figured the only day he is
spending around that time in London is the one we had for recording the follow
up album to Cuts. So he was on board immediately."
As for
how this new Cuts project with Moore may differ from their first Cuts outing,
Pandi remains philosophical. "From my side, I can't really talk about
differences. I don't approach anything differently. There are no tactics, concepts,
nothing. Only deep listening and playing accordingly. I learned that from
Masami early on. The night of our very first show, I approached him backstage,
introducing myself. As it was the first time we met, I thought we would sit
down and discuss any concept he may have wanted to talk through. But when I
asked him about it, he only said one word -- 'improvisation.' That's how it
always is with Masami. And that's how we approached this new recording in the
studio.
TRACKS
Disc 1
1.
Replaced by shame - only two left
2.
Divided by steel. Falling gracefully.
Disc 2
3. Too
late, too sharp - it is over
4. All
his teeth in hand, asking her once more
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