Photo by Yohei Chiba
If you're like me you purchased Amorphous Spores, the new album from Takahiro Kawaguchi and Utah Kawasaki, immediately after pre-orders became available. It's an incredible album that doesn't sound like anything else right now and I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy if you can.
A couple weeks ago, Kawaguchi tweeted some interesting anecdotes about the album. Yuko Zama, the wife of Erstwhile label boss Jon Abbey, recently took the time to translate this series of tweets. They're presented as is below:
About Production of "Amorphous Spores"
I would like to write about the production process of our new CD that will come out by the end of this month.
Production Note 1:
The first recording day was at Ftarri, an open live recording. Although there was a big earthquake during the recording session, we kept recording our performances while the room was shaking badly. Somehow I remember that Nancy came to see our show by bicycle on the day. The owner (Suzuki) told me, "For the first time, I recognized you as a musician". He said so after ten years since we have met...
Production Note 2:
On the second day, we recorded at pool, creating the atmosphere of an organic reverb driving through the underground drainage tank like a motorbike runs through a mountain path aggressively. The heavy bass sounds of analog synthesizer made the metal walls of the ditch sound amazing. Everything was recorded perfectly by the wonderful engineer Taku Unami. After the session, we went to eat ramen at Maruyoshi Store.
Production Note 3:
We listened to the recordings and worked on editing. By overdubbing wild runaway sounds via automatic synchronization of a synthesizer, the whole album was tightened up nicely. We had an after-working party at Hinata in Shimurasakaue. It was a nice bar.
Production Note 4:
We went to a mountain in the morning with our designer Hirozumi Takeda and a photographer Ujin Matsuo, to look for mushrooms and fernbrake for our cover image shooting. The strangeness of mushrooms that emerged in the middle of the forest out of blue was quite interesting.
Production Note 5:
After adding some adjustments with patience, we completed the whole production. The CD will be released from Erstwhile Records in the US. The contents are quite deep and interesting.
Production Note 6:
I am a kind of person who listens to anything from improvisation, experimental music, hip hop to J-pop of idol singers, but I can recommend this album as something that anyone will find interesting with some strange impression.
Production Note 7:
I would like to thank Jon who has been pushing us with patience, Unami-san for recording, Takeda-san for design, Matsuo-san for photography, Suzuki-san from Ftarri, biki from pool, Michael Pisaro for his help in deciding the track order, and everyone in the audience who had listened to our performances so quietly during the big earthquake. It was really fun!
Production Note 8:
As a bonus for you, I attached a motion video of the mushroom on the CD cover: (It was on Twitter)
moby.to/kmw3gb
Production Note 9:
Takahiro Kawaguchi/Utah Kawasaki"Amorphous Spores"
Kawasaki-san is the best in this album.
http://goo.gl/VlW7C6
BTW, Kawasaki-san and I played in the entire album. (I added this comment since it sounded like it was my solo album when I read my tweets again.)
Jon Abbey also mentioned on Facebook that he and the artists would like to thank Michael Pisaro for his help in sequencing the tracks on Amorphous Spores. You can pre-order a copy of Amorphous Spores now by emailing Abbey at erstrecs@aol.com. All pre-orders come with immediate digital download.
