Koji Asano • The End of August CD

Koji Asano • The End of August CD

Another 68-minute album from Koji Asano, this one released hot on the heels of Autumn Meadow. Melody? Did someone mention a melody? Yes, there is one, played on piano at the very beginning of the piece. It feels pretty unusual: tonal, melancholy, even slightly nostalgic. It decomposes gradually through filters and electronics, becoming more granular by the minute. Around the 40th minute, the activity, which had tended to rise in a crescendo of accumulated layers of sound, drops considerably. A single note, deep in the piano's low register, is hammered regularly, its harmonics treated and augmented by noises. For a moment the listener thinks the piece will come to a halt -- something very unusual since Asano's works tend to be concrete blocks of sounds. But no, instead of stopping, another piano melody delicately rises as the noisy fog dissipates. The image never comes completely in focus -- a memory altered by the imperfections of our brain. This section is surprisingly tender, a word that previously seemed non-existent in the artist's vocabulary. As the pianist keeps on playing his slow, thoughtful melody, the electronic treatments reclaim center stage, clouding more and more the picture, reaching the point where the piano notes sound like those elongated screechy sounds one often finds in Asano's music. The piece also has a proper ending, soft and delicate. All in all, and keeping in mind this music remains difficult to listen to, The End of August may very well be the most appealing CD he has produced yet.

1 The End Of August 67:51

SOLSTICE Records