Koji Asano • Vacant Land CD

Koji Asano • Vacant Land CD

Following the solo piano CD You Can't Open the Door Because It's Already Open, Koji Asano released Vacant Land, a collection of three electro-acoustic pieces. The sources were recorded in Riga, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, but their nature remains undisclosed -- and chances are the track titles could only be misleading. "Accumulated Chairs" (20 minutes) is an ear-piercing piece of guitar feedback and noise, all well structured. One thinks of Keiji Haino or Thurston Moore's aptitude at sculpting feedback into various shapes. "Lumberyard" (23 minutes) begins with low, rumbling sounds, obviously treated. The use of silence in the first minutes of the piece fails to convince (Asano would push the idea much further and with better results in Spirit of the Wardrobe). The first half feels a lot like musique concrète, and the source goes through interesting transformations. "Bean Sprouts" (ten minutes) is a suite of sampler pieces all using snippets from string ensemble music.

1 Accumulated Chairs 20:04
2 Lumberyard 22:53
3 Bean Sprouts 10:13

Solstice Records