Japan’s Koji Asano is probably the most prolific composer you’ve never heard of, with Galaxies the 44th album released on his own Solstice label. His work wanders from Satie-esque piano miniatures to string quartets to noise experiments to feedback loops to … there’s not much he hasn’t done. Across these diverse areas a remarkably consistent spirit comes across, highly experimental, yet playful and welcoming.
Galaxies is a 60 minute field recording, presumably from his current base in Japan (he’s lived previously in London and Barcelona), judging from the piercing cicada whines which dominate the piece. In this respect Galaxies is closer to Merzbow than Chris Watson, more noise than bucolic nature sounds. Beneath the buzzing white noise of the cicadas we hear distant duck calls, passing vehicles, and a downpour of rain, but its the shifting textures of cicadas which dominate. A timely release exploring an aspect of Japan’s sonic ecology that will endure beyond recent seismic events.
Joshua Meggitt
