夢枯記 Yumegareki

夢枯記043 Werner Dafeldecker | long dead machines I–IX

contrabass solocdprestorecords2008
http://www.dafeldecker.net

043wernerdafeldecker

タイトルが「Long dead machines」とあるが、ほぼ楽器をわずかに叩いたりこするだけの音だけで、たぶん弓だろうが木の棒切れがベース胴体をさまざまに当てこするような、機械的な音がただ単調に展開されていく。無機質な繰り返されるベース胴体の音のまま途切れるように終わるから、どこかしら不安になるような消化しきれないものが残る。この後味の悪さ、気持ち悪さのようなものは意味付けしないほうが良いような気もするが、人間は漠たる不安を直視できないと、何かしら言葉で意味づけしないといられないところもある。そういう空の宙づり状態に立ち止まっておくこともまた難しい。ややもするとこうして書き始めたワープロのキーボードを叩く音の方がまだ人間らしく聞こえてくる気も…
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夢枯記042 Peter Ind & Rufus Reid | Alone Together

contrabass, duocdwave records1998
http://www.peterind.com
http://rufusreid.com

042peterindrufusreid

毎日車で通る木曽川堤防沿い、道端の梅の花が徐々に開花してきている。毎日通りかかるとどうしてか無性に嬉しい。世界情勢が暗い闇に放り込まれていくなか、花のさく生き生きとした変化を感じるだけで満たされてくる、そんな気持ちになる。国内でも、健康状態もすぐれないだろう政治的リーダーの心的陶酔にもみえる暴走を、その近傍すらもが見て見ぬふりをしているようにしかみえない。ふだん以上に無力感を感じているいま、それでもおずおずと、久しぶりにコレクションから何か聴きたくなったのには少しでも意味があるのだろうか。なぜ音楽はあるのだろうかとあらためて思ってみても、以前ほど考えが浮かんでこないし進まない。想像しうる音、予定調和的な音楽には驚きもないが、かといって新しい音を求めているというわけでもない。ミズンの「歌うネアンデルタール人」のように、音楽が言葉以前に体に織り込まれているものであるとすれば、音楽を言葉で照射することもないようにも思えてきて、気が少し楽にもなる…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記041 Robert Black (Giacinto Scelsi) | The Works for Double Bass

contrabass, cello, harp & tam-tamcdmode records2007
http://www.robertblack.org


041robertblack
Yumegareki 041
"Utsukushii" music. From the darkness, a monk’s voice can be hard. Dewdrops of the mist that illuminate particles of a light imply the holy mountain peak. The evening sun is dazzling my ears. My skin is trembling. My reflection on the window is vague, melting me down. An intense light from the setting sun pierces into my eyes, whereas the silence enfolds and holds the faint playfulness of a light wave and the granulation of a sound stream. In a vivid but subtle movement of a sound, phonetic atoms are collapsing and converging, allowing the origin itself to become blur. Without realizing it, the air has changed. Just like the way the autumn is about to pass away, the time has already started to tick. A faint light created within a buried self-emitting light begins to change the color. It's a journey of light, swirling within the sound and breaking away from it. It's a music of a path created by the changing light.

Scelsi’s music is far more poetic than a pursuit of the tone of sound. Scelsi exists in the darkness of the world. If someone's voice, which depicts the moments of mutation, change and transition, is the invisible history to be heard, rather than the one expressed as a culmination of wisdom or political sediments, then, the music should live the moment within the time of history through sound, connecting directly to the origin itself. It appears that Scelsi tries to be the existence of time in another dimension, detaching himself from the visualized history. This is how Scelsi seems to sense an intense light in the sound. His music glows as if it had existed in time even before the sound started, gradually and abruptly falling down into the blackhall-like darkness.

I wonder if it is possible to express or define an amazing music with a single word, although it is impossible for a music made of simple words to shake me. When an experience of feeling a light
, which exists neither within nor outside of me, suddenly comes to me, puts me in a total darkness and touches my skin to arouse a sense of fear, I am urged to express my feeling with a word, "Utsukushii." For Scelsi, music might have been a process of exploring a word of his own. His work appears to be a time-consuming impromptu rather than a music of the present-moment. It also seems like a record of occasional and natural memory of the musician. Throughout the album, Robert's performance remains outstanding. The most impressive part is the last piece, Mantram, a short bass solo music.  It doesn't say when it was written, but it is different from the preceding ones in expressing the poetry of Scelsi. Although it appears simple, "Utsukushi-sa" of this piece and performance is something almost beyond description.

秋から冬への時期。一息ついてきた感もあって、まわりの光にうながされるようにこのアルバムを久しぶりにきいた。うつくしい音楽。僧侶の声がする。光の粒までを照らす霧の露は山頂の華厳を暗示し、西日の閃光に耳が眩まされる。皮膚は震え、窓にうつされた朧げな私が溶けだす。強烈な斜陽がこの目に差し込んで、静寂が光の波の微かな戯れと音の気流の粒立ちを支えている。一つの音の強烈で微細な運動のなかで、音原子が崩壊し合わさりながら、始原が滲んでくる。いつの間にか空気が変化しすでに秋が過ぎ去ろうとしている、このいまのように、時間はもうはじまっている。光の旅。ビックバン。埋もれた自明の光のうちに生じた微光が、徐々に色を変えながら、音のなかに渦巻いては立ち去っていく…


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夢枯記040 Paul Rogers | Being

contrabass solocdamor fati2007
paulroger
Yumegareki 040
Listening to the impromptu live performance titled “Being,” I was spontaneously thinking back on Chuang Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, who pursued the concept of “naturalness and nonaction”. He viewed things with relative magnitudes. As seen in his famous “the dream of the butterfly,” we can imagine that he entered the world consisted of both reality and dream, or nature and natural. Listening to Paul’s improvised sounds from afar, I felt a difference from myself.

Pascal Quignard, a French writer and musician, said that any artist must agree to abandon his/her life and that there is no difference in your capabilities of performing, creating, exposing yourself and dying in public. His words make me wonder what “Being” really means in terms of playing music. It raises a question of what constitutes the act of performance, rather than how to perform. It also asks about our body which is closely related to life and death. According to Chuang Tzu, a wind reverberates in a myriad of caves, but the wind itself has no sound. The caves represent the performers and the body of the performers is a shield, blocking the wind of death and creating sounds.

Our bodies always send something to the world and engage in creative activities. If this is true, the awareness of being myself and the consciousness of my sound are detached from me when I close my eyes and try to listen. Then some unexpected association and miracle may happen through my body. The sound carrying the invisible miracle doesn’t exist in the sound I made. Nor does the sound have me inside. I wonder whether listening to the wind of nature, exposing myself to the big wave of inaudible sound, facing our own death and asking about it, can be the art of creation. Asking about “Being” may go beyond the boundary of improvisation, continue to create "being" and exist as the source of creation.


残念なことに、いま腰痛があって、仕事に出かけてかえってくるのがやっとの体だ。身体を休息するための休みは貴重だと感じる。ときどき身体を動かす度に痛みが水を差すようにおとずれ、聴くのに最低限必要な身体感覚すらをも妨げてくる。いまは身体に不要な音をできるだけ聴きたくはないとどこかで感じているらしい。あるいはそれはまた、いま何かを聴こうとできる状況ではないということなのかもしれない。ただ救われるのは遠くから聞こえてくる近所の自然な音だ。無理をして聴くという行為がせっかくの音楽自身を死なせてしまうこともあるだろうが、こんな状況でも一枚のベースソロアルバムを聴こうとする自分がいるのもまた、いまの僕自身の自然なのだと、なんとか無理をして言ってみたい。荘子の有名な『渾沌』の項にあるように、そこにある作品に外部から不要な穴をあければ、その作為によってあるがままの作品は死んでしまうだろう。「Being」…
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夢枯記039 Morgan Guberman | Hamadryas Baboon

contrabass solocdrusted blade music/bmi1998

039morganguberman
Yumegareki 039
Relaxing my ears, I open myself to receive the sounds surrounding us. That is to bring up the remaining pieces of our animalistic senses, perceive the sounds, and bring them into consciousness. When I consciously perceived the sounds, they were gone. But then, the silence created between the sounds was filled by the words that appeared out of nowhere.Without realizing it, an enormous amount of time gushes out from here, right at the moment. It makes me feel nostalgic, bringing me back to the distant past. That was when humans began to acquire words by vocalizing the sounds. I wonder what kind of music the humans played.
 
Music expressed through our vocal energy and breathing might not have any objectives or intentions unlike that of the contemporary world. Voices repeated by animals, sounds in the nature, and the natural voices of human beings must have been combined to formulate the music. I don’t know when the human mind began shaping the form, but it might have started with the presence of music in a form of abundant animal-like carnal voices that were constantly changing or in the group rituals or in an expression of emotion or mind. In old days, a variety of music may have resonated without any constraints of words, philosophy, aesthetics, nor forms. Then, words extracted from the voices might have expressed certain meaning, controlled the fertile music, and confined the innate richness of the sounds.
 
This album and especially the latter part of voices are entertaining and interesting because it sounds like the voices are passing through the time to become music, just the same way as the evolution of human beings from monkeys. Without going through the filter of our thoughts, it tries to escape from the preconfigured music that objectifies the monkeys via words. I can hear the trace of that attempt. I also feel an animalistic destiny of human beings.
It is a kind of grief that humans cannot reach a certain level even with the highly sophisticated words, were it not for music. This album projects directly to our hearts a sense of sublimity that is possessed by human beings as animals through inner voices of Hamadryas Baboons.

In this present time, it seems important to recombine music and words that are detached from the voices and restore the natural sounds. It is said that the ancient Egyptians worshiped Hamadryas Baboons.
In a different context, the words, Hamadryas Baboon, may imply a mystic power. Just leaning toward these words and continuing a minute variation of each sound, tone and interval, the spirit of Hamadryas Baboon may emerge in a mirror of music. I am dreaming of the potential of such music, wondering whether modern humans need to feel fundamental and natural music and its depth.

今回はまさしくこのジャケットに共感して選んだ。Hamadryas Baboonはマントヒヒのことだ。古代エジプト人はマントヒヒを崇めたというが、わかる気がする。いまここにいることに相も変わらず不思議な感覚をいだく。これも果てしなく起こってきた地球規模の環境変動と幾多の偶然の結果だ。進化とも退歩とも特にはいえない大いなる変化があるだけで、善悪も何もかもすべてを含んだこの世界にどこか畏敬の念を抱き続けるのはなぜだろうか。環境のバランスが崩れ生物の多様性が失われれば、意外なところから天敵が出現する。人間だけの話ではない。畏れや予兆は本能的に絶滅を恐れたり死を受け入れることと無縁ではないだろう。言葉によって他を傷つけたり傷つきやすい自分自身の内部の、けがれのない動物的崇高性を古代人はマントヒヒに感じ取ったのだろうか。言葉の統制を経由しないような動物的理性や直観をもってマントヒヒを人間自身の鏡とし、世界に…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記038 Claude Tchamitchian | Another Childhood

contrabass solocdémouvance2010
http://www.claude-tchamitchian.com

claudetchamitchian
Yumegareki 038
The title, Another Childhood, reminded me of a word, “Infans.” Infans basically means a child before the acquisition of speech, to put it simply. But it may also refer to a child who doesn’t even know that he/she is a child or who cannot identify themself as an individual. In other words, infans may represent an incarnate body. All the songs here are addressed to someone in a form of bass music. A series of musical performance dedicated to someone goes beyond the intention of the performer, having an internal force of the music push something forward and exposing it there. This music seems to sit on the conflicting embodiment of “self” and “infans.” As I listened, I gradually retrieved my childlike innocence.

Children are just like music. They don’t just receive and listen to the music. Rather they are the living musical instruments. In the light that runs through the death, they start singing and keep on singing. They can sing because they live on light, although they are backed by the death. The deadly pitch dark is the birthplace of a song of the music and the song is the light. A ray of light provided by a song infuses life to children and helps them get out of their shell to start walking on their own feet. They will continue to live as long as they can find a single light, a single tone, or a single path for them, and live in the light by believing in it. But we cannot tell when they lose their light. They will develop the ego, or a light of selfhood, which may turn their eyes away from death. But their body continues to exist with a fear to live.
 
Listening to the music is an experience that awakens something in our memory. This awakened mobile substance doesn’t have a name. Sound can be an indescribable, permeating, and intermingling shadow of death. But a song emerges, being tied up at the border of the world and destined to disappear. The song is the voice of the living dead. Music gets to its feet out of the chaos as a song. Then, the song begins to take steps in the space time. Sound becomes the shadow of the song and the gravity of the sound pushes the song back. But still, the song survives, resisting the sound and creating time. Chaos supports song here and there, trying to screen song and reduce it to nothing. Time suspended by the song’s independent movements attracts a distant memory of vivid nostalgia as an afterimage of the death. Song communicates with nostalgia through death in an enormous ecstasy.

Being a child, I somehow manage to come back to myself. Nostalgia is a vivid and real experience of an encounter with the dead through music. It may be an indispensable experience in our life as it brings up the long-forgotten infans. Nostalgia is a lively physical regression to Another Childhood via song, music and death. It is an overflowing life that resumes living at this very moment.


音を聴くというのは、人間の記憶にある何ものかをゆさぶり起こす経験だ。揺さぶり起こされ、うごきだした何ものかは名付けえない。音楽は、ついには語ることのできない何ものか、死に向かって語ろうとする行為で、失敗を繰り返しながら何かを誕生させようとする力のようなものが音楽には宿っているのか。音楽は音でないものをまとっている。音楽を通じてそこで鳴っている音自体とは別様に示されるものとは、言葉では語りえないものだ。音楽において音は、語りえないものがしみ入り交差する死の影といってもよい。そうであるなら死者を懐かしみ思い起こすこと、ノスタルジアとは音楽を通じて死者と出会う鮮烈な実経験であるかもしれない。ヨーロッパ的なサウンド、その内側に入ることができれば、重厚な音楽だったように思う。ほとんどすべての曲が、それぞれの曲のタイトルに明記されているように、誰かへのオマージュになっているようだ。最も短いPeter Kowaldさんへのオマージュである『Off the road』という曲は、このアルバムのなかで短くも非常に印象的であった…
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夢枯記037 Vattel Cherry | Is It Because I’m Black

contrabass solocdcommercial free jazz1982
http://www.reverbnation.com/vattelcherryssoulstation

fvattelcherry
Yumegareki 037
Playing music is, in a way, an act of telling story of our everyday life by using our body and asking the world a question about the body. What impressed me most were the music and words listed at the latter part of the album. They simply express a pure texture of the most important and most basic words for human beings. They can be the sound or words reflecting politics and culture. But at their foundation, all of them seem to be backed by self-recognition and identity. I think music is something that is alive in our daily life. Therefore, the memorable musical words linger deep in our mind. The real feeling of being alive in the world leads directly to the recognition of our existence. Then, music and songs that have been created by taking a lot of time are regarded as the indispensable components in that particular space. At one time, they are the love songs that help share a sense of nostalgia that coexists with a sense of death. On another occasion, they are the wishes for peace, ideal, or the world without war. On other occasions, they emerge as the resistance for survival on a more serious and realistic level and as a conscious expression of human pride. In this way, music is a self-recognition of our deeply rooted existence. But at the same time, it opens up a channel for communication through music. Although music is invisible, it lives by moving through the ruffles of time and space.

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought – Basho”
 
This is the motto of “Soulstation,” a music group led by Cherry. It is derived from the teaching of Basho Matsuo, one of the greatest haiku poets in Edo period in Japan. Just like Basho lived his life in journey, songs and poems live in human beings. Suppression of songs can deprive people of their identity and even squash them. But music and sighs of songs that are born as a natural consequence of efforts and pains associated with our lives will survive by transforming their forms. When we identify spirits and souls that the men of old
aspired for within music, the music starts breathing in a place away from self-assertiveness. When music opens up to the world without losing its identity and linking to the ideas and words of the men of old, the true sense of being alive in this world gets stronger. I do want to believe at this point in time that music is supported by the spirit of people in various parts of the world who are seeking for something most precious for us and by the awareness that we live as human beings. Spirit of music should be open all the time. This should be remembered in this global information society fully covered by this capitalistic principle.


Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought - Basho  
故人の跡を求めず故人の求めたるところを求めよ(芭蕉)
F Vattel Cherryというベーシストは全く知らなかった。Cherryさんはニューヨークで活動していたらしいが、ネットで少しみてみると、ボルチモアの彼の率いる音楽グル―プ『Soulstation』の掲げている格言とは、芭蕉の書いたこの教えらしい。空海の言ったことばでもあるようだ。タイトルの<is it because I'm black>はこの教えの言い換えとも受け取れなくもないし、実際聴いてみると、この音楽はこの教えをよく貫こうと努力している演奏であることがわかる。このアルバムはまるごと、まさにベース的身体といえると僕は思う。決して大袈裟な音楽でもないが、ある種の主張をはじめのうちは感じる。だがその主張は気取ってはおらず、気負ってもいない必然的なものなのだとじわじわと感じられてくる。音量を上げてみても楽器の音や録音自体はやせているようにはきこえる。だがそれは見かけのはなしで、演奏者としての音が太いのはすぐにわかる。こういう音楽は即興とは何かとか、技術どうこうという話を先行させる…
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夢枯記036 Joëlle Léandre (John Cage) | The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs et al.

contrabass solo & duo with lê quan ninhcdmontaigne1995
http://www.joelle-leandre.com http://www.lequanninh.net

036joelleleandre
Yumegareki 036
It is well known that John Cage brought about a variety of “revolution” in the 20th century, particularly in the method of music, action and recognition; transcendence of modern sense of ego, approaches to the Eastern thoughts, such as the philosophy of Lao-tse and Chuang-tse, and Zen, coexistent and synchronic world, yearning for anarchism and utopian world. Also included is the music for the sake of nothingness, silence, incompletion, impossibility, chance, uncertainty, usefulness and process. The list goes on and on. What impressed me most in his concept of nothingness is his dry nature, deeply rooted in his intelligence. For Cage, things such as “nothingness,” “silence” and “anonymity” seem to be the existence of heavy substance, just like rocks in the garden of Ryoanji Temple. I also think that he regarded human intelligence as an important nutrient, while exercising strict self-discipline in the pursuit of the “anti-intellectual.” The dry texture is his vivid and sensory creativity or a light cheerful attribute that sticks to his creativity. It is fresh and cheerful, covering the contour of his delicate and sensitive skin. Still, he seems to encompass something more than his extraordinary intelligence. He might have wanted to move these heavy rocks of intelligence.  

Just like the way Cage dared to incorporate his dry nature into the music activities, if I could detach my ego or what Cage called “nothingness” or “anti-intelligence” from music and feel the resonance surrounding the shadow of Cage’s music body, a universe-like space would appear where the different species meet through the margin of my body which flexibly responds to different situations. Is it a space located deep inside of our body where each individual “existence” lives and revives in “relationship,” or a place where the unrelated are intertwined in an invisible manner or a space where unrelated relationship is perceived? And those who come down to this deep internal spring of existence, where everything is surrounded by the sound of the water surface at night, must be the gods of the ancient times. Their arrival would trigger dry nostalgia, creating “umbilical cords” among the people who penetrate to our body. Cage’s revolution was the dry texture of life, or nostalgia for the ancient times when “death” was closer to us. At the same time, it was an entry point to the future that drifts in the massive universe, just like the surface of the Mars means both the future and the ancient past of the earth for mankind.

Remembering Ryuanji Temple that I recently revisited, I listened several times to “RYOANJI” of this album. Japan is very humid which is quite opposite to the dry
intellectual texture of Cage. But it is also the country that gave rise to the famous rock garden of Ryoanji, “Karesansui,” a unique representation of the “dry universe.” It is designed to accentuate the existence of water through the sense of dryness. But in the space of the dryness, you can feel the damp mosses grow on the garden rocks. As Daniel Charles mentioned in the article, this micro-organic movement makes you feel that even the macro substances, the heavy stable rocks, could move. This music seems to represent Cage’s novel viewpoint; transforming the heavy presence of Ryuanji rocks with a long history and culture into a relationship of motion of all things that are present in this moment. I am not sure whether Cage had gone through a mental process of this dramatic transformation, from a humid landscape to a seemingly dry-up world. It appears that Cage’s original dry nature of intelligence matched with the moisture of the mosses. Moss is similar to the life of mushroom. The thirst of Cage’s intelligence might have been complemented and moistened by the living body of mushroom. Cage might have regarded the dry presence of this rock garden as a space of movements of countless micro sounds surrounding the garden. He might have transcribed these invisible movements of water in “karesansui” into sound.
 
The sound of contrabass played by Joëlle Léandre is like mosses and mushrooms that live in moisture groveling on the ground. Percussion of Lê Quan Ninh accentuates it like the intelligence of Cage. Mosses and rocks, dry and moist, micro and macro, existence and relationship, reality and dream, and life and death. I feel I am falling into what Cage called “intersection of dualistic thinking.” The East-West border gets blurry and Joel’s voice began to flow drily and magically, crossing and floating at the midpoint. If the gods come down to the space where the concept of principal and auxiliary is eliminated, the rock garden could embrace and enjoy this music. It will take the “wisdom” of music to truly break ourselves from the conflicting, dog-eat-dog relationship.

ひと月ほど前、写真フェスティバルをみに京都へ行ったとき、朝一番で龍安寺を訪れた。今回はあらかじめコレクションの棚でジョン・ケージ氏(以下ケージ)の『RYOANJI』の入っているこのアルバムをみつけて、まずは龍安寺の石庭をいま一度みてから聴いてみようとおもっていたのだが、多忙のため連休明けからストレス性の下痢や腰痛に悩まされるなどで、残念なことに聴くまでにかなり時が経ってしまった。ジョエルさんは様々な重要な音楽家との共演や親交も豊富で、現代において欠くことのできないベーシストという感じは以前からどことなくあった。このジョエルさんのアルバムは5曲のうち4曲がケージによるもの、最後の一曲がジョエルさんのケージへのオマージュらしき曲と思われる。この『RYOANJI』(1984)はコントラバス、ヴォイス、パーカッションで演奏されるヴァージョンで、いくつかのヴァージョンがあるようだ。パーカッションを担当されているル・クァン・ニンさんは、僕のベースの師である齋藤徹さんのミッシェル・ドネダさんとのトリオツアー…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記035 Mike Majkowski | Ink on Paper

contrabass solocdcreativesources2009
https://sites.google.com/site/mikemajkowski/

035mikemajkowski
Yumegareki 035
What impressed me most was the forth one, “ink on paper,” the title music. The sound image of ink dropping down on a paper came rushing toward me one after another. I assume the many spots of blurry light green color on the jacket represent the ink. The act of music is a creative value manifested the image of ink’s motion in sound as Mr. Mike demonstrates in his work. It is also a way of expressing our world view. But I am more interested in how inaction can be incorporated into the action.

Variance and repetition of the endless tone of the falling inks sound like an everlasting movement possessed by each tiny piece of sound. They lead to the burgeon sensation that nests and noises in the universe really exist in every part of the world. The endless action is supported by the inaction that runs through the universe. Also, the action might create inaction.
Finally, when the sound suddenly stopped, I felt my sense overlapped with Mr. Mike’s. It was an interesting experience for me. There may be countless ways of cutting music into pieces, but my body felt an encounter at the final point where Mr. Mike’s action and inaction coincided. The moment when the sound stopped in “ink on paper,” I might have felt inaction of the sound itself.

Zeami is the founder of Noh, the oldest Japanese theatrical arts. In his book, Zeami talked about three key components of performance, “hi-niku-kotsu (skin-meat-bone),” where “hi” stands for the performance appreciated by the eyes of the audience, “niku” stands for the process of performance, and “kotsu” stands for the deep layer of the heart where the process is created. He said that the fusion of them is the ideal form of performance. I wonder if inaction comes about only when the performers have gone through ascetic practices for years and finally reached the point exceeding the action. Zeami further pursued a concept of “hie.” “hie” is the ultimate form of “en (refined beauty).” Zeami explored a possibility to bring Noh to the level of “hie” by transforming “shin (mind)” to “tai (body).” It seems that the concept of “hie” is the extreme form of inaction.

Likewise, music performs by itself in the process of inaction in a hidden place deep inside, in addition to the one expressed in action. I wonder if music is an experience of observing and listening to the sound of a burgeoning life which simultaneously possesses the natural oldness at the very moment of its birth. The action of inaction may be a seeping movement of action in a form of inaction, just like a drop of ink, seeping into the paper and expanding the scope and blurring the tiny area, not just a piece of music expressing the variance and repetition of the drops of ink.

最近はつまるところは身体疲労のせいか、何を聴いても僕自身の課題をそのどこかに見いださずにはいられないようで困ったものである。前回(034)から無音という出来事を音にどのように所作したらよいかと、次第に思いはじめてきて結局たどりつくのは、作為とは何か、無為であるとはどういうことか、ということである。昨年夏に郡上八幡でみた能の様々な所作のことが記憶から蘇生してイメージされてきた。ふと思い出したのは、以前、能狂言、謡曲の研究家である小山弘志さんを全く偶然だったのであるが、何度か診察させていただいたことがある。どういう方か全く存じ上げていなかったのだが、話のなかで小山さんは「ピンク色の塗り薬」とおっしゃらずに、「ももいろをした膏薬」と表現されていた。単にご高齢の方だからというわけでもなく普段は聞き慣れない響きで、そのときの言葉の発音が、からだのどこかに住み着くように気になって記憶に残っていた。言葉にどこか色艶があったのだと思う。数年前、新聞で他界されたという記事が…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記034 Domenico Sciajno | Broken Bridge

contrabass solocdfringes1999
http://www.sciajno.net/

034domenicosciajno
Yumegareki 034
This bass performance seems to inspire listeners to experience a visual event through listening. I wonder whether it is really possible to encounter an “image” that is created in a course of dialogue with music played by a bass. I thought it would be better to raise this question in appreciating this piece of music, because, while visual image can easily be associated with “wisdom” allowing the wisdom to analyze it, the image can pull wisdom down if we stand squarely in front of them.In this music, wisdom and image seem to move back and forth through the medium of a physique of the performer.
When I put myself in a space of music, I feel an event surrounding the music, which is uncertain and asymmetrical, but still somewhat balanced as a whole.
A place called “image” is consisted of nodes of diverse events. Although music remains simple, it may contain the wisdom of music as a node in an intricate mesh of the world. Wisdom can be regarded not only as analytical language but also as an open and organic image node, encounter, or event. I began to realize that music is a medium and a node of wisdom in this complicated mesh of the world, moving through the mesh like water and moving the mesh as it passes by. There, we spot synchronic images here and there, quite different from the images of community or family. They show certain implications of the unconceivable future.
The album ends with the title song, “broken bridge.” It defies my image of music integrated within me by putting a sudden halt of sound and finishing the music without sound. In this unexpected aftermath, I felt an inorganic physical violence of the soundless world. I remained standing in this soundless world until I began to realize the rebirth of the image, bringing visual image back to auditory one, and gradually transforming “soundlessness” into “silence.”
It made me ponder on the true sense of silence. If I am not carried away by the image that develop in my mind screen, and if I stand in front of the latent violence of my internal image while exposing myself to “soundlessness,” then I may be able to perceive an event of the genuine silence.


裏ジャケットには364/400と刻印があり、枚数は限定的なのだろう。あえて目の前に本物のベースがなっているくらいの十分な音量できいた。はじめのうちは実験的なフリーベースソロに聴こえた。実験的といっても、やっている内容を演奏する側にたってその手法を想像しながら聴くのでは、やはりつまらないようだ。ついついあそこをこうやって擦るとこういう音がなるとか、ここは完全な偶然で不確定な音を受け入れているのだろう等、音の推移の技術過程を見がちになる。自分が弾くように聴くこともできるが、それでは音楽を聴くという出来事からはほど遠い気がした。聴き手としても一人の弾き手としても、一つ一つの音に技術的な想像をするのではなくて、出された音、そして録音された音楽との対話のなかから生まれる「イメージ」の前に本当に立つことがベース音楽を通じて本当にできるか…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記033 Dieter Ilg|Bass

contrabass solocdfullfat2008
http://www.dieterilg.de

032dieterilg
Yumegareki 033
I first got an impression that this performance accentuated the musical elements of “plane” created by the volume of bass through an amplifier. This is mainly because I have been listening Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and String Quartet No. 15 recently. It demonstrates lasting sounds of Spirocore with well-trained fingers strumming pizzicato. It is a powerful solo performance coming through the bass amplifier, spreading an abundant quantity of sounds.
Just like the “lines” in “Ukiyoe,” woodlock prints and paintings, by Hokusai Katsushika, music can have “lines” which move through the sounds as it progresses. This music, however, doesn’t seem to have “lines,” preventing me from feeling a sense of space or resonance at the end of the performance as well as the existence of unexplored darkness behind the sounds. Still, the performer seems to devote himself to the music by synching the movements of his emotions and hands. It left me an impression of a stable frame of music. The backdrop of the jacket has a fresh green forest through which a passage of sounds can be inferred. The entire album depicts an image of a passage of cheerful and fresh sounds with a touch of tranquility, devised humor, and some tear-inspiring moments. Its straight passage seems to emerge not as a “line” but as a “plane” of the music.
Before I knew it, I started thinking of the way how “lines” relativize the force of “mass” and “plane” and transform the force into “massiveness” that emerges as a flickering and floating substance. Hokusai’s fine and weak “lines” are full of “massiveness.” A “plane” covers “lines” with its mass, but lines feed their mass in a gap between planes. Although lines are curved, they are filled with massive blank. In the dark backdrop, a plane is formulated indistinctly. I indulged in a thought of what the sounds are all about.
Nonmechanic hollow in the body of contrabass brings about a suppressed “massiveness” when mixed with the overtone. By keeping the unique sound “massiveness” of contrabass in synch with “linear music,” rather than aligning the “mass” with “plane music,” the same overwhelming “massiveness” of the Beethoven’s symphony could be reverberated in the background of the music.


最近はベートーベンの弦楽四重奏曲の第十五番をよく聴いていた。ブタペスト弦楽四重奏団のLPをたまたま安くみつけたのがきっかけで、年代をさしひいても録音ははっきりいってよくないと思うけれど、このベースアルバムコレクションはどこへやら、とりわけこれも傑作と言われるB面の第三楽章は、何やらひきつけられて何度も聴いている。一方では浮世絵。東京での大浮世絵展、名古屋での北斎展へ行き、今回は特に歌麿の線に驚愕し、北斎の線や構図の精緻さ大胆さと小さく描かれた人びとの表情が粋に過ぎて、この至芸にもまさに僕は本当に驚愕を覚えて手が震えるほどだった。ベートーベンと北斎は生きた時代が1800年前後でかぶって、どうしても比較したくなってしまう。北斎の構図や構想が現実と空想と観察の接点から着想された世界が…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記032 Henry Grimes | Solo (Bass and Violin)

contrabass & violin solo /2 cdsilkmusic2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Grimes (wikipedia)

032henrygrimes
Yumegareki 032
This music goes beyond the role of a mirror to reflect the words of ourselves and others. It flows and resonates as deep blue sky and sea that reflect nothing. After listening to this music, I felt nothing but a sense of wonder.
There is a place that can keep itself only by the changes while our bodies are constrained by historical and geographical restrictions. That is the place located just before the so-called “tradition”. This hard-to-identify “something” doesn’t exist nor nonexistent.
Nāgārjuna, an Indian monk in the second century A.D., came up with the radical theory of “Ku.” “Ku” is something like “emptiness.” It is a difficult concept to understand because it means more than what words would convey. In this theory he negated all the things including all sorts of materials, even words and their meanings.  Nothing exists. The world in front of us only appears in relationship to others. However, it doesn’t necessarily deny the wholeness of the world. Instead, it connotes the positive affirmation within the movements.
Henry’s performance of a bass and a violin lasted two and a half hours, taking turns between the two instruments. He recorded this piece after suspending his activities for about three decades. It conjures up a thin but pure sound in a deep radical breath through Henry’s “forsaken body.” The texture of this sound is similar to the experience of “emptiness.” It is as if the letters of the sound looming up from the unseen horizon between the sky and the sea.
I remember Ku-Kai, a founder of esoteric Japanese Buddhism, lived in the 8th century. His name, Ku-Kai, consists of two Chinese characters, “Sky” and “Sea,” of which the character “Sky” also means “emptiness.” In his major works, he talked about “the letters of inner voice.” They are the rhythm of breathing that has the largest impact on the world. According to Mr. Seigo Matsuoka, the inner voice is the vocal energy of lives, while the letters are the characteristics of breathing not for writing. His performance is like photosynthesis of a plant full of quiet internal energy. It is a rhythm of a deep breath in a form of biorhythm of bioenergy.
This music seems to expand a constant deep breathing in a place different from the conscious one that seeks for poems dedicated for the deceased and the living. This music may have illuminated our consciousness of the memory of the sound movements hidden deep inside our bodies. The memory that the words were created by the vocal dynamics. 

夢枯記は音楽の夢の枯れかけた言葉にすぎないのだろうか。音楽は正に目覚めている時間なのに、音楽は、書けば目覚める夢、でしかなくなる。ただのこされるものは、問いの生まれそうな感触、それだけかもしれない。それをさがしながら記すしかない。音楽は鏡のようにすべてを映す。なのに映された鏡はもうここにない。だから古鏡のように、音楽それ自身は鏡ではない。なにも映さないなにもない空と、なにも映さないなにもない海が、そこにある。その境界の見えない水平線から音楽が聴こえてくるまで、声なる空と母なる海がよみがえるまで、ことばはたぶん、生まれることはない。そしてことばは生まれてもすぐに消えていく。ことばを、問いを、書きとめる言葉だけがのこる。年末年始に一週間だけなのだがイギリスをおとずれ、ロンドンで新年を迎えた。遠くから見たテムズ川付近のニューイ…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記031 Peter Herbert | Bassooka (Music for 1 to 16 Basses)

contrabass solo cdaziza records2001
http://www.azizamusic.com


031peterherbert
Yumegareki 031
This music seems to be created to remind us that we have a body that continuously transforms itself as we live. I can feel animalistic sensory perceptions of smelling and hearing deep inside the music. It is a structured modern multi-track recording, but its clear sounds and mode naturally cohere to the body, emitting an aroma of the ancient philosophy. In this modern world, this attempt can be a challenge to the listeners.
This album is not the imagination of the vast universe lying far from human beings. Rather, it invites me to the micro world inside or an imagination of the microcosmos. Sounds pass through the organ, called “ears,” where the frictions are filtered. It also seems to filter sounds to materialize words out of the music.
In this manner, music can act like an animal, revealing itself in a blink of time, invoking an instinct from the listeners, and then gradually crystallizing a shadowy apparition of the performer. It is a form of the Western sounds or a contemplated mode of performance. But I can also hear refined carnal sounds, created to perceive a fugacious nature of bare behaviors. Because of these sounds, it strikes a similarity with the prominent philosophy of the East which emphasizes a concentration of Qi, the vital energy. The apparition itself is a culmination of Qi in a physical form.
This album compels me to consider the future of people and the earth with depth and width. It is a potential of soft but harsh words that can help us communicate with animals through Qi on a cell level, detaching ourselves from the political ones.

僕はいま、たとえば政治的な言葉とは対照的であるような動物的な言葉を聴くことができたのかもしれない。動物の言葉、動物レベルの人間の言葉の洗練があったように感じて、その残響に確かな共感を、ある動物的感覚において抱いたようだ。このアルバムを聴き終え、この静かな夜、なぜか書きながらヴァイオリニスト、カール・ズスケのバッハ無伴奏バイオリンを聴きたくなって静かな音で聴きだしているのだけれど、あの饒舌なシャコンヌでさえ密やかな動物の吐息のように聴こえてくる。
言葉の信憑性と言葉への責任が問われる政治。しかし言葉の誠実性が一般的にも急速に失われてほぼ完全に解体しかかって、言葉というものが政治から剥離し失墜して離散していく。政治が自分自身の基盤であるはずの言葉の力や意味をなし崩し的に失う、いや言葉を虚飾しながら利用するだけで、もとより政治の言葉の創造すらなされていないだけでなく…
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夢枯記030 Gary Peacock | December Poems

contrabass solo & duo with saxophonescdecm records1979

IMG_0001
Yumegareki 030
Winter moon stands out in sharp contract against the sky, invoking my feeling spontaneously. While the moon maintains a certain distance from the earth, it has a great impact on the earth. Just like that, natural threats are absolutely silent and indifferent to our feelings, but still, they are a distinct mode of nature and strong enough to influence us.
Sounds pierce a freezing winter air, with the bass sound quality and technique crushing my feeling. At the same time, the natural threats are insinuated somewhere behind the sounds. I feel a certain distance from the nature in the sounds as they drift between the nature, which maintains the permanent moon-and-earth relationship, and our natural feeling stimulated by the moon.
The earth’s climate and natural environment are changing. A huge earthquake hit Japan several years ago. I heard that Ginkakuji, Silver Pavilion, built in the late 15 century in Japan, was designed considering the movement of the moon. While listening to the music, I have developed a desire to create silence focusing on the moon, as the natural threats have nonchalantly stroke their fangs into us now more than ever before.


先月、夕方ころ東京へ行くとき新幹線からみえる地上すれすれの見事な白色の満月を一瞬みた。地上すれすれは三日月しかみえないと思いこんでいたのでとても意外だった。月の満ち欠けに深い情を抱きつつもその恒久的な動きの冷徹さには時々はっとしてうちのめされる。時空を反転するように太陽を崇め奉った古代人の気持ちを連想した。それからどうしてかいまだにわからないけれど、防空壕で泣く我が子の口を塞いで殺してしまった母親の気持ちを想像しながらだぶらせていた。今年も冬がきたのだと思った。師走に入った。今年ももうすぐ終わる。地球の気象も大きく変わって来たし、近い世間の雰囲気もただならなぬ空気に変わってきてしまった。複雑な心を捨てきれないまま聴いた、言わずと知れたGary Peacock、「December Poems」を手に取った。これをかけながら僕は多分、もはや音楽を聴く時、楽音やスタイルをほとんど追ってはいない、そういうことに気づく。…
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夢枯記029 Al Fisher | Al Fisher Plays Bass

contrabass sololpal fisher1974

029alfisher
Yumegareki 029
“The Segovia of the string bass” – a phrase by Richard Davis is quoted on the back of the jacket. Technically speaking, it best symbolizes this album. His technique is incredible as he keeps on playing pizzicato all the way. An excerpt from the back of the jacket is posted below to share a glimpse of his seasoned skills in playing a contrabass just like a guitar. There would be no doubt that this album is cording of one of the most precious bass solos.
On the A-side, there is a list of Al’s works but it is anything but exaggeration of his technique as his skills go beyond the technique. On the B-side, it has Chopin’s The Revolutionary Étude. It is different from the expression of Chopin’s fierce spiritual dignity. Rather, it is like a cheerful little animal jumping on the foliage.
I have listened to this record several times in a row. I cannot but feel a sensation of lunacy gradually exuded into the space time, just like the performance on the Japanese Noh stage. The notes plucked off from Al’s hands jump over the arch of the melody, reverberating as a dawning sense of human insanity. The music is the extreme anomaly of an individual, a handprint of madness. Although the performer may not have been conscious or intended to do so, I can even hear things that the performer failed to catch.

久しぶりのレコード。1974年当時のビニールがまだ表面にはりついていて光できらきらしている。このレコード自体も貴重な録音であるだろうことはジャケットの雰囲気から想像に難くないし、実際かなりの希少盤らしい。この意味では、セバスチャンコレクションという一まとまりの存在を象徴するレコードかもしれない。それだけに、ついているビニールは当然はがしたくないので、ジャケットはこれも久しぶりにマクロレンズをだしてきて暗い部屋で光の反射とジャケットのソリをなんとか抑制しながらジャケット撮影、やっと針をおろした。裏ジャケットには「The world's all-time finest pizzicato bass soloist」とある。まず初めの感触は、レコード独特の音の奥の深さがあって身体の内部に直接響いてくる音。気持ちがよい。早くも感知されるのは、このアルバムが一つの探求の音楽であり、その結晶としての痕跡だろうということだ。この点でまず僕の耳が低く引き締まる。「ギターのようにベースを弾く」と何気なくいってみるとき…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記028 Gary Karr | J. S. Bach : Solo Suites-Complete

contrabass solocdking record2005
http://www.garykarr.com

028garykarr
Yumegareki 028
It is not just a unique sound of Bach. It’s a performance of a powerful fermentation of the mass of memories, rushing toward now, depriving its space, and scattering it to all directions. Gary Karr recorded this album in his home studio. His performance of Bach demonstrates a refined sense of freedom and pleasure supported by the origin of a natural and happy time. I was able to listen to it by immersing myself in the relationship between the people and the world.
Vladimir Jankélévitch said in his book titled “
De La Musique Au Silence - Fauré Et L'inexprimable” that music is something that goes beyond words and that its appeal is a longing for eternity. I was embraced by an indescribable attraction of music and its unique aroma. I felt solitary and a subtle happiness as I secretly explored this nameless world. I went back to the moments when I was with my daughter in a nearby mountain village and when we went out to see a Kabuki performance played by children in a shrine. The world around us must be dense but remains mystery to us. Still, it embraces the inexpressible musical virtue at its bottom. 
I finished listening to the last piece, No. 6. Before I knew it, the sky had changed its color to red and winds were blowing through the bamboo trees. In this glorious moment, I was standing at the intersection between eternity and moment. It is such a wonderful place created by time through a continuous fermentation of music. My daughter sometimes asks me why the earth rotates. I cannot answer to her question, but I feel delighted. This is also quite difficult to express in words. No. 6 and each allemande are filled with such musical mystery.

「私がバッハから教えられたことを最もよく表現できる場所は、私の家である。私のスタジオの窓や海や島々、そして雪をかぶった山々を眺める時には、世界と、そしてバッハとひとつになったと感じる。それが、この穏やかな周辺に面した私自身の家で、この組曲を録音することにきめた理由である。」 Gary Karr
聴いている耳が、音についていきながら前の音の記憶の響きをたどり、その記憶を反芻するように今の音が混在して聴こえてきた。バッハの音楽がそのような響きをつたうようにできているからか、それがチェロよりも弦の長いコントラバスだからか、というふうにお決まりのようないつもの耳で聴き始めていたのだが、音を聴いてからすぐさま色々な記憶がやってくるのだった。押し寄せる今の、その追憶の塊のようなものに襲われ、場があらゆる方向に力強く発酵されていく演奏だ。バッハの無伴奏チェロ組曲を聴くときそれがどんな楽曲で、どのようにできているのか…
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夢枯記027 Adam Linson | cut and continuum

contrabass solo, processing, samplingcdpsi records2006
http://www.percent-s.com/

027adamlinson
Yumegareki 027
As a whole, I perceived the Human-Computer interaction. It is well designed in expressing the concept of time by reconfirming it philosophically through music. Its title and the names of some pieces are the quotes from Cinema II by Gilles Deleuze. It places time through contrabass at the junction between philosophical consideration and electronics music. This is a bold challenge to jump to the new dimension where time and image are exchanged. Interoperation of these sound effects creates a sterical image of time.
On the other hand, the embodiment of the future through a critical reflection of the modern times may be shielded by both the mental processing of the sounds and the excessive sound effects. Sound opens up a mistrial temporal experience that goes beyond the interpretation with words, demonstrating the acoustic vertical variation of the intricate nature projected directly from the body of the performer. But his performance seems to limit these variations and retreat from such a direct experience. 
This approach of recompiling sonic pieces of the body through computer, a virtual brain, demonstrates the issues related to the alienation of our body in modern days. This album dares to offer a glimpse of this fundamental dimension of our animalistic survival instinct by posing a question of how our body can survive in this world. Although Deleuze committed suicide, he must have tried to recover a sense of trust in this unbearable world through philosophical body. I want to label this album as a token of such a desperate act.

全体の印象としてはコントラバスのエレクトリックな音と、エレクトロニクスそのものとの対話のような音楽で、Human-Computer interactionという形が聴き取れる。いつもとは違う感じでスピーカーと妙に相性のよい音がする。エレクトロニックの音はいくら爆音でなってノイズに満ちているような感じがしても、どこか澄んでいてきれいな音にきこえるのはなぜだろうか。すでに僕の耳はさまざまな電気音に毒されているとはいえ、それでも、それが深い身体的次元から遠のいたサンプリングの電気的変換であり、どんなに凝って制作され工夫されていたとしても、結果としてはいつも聴いているスピーカーの膜面の効果音としての側面が強調されるにすぎないと短絡的に認識してしまうや否や、僕のなかで音楽を聴く欲求が減退していくのはどうしたらよいことか。アンプで拾い、コンピュータのプロセスを通じた音は無限の音量を持ちうるが、音質のバラエティは著しく制限されるように聴こえる。ある意味において音はのっぺらぼうで、どんな細かくダイナミック…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記026 Larry Gray | Gravity

contrabass solocdgraywater records2004
http://www.larrygraymusic.com/

026larrygray
Yumegareki 026
Larry’s performance demonstrates stability proven by his skills. It is an ardent embodiment of his concentration and elation emitted in the form of jazz. It is appealing but somewhat different from the impression I got from Charles Mingus in my twenties. I was much absorbed in Mingus’ play with my body and soul at that time. Whereas Larry makes me observe his performance from the external form, gradually bringing me inside the music.
I associate this to the discovery of Higgs particle with a theme of “Gravity.” According to the theory of modern physics, Higgs particle dictates a mass of a matter. Observations and the theory led to the discovery of the reasons why the matter exists. It seems I take a position in listening to his performance focusing on the development of the sounds, without any consideration to the form of the music.
This style of listening may be the original form of the response of our ears to the external sounds, irrespective of what form the music may have. I try to capture how the sounds vibrated from the body of the performer begin to possess a mass when it hits the world, which supposedly is filled with Higgs particles, and how an infinitesimal broken vector transform the space-time, so that I can identify the volume of the vectors and its orientation.
This suggests that any music can be appreciated if we are careful enough about the way we listen. Just like a mass acquires weight, if we listen to every primitive resistance of the space-time and its struggle to move in space, we will be able to capture the resistance of sounds that are liberated from constraints.


連休に東京の中野を訪れた。東中野から歩いたのだが、古い住宅密集地ですごく味わい深いところで写真を撮った。夜はLPがたくさんおいてある古いバーのような小さな良いお店で友人としばし過ごし話をした。壁にはスリーマイル事故後のロックミュージシャンたちのライブ録音「No Nukes」というLPがさりげなくおいてある。この店でセロニアス・モンクのLP、「Monk’s Dream」を聴いて新鮮な音の匂いと色に触発され、ジャズ、いやモンク独特のタイミング感には改めて驚いた。ベースで言えばむかしチャーリー・ミンガスやチャーリ・へイデンを音にかじりつくように聴いていたのも、彼らの地声に耳を傾ける感が非常に強くて僕の身体がそれを求めていたからだ。しかしミンガスもいつしか日本のスターバックスでペラペラのベースの音質でかけられていて、しかもフェードイン/アウトだったのを耳にして、違う意味で驚いたこともある。友人に聞くとこれも客の出入りの回転に影響する効果…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記025 Felice Del Gaudio | La via lattea (dal contrabbasso al cielo)

contrabass, cello, and otherscdrescd2006
http://www.felicedelgaudio.it/

025felicedelgaudio
Yumegareki 025
It sounded like a visual story by a bassist, depicting one of the contemporary dreams. Many were performed jointly with a cello. But within its storyline, a traditional singing voice was inserted effectively enough to appeal to my ears. The voice continued to resonate at a certain interval. Each time I felt like being pulled back to the beginning of the music. It made me feel as if I were brought back to when I was a child surrounded by unlimited time. I got a feeling that this music must be written with an awareness of the mother earth and children. The natural voice of the song sounded like the threads gathered all the way from the bottom of the earth, reminding me of an unheard vibration before the music starts. The vibration seemed to be in contrast with the reverberation that resonated at the end of the music. Without realizing it, my mind drifted to envision the wax and wane of the moon. In Japan, we will soon enjoy the harvest moon. If we are destined to live the reverberation of the age of human beings now, there should be a music that flows as if it were falling out of the complex reality, together with a voice of the wax and wane, which is seemingly idyllic but permanent in motion.

ベース音楽というよりは、ベース以外の音とともに一人のベーシストが一つの現代の夢を描いた作品に聴こえる。チェロとの合奏やトラディショナルな歌をモチーフとした曲がちりばめられ、映像のない映画を見ているように思える場面もある。聴き始めたはじめのほうは興味がなかなかわかなかったのだが、次第にシーンを変えた音楽的な物語のような曲順に素直に耳がついていくようになる。最後のトラックは赤ん坊の泣き声から始まり、短く小川のせせらぎのような効果音とともにフェードアウトしていくが、これでおわるのだとわかってしまうのが最後としては正直やや残念に思えて、何となく何分くらいのアルバムだったのだろうと考えてしまった。CDプレーヤーは35分24秒を指しているけれど、もう少し長い気がしたのはなぜだろう。結論から言えばきっとヴォーカル、人間の歌声というより地声の存在感がひと際大きく感じられ、それが聴こえてきた一瞬の時間が僕を音楽の始まりへと常に連れ戻していたからだと思う…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記024 Frank Reinecke | Music for Double Bass

contrabass cdneos music2010

024frankreinecke
Yumegareki 024This album starts with the work of Giacinto Scelsi and ends quietly with Bent Lorentzen’s for Frank Reinecke in 1993. When I look back on the reverberation, I realize the third difficult piece, “Theraps” by Xenakis, forces me to stare at a certain white space. The sound is like being sprayed to the white background. Its color is nearly transparent with a delicate hue, but the sound comes from afar, from another dimension, and it falls violently nearby. The velocity of this fall tears all the images and imagination from my eyelids. While standing in the white space, I hear the vibration of contrabass, through which I feel my heart stubbed with a sword, but strangely enough I also feel the salvation of my body. The delicate color of the sound has a trait of excessiveness that is represented by the overglaze painting in white repeated since the early age. This music slightly adds colors to the white space, but it eventually disappears in vain. Still the music is strong enough to blur the changes in color over time.  It sounds like there is no concept of time and that it is also like creating a strong connection between the past and the future anachronically. 

この一ヶ月というもの、身の回りで普段は起こりえないであろうことが次々と続いて、やっと日常を取り戻しつつある。聴くのに体力が要るような音楽はなかなか聴く気分になれなかったのだが、そうなってくると逆に日常を連れ去るような音楽を聴きたくなってくる。早朝にうまく起きることができたので、家族の留守なことをいいことにまだ空が薄明かりである時間帯にもかかわらず、大きな音量で聴く。Giacinto Scelsiからはじまり、Isang Yun、Iannis Xenakis、Manfred Stahnke、Hans Werner Henze、と続いてBent LorentzenのFrankさんのために書かれた「Tiefe」(Depth)という作品で終わる。このなかではScelsiの作品、異なる意味でIsang Yunが僕の好みであったが、それぞれにしっかりとした艶やかな演奏である。「Tiefe」も聴きごたえ十分だった。なかでもXenakisの「Theraps」はいくつかの演奏者のものを聴いたことがあって、以前から気になっていたため、聴く前からどんなふうなのだろうと思っていた。ライナーノーツからかりれば演奏するのはこれまで不可能なほど困難で(traditionally regarded as unplayable)、聴くだけでもハードなこの曲なのだが、今日はなぜか聴くための体力をそれほど奪わ…
もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記023 Barre Phillips | Journal Violone 9

contrabass cdémouvance2001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barre_Phillips(wikipedia)

023barrephillips
Yumegareki 023

We say ourselves in syllables that rise
From the floor, rising in speech we do not speak
 

 -Wallace Stevens-

Sound, as a residue of invisible air, seeps into the edge of life and death called “moment” and enters the original form of language. Every second, it opens up the body and affirms the moment, stopping the time, pulling the world into the dense poetry of sound, clarifying the world through the entire process of music, and then, soaring the sound up again in the light.
A moment is to cut off the world. Even though it is like a death that breaks away from everything, a moment can also provides an invaluable opportunity to celebrate “now” with its innate nature. Sound transforms into a life to live the moment. As a process of living, the music is regarded as a poem as well as the life itself.
Through the music, the solid feel of invisible soul invokes the physical reaction that goes beyond the emotion. What is life? Facing this profound question, the strained mind is released just like a soft bud under the melting snow that has been waiting for the light and the air on the ground. I am then covered with a lyrical smile.


命とは何か、という問いの深みにたたされたあと闇のなかから待ちつづけてあらわれた一筋のみえにくい光に促されるように、雪解けの氷の下から光と空気を待っていたあの柔らかい芽のように、窒息した心が解き放された地上の空気を吸い込んだ時、あの微笑みにもちかい軽みが生まれることがある。張り裂けそうになる何者かの緊張度が音に伝わることによってゆるやかに弛緩しだす。硬質であり柔らかであるような何者か、みえないその魂の感触は、この身体に感情をこえたある反応を呼び起こす。身体の確かに反応したあの他者がここにいるのだと、音楽は教える。音楽は現在という氷河が落下して溶けおちるきっかけ、その触媒のようにあって、時間が氷解してくるこの底なしの深い一瞬に、まるで死者の魂をのせて音が降ってくる。魂は瞬きのごとく次々やってくる音に乗っかり続けては形を変えて音楽をかけぬけ、音楽が終われば、音楽という液体となってただよっていたあの氷はさらに形を…

もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記022 Sebastian Gramss | Bassmasse

55 contrabasses cdgligg records2012
http://www.sebastiangramss.de/

022sebastiangramss
Yumegareki 022Within a tone cluster of the overwhelming contrabass, I sensed a refreshing passion and spirit of more than 50 bassists gathered in a hall. For some reason, it made me feel good, invoking a sense of stylishness, called “Iki” in the Edo period in Japan. A community that preserves individual uniqueness moves with intense presence through the shadow and accentuates the process of music.  It implies that the shadow is not just a concomitant to the light but rather supported by its own unshakable affirmation. The shadow seems to have a hint of death. “BASSMASSE” was born as “BASS,” a shining individual, and soared through the death sharing community. Rather than leading a  premeditated life as a shining light,  the shadow lives while listening to the world.   This “BASSMASSE” album manifests a temporal horizon of another invisible light standing out dynamically through the musical instrument called contrabass.

ジャケットの多くのベーシストの写真におどろく。できたてほやほやと思われるこのアルバム、ちょっと待ってからともおもっていたけれど、到着するや、我慢しきれず聴いてしまった。BASSMASSE、50人をこえるベーシストが一堂に会して録音した画期的なアルバムであり、歴史的な録音といってもいいのではないだろうか。Sebastian Gramssさんが中心となって作曲、編成されているようだ。わが「セバスチャンコレクション」には入っていないが、コレクションを譲っていただいた当人のSebastian Shaffmeisterさん、Shaffmeisterさんを僕に紹介してくださった齋藤徹さんも参加されているアルバム。思えばこの録音は、僕個人にとってみればこの夢枯記の母体となる場だったわけだ。それだけで、僕にとっては感慨深いものがある。こういうものを制作できるコントラバス界の土壌というものも、本当に敬意に値する。ソロベースをこれまで聴いてきた僕の耳で55人ほどのベーシストたちの合奏を…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記021 Jonathan Zorn | ContraBass

contrabass solocdnewsonic1998
http://jonathanzorn.net/


021jonathanzorn
Yumegareki 021It might have been a coincidence, but the music started to flow from the speakers just like a continuation of my performance in seconds later. Going inside the differences, exploring the path that flows as a shared quality, or encountering any foreign elements squarely, a space-time without any differences emerges and opens it up.  I wonder this can happen only by luck called a fortunate coincidence. Each piece of texture that music conveys to our ears doesn’t form a solid shape.  It seems to come together and drift away, just like moving in a mesh of membrane in our body.  Is it possible to create music as a catalyst to flexibly dissolve the differences among us via this membrane circuit? For that, a keen sense of relativity to perceive the incomprehensible level of the pain of others and a soft lateral mutual trust on the physical level may be required.  As a first step, these should be incorporated into the sound to a full extent.

時間があっというまにすぎていく毎日だが、この日曜は朝から一人で家で休んでいてこの湿気の中、起きてパンを少しかじってコントラバスを何十分か気分も乗らないまま弾いていたが、どうも違うとおもってやめてしまった。そこで何か強烈なものを聴きたくなって、あらかじめ未知なアルバムが目の前に400枚もあるという幸運にあやかり、コレクションからジャケットをみながらあさって、演奏者自身と思われるこの巨人を眺めながらかけてみた。裏ジャケットではこの同じ巨人がどこまでも大地の彼方まで無数に立っている。ベーシスト、この顔の表情からするときっと冗談ではすまないデザインで、自他の問題や大地ということ、さらに宇宙や未来のようなものを予感させるなとはじめは思っていて、聴く前からもうそこまで言葉が出てきていた。いいことかどうかはケースによるが、それだけ聴く側の状態とジャケットイメージに言葉があらかじめ限定されているともいえる。それでも、あとで第…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記020 Simon H. Fell | Max

contrabass solocassettebruce`s fingers1991

020simonHfell
Yumegareki 020Exploding and drawing spirals, the sounds moved up and down toward the final beautiful ballade.  After listening to the music, I was on a quiet shore lit by the soft evening light.  The opposite shore was covered with a tacit but dynamic verdant green, the beautiful mangrove of the Iriomote island. Music invokes a long forgotten youthful sensation conjured up from the memory. It can even be said that music is something illuminated by the wonder of time, indirectly looming out things that can never exist in the past, present, or future. It moves as if it were a mirror of time.  By throwing the music up into the vast space-time, music gets the focus inside the body paradoxically.  This seems to deepen the meaning of existence.

時にうなり声を上げながらピッチカートで進行するフリー・ジャズ・インプロヴィゼーション・ベースソロといってもよいだろう。チャーリー・パーカーやチャーリー・ミンガスの曲を前半と後半に1曲ずつ含み、オリジナルの選曲。指先で強く指板を押さえつけるというよりも、弦高を低めにして指先をはねやすく動きやすくして、弦と指板とのアタックの振動を強調し、指先に力がたまり蓄えられていくその力の方向と、演奏者の音運動への意識の力の方向が螺旋をなしていくようにからまっていくと、指先にその意識が絡みとられて音の線の太さを増しながら音楽が未来へ押し出されるように連続していく。そうすると,一見呼吸に余裕がない感じもあるが、激しく苛烈なスピ…
もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記019 Wojtek Traczyk | Free Solo

contrabass solocdmultikulti2012


019wojtektraczyk
Yumegareki 019One of the key elements that the bassists expect from contrabass is a low tone and noise created by its resonant overtone. In our daily lives, it is quite difficult to perceive physical noise.  However, contrabass brings about big fluctuation through the complex vibration of a string, which detaches us from the conventional ways of listening to the music: that is to distinguish the complex variation of the sound with our ears.  Then, something extraordinary emerges within the sound fluctuation, unfolding the music as noise itself in our body.  At that moment, noise becomes the body itself.  We also realize that all the living things are supported by the fluctuation and noise of the nature.  The abrupt ending of the music sounded like the embodiment of a sudden transition from noise to soundless chaos. 

安定したフォームもなければ、きれいな音でもないフリーベースインプロヴィゼーションソロをいくつも聴いていると、ベーシストたちはいったい何を音楽に求めているのだろうということがいつも気にかかる。ベーシストとはいったい何者か。はたしてそれは突きつめることが難しい謎かもしれないが、「ベーシスト」とひとくくりにはできないのは当然にしても、世界の中でのなにかの領域をなしている、そういう感触だけはなぜか逃げない。その領域の一つは低音のもたらすノイズにあるように感じる。このアルバムも、のっけから音域の非常に広いコントラバスのなかの低音にしぼってソロが展開されていく。ノイズを象徴するように弦がはじかれる度に、弦とフレットに挟…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記018 Thomas Helton | Doublebass

contrabass solocdspin digital media2003
http://www.thomashelton.org/


018thomashelton
Yumegareki 018It was quite interesting to feel that the music sounded different from the one I played before in terms of sound quality, concept, and motivation, although Track 3 seemingly resembled mine. The fact that music gives a different image even when it sounds alike seems to imply that each piece of music is coming from infinite memories. Listening to the music played by others is one of the great catalysts for me to evoke memories of precious sounds from the memories stored deep inside me. The reason why we play music is very important for every musician. But at the same time, improvisation appears to hold a promise of creating wonderful moments that go beyond the concept. And now, I feel the need for musicians to commit to infinite memories that have been untapped inside them and live to connect the sounds.

数日前に聴いたものの、仕事の日常的疲労が濃すぎて全く言葉にできない感じで、書けなかった。この数日は何かをひきずっているようで異様に長かった。動きの少ないミニマルな繰り返しを基調としたソロベースのライヴレコーディングで、臨場感が漂っていた。数日たつとそのときあったはずの言葉から離れて、今度はぼんやりとした音の印象が空間のなかに浮かびだしてくる。こういう時間の開きは映像的なスペースを生じさせる。思えばあまり音を動かさないで、沈黙や静寂の脇に音を紡いでいくと、音の闇のなかにどこかぼんやりとした光が差し込んで、何かが空間に想像されてくることがあるが、それは少ない音がもたらしているのか、それとも音の隙間に聴く側の…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記017 Peter Kowald | Silence and Flies

contrabass solocdfree elephant2001 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kowald(wikipedia)


017peterkowald
Yumegareki 017Peter Kowald is sincere about being a human himself.  His music seems to be an expression of solitude as human being.  But deep down, I feel awesome flexibility of his body, adapting to his surroundings by perceiving the future.  His body is just like a sublime and luminous earthworm, which cultivates the land without being witnessed by people.  Through his own internal performance, he materializes the saturated silence and the flight from time in the margin of music.  His music is a desperate act to live a new future, concurrently expressing the movement of his mind and presenting the disappeared lives with his body.  The music resonates vividly in my mind.

Peter Kowaldさんのソロベースを聴くのは初めてだ。妙な印象から入るが、いま僕のなかにいるのは一匹の崇高なるミミズ、Kowaldさんはミミズのなかでも発光するホタルミミズ Microscolex phosphoreus かもしれない。ミミズが地底のその孤独から立ち上がり、地上すれすれに輝いて一瞬姿をあらわした。こうした演奏家の一瞬の輝きこそがまさにライブという活動形式であるのではないか、ということをはじめは思っていた。音の高低と強弱は土なかの深度と発光体の強弱をあらわしていて、内的に発光した光の痕跡としての純度の高い音を、人間の現実という土壌のなかで追いかけてきた時間の運動がこのライブなのではないか。昨晩、こうして聴き終わってから、ダーウィ…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記016 Branden Abushanab | The Dust Improvisations

contrabass solocd2010
http://www.babushanab.com/   
                               

016Branden Abushanab
Yumegareki 016It’s a record of improvisation that is similar to the trail of a mouse crawling the ground.  The sound of contrabass is heard from a place where no aesthetic or linguistic value can adorn.  Rather than the music created through breathing, it is the sound of inorganic dusts emitted with each breath, which seems to have a potential of creating an organic web in modern days. This music must be an essential piece of the current inorganic life.   

音楽の旋律のないとても地味で淡白に聞こえもするインプロヴィゼーションだけれど、どこかからうめき声のようなものがきこえてきて、こすり、たたき、コントラバスの胴体を打撃する音の瞬発力によって、何かが身体にひっかかってくるように伝わる。Dustという言葉から連想するにしても、これは崩れやすい砂上の楼閣のような演奏でもないし、言葉による詩のイメージで固められているわけでもない。世界の塵としての質的な美を追求する意識はないように感じるし、路上の音楽といったふうな生活目線の強調され上部にあるものへの抵抗の視線も見いだすことができなければ、新しい芸術の方法やその呈示といった大それた思想もたぶんないだろう。あるいは、ある意…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記015 Björn Malmqvist | Baltic Bass

contrabass solocdnosag redords2005

015bjornmalmqvist
バルト海周辺の作曲家たちによる20世紀のコントラバス作品集である。バルト海という大きな地理に生きる複数の作曲家たちの語りかけるものを一人の真摯なベーシストが音に紡いでいるのがうれしい。演奏者のBjörnさんはスウェーデン生まれで、5歳の時すもっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記014 Nina De Heney | Archipelago

contrabass solocdkning disk2007

014ninadeheney
「アーキペラーゴ」というと、この言葉をタイトルに使って注目を集めた写真集もでていたし、最近の一種の思想的流行でもあるようでよく耳にする。あらかじめこの言葉とジャケットが気になってしまってどんな演奏なんだろうと思いながら聴き始めた。ア…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記013 Peter Jacquemyn | Kontrabas solo

contrabass solocdlogos publiek domein2000
http://www.jacquemyn.com/  
                                

013peterjacquemyn2
極度に集中しながら楽器をこすり、あてつけ、ものをはさみ、ずらし、はたき、強い生命エネルギーの、あのノイズに満ちていて、いったん場の流れのなかに入ればとことんまでその内部で生き切り、まるで何かから目覚めたように演奏が終わる。そうするもっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記012 Stefano Scodanibbio | Voyage That Never Ends

contrabass solocdnew albion records1998
http://www.stefanoscodanibbio.com/

012stefano
このアルバムは、いつ聴いてもその都度、何らかの新しい旅支度から始まる。今日はこうだった。仕事帰りに近くの何でもリサイクル屋のようなところでたまたま見つけてきた数枚のLP、ホロヴィッツのベートーベンの名演のあと、ジョン・ケージのさやさやもっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記011 Renaud Garcia Fons | Légendes

contrabass solocdenja records1996
http://www.renaudgarciafons.com/

011Renaud Garcia Fons – Légendes
「solo bass」とジャケットにあるからベース以外の楽器は使用されていないのだろう。12曲入っているが、音が何らかの方法でミックスされているものがほとんどだとおもう。持ち前の経験と技術を駆使し、雑音成分を排し、あるいは雑音をとてもうまく取り…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記010 Daniel Studer | Details

contrabass solocdstu records1996
http://www.danielstuder.ch/

010danielstuder
とらえられる、あるいはとらえられたようで、決してとらえられない経験ー音楽のそういう場所について言葉で書くのはむつかしい。音が物質的であるようでいながら身体から離れようとしない。それはこの演奏が電気音ではないためというだけでもない。即…
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夢枯記009 Szilárd Mezei | Mint amikor tavasz (When Spring)

viola solo, contrabass solocdnot two records2005
http://www.szilardmezei.net/

009mezeiszilard
日本の春分の日に思いかけず、突如やってきた、音の春一番。コントラバスよりもヴィオラのソロが本当に素晴らしい。教会のなかのめまぐるしい音の変化とその豪快でどこか清潔な響き、とくにヴィオラは、眠気を誘うほど気持ちよいのだが、もちろん退屈…

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夢枯記008 Tuomo Haapala | Sonic Poems

solo double bass, duo with bouzoki, trio with soprano sax and marimba, quartet with voice , piano and soprano sax, and aria for elk and choir of bassviolinscdbokhandet2005
http://www.tuomo-haapala.nu/

008tuomohaapala
「Sonic Poems」ー いってみれば、<音による詩>の音楽なのか、<音なる詩>の音楽なのか、という問い。音楽の夢へと突入するまえの数秒のあの空白において、僕がそうしたとらわれた意識のなかにいながらも幸運だったのは、Haapalaさんの生まれた…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記007 John Lindberg | Luminosity

contrabass solocdmusic & arts programs of america1996 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lindberg(wikipedia)

007jhonlindberg
ジャケットは「カンジンスキー Composition VI 1913」、タイトルの「Luminosity」は「未来への輝き」、副題で「デヴィット・アイゼンソンに捧ぐ」とある。デヴィット・アイゼンソンときけば、たしかストックホルムでのライブ、ゴールデンサックスの…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記006 Jean-François Jenny-Clark | Solo

contrabass solocdharmonia mundi2003
live in avignon
bass festival 1994
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-François_Jenny-Clark (wikipedia)

006jeanfrancoisjennyclark
なんだろう、この匂いは?。ピッチカートからはじかれる香しい匂いが、ベースアンプのレガート音の風にのって色変化する。音の動き、フレーズは高低が激しいが、どちらかというと小振りのコンパクトな演奏に思える。確かピアノのビル・エバンスのよく…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記005 Nobuyoshi Ino | 干反る音

contrabass solocd/馬運天/2005
http://contrebasse.haru.gs/

005inonobuyoshi
夜、闇のなかで一つのランプをつけて。聖歌「ひせきにこもりて」がはじまると、空中に何かの木彫りの像が浮かぶ。次第にそのお顔が光のなかに明らかになる。木彫りの仏像は何かにしつらえられたり、とじこめられた展示枠のなかにはない。音に浮かび上が…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記004 Mike Bullock | Initial

contrabass solocdchloë2002
http://mikebullock.com/

004initial
観客かだれかわからないが、人々の日常的な会話のような音で始まる。ライブか?。いつになったらベースの音がはじまるのだろうか?。どこかでうなっているようなアレは、なにか機械の音なんだろうか。。。。。その機械的なうなりの音こそが、ベース…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記003 Léon Francioli | Acoustic Ladyland

contrabass solocdplainis phare1990
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léon_Francioli (wikipedia)

IMGacousticladyland
一曲目「Fuite baroque(Léon Francioli)」はかなり聴かせる。海のなかから何のレンズもなくぼやけてさしこんでくる太陽光をみた。海水が眼球に当たっている向こう側にはおぼろげな光の束がみえる。コントラバスの音が聞こえてくると人間の大きさ…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記002 Joel Grip | Pickelhaube

contrabass sololpumlaut records2012
http://www.joelgrip.com/mamma/contact.html

Pickelhaube_Front
今日、コレクションからランダムに選んだLP。天候は薄曇り、寒く、かじかんでいる手で引き抜いてみたらこのレコードがでてきた。ジャケットを見るとE線からG線まですべて裸のガット弦のソロのようで、昼下がり、聴く意欲が高まる。これだけみても…もっと読む... Read more...

夢枯記001 Tetsu Saitoh | Invitation

contrabass solocdohrai records1998 
http://travessiart.com/

bass001
はじまりはこれでなくては、と思って昨日ひさしぶりにこのCDをかけた。1999年だったか、僕の写真の個展で齋藤徹さんをはじめて富樫花代さんに紹介していただき、このアルバムを聴いて気持ちをあたためて、齋藤さんにレッスンをしていただきたいと決心…もっと読む... Read more...