'Kannazuki' - the traditional name for the tenth month of the year in the Japanese lunar calendar - is a truly unique moment, a glimpse into a one-off improvisation of a quartet of musicians (Haco, Takako Minekawa, Dustin Wong, Jára Tarnovski) which took place in Tokyo in 2017. Recorded by Hideaki Hayashidani at Nanahari, the moment is described by the musicians as a “musical adventure”, a “translucent entanglement”, and a moment of deep respect for each other.
The result is a truly exciting yet unrushed ambient piece, “an imaginative world” guided by instinct and deep listening on the part of each member of the ensemble. Dustin Wong, who mixed the record, recalls that “each track had a life of its own, each could have been a piece in itself. But when the sounds converged, they created a completely new world, a new context.” The 18 minutes of 'Kannazuki' speak for themselves, as desolate ambient landscapes dissolve and digital deep forests appear out of thin air, as robotic tropical birds are suddenly showered by colourful raindrops in the warm breeze.
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"...what’s so intoxicating about Kannazuki is that it could conjure so many different images and experiences for listeners. Music doesn’t get much more evocative than that." - Bandcamp Daily (Best of Experimental Music, July 2018)
"Over the course of its 18 minutes, the piece distills the simultaneously lively and serene feel of Minekawa and Wong's studio work with electronics and washes of sounds that are equally organic and futuristic, suggesting a primordial jungle or deep space at any given moment." - AllMusic
"An improvisational dialogue" - Full Moon Magazine
The sounds of Dustin Wong & Takako Minekawa are a coalescence of the complexities of life, with the sheer joy of imaginative
creation. Based in Tokyo Japan, Wong and Minekawa are part of a growing DIY community. Their artistic focus is to create the unexpected. They use their considerable technical skill to create the psychedelic, surreal, and conceptual, with dexterity and inventiveness....more
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