Koeosaeme

Obanikeshi

BY Kevin PressPublished May 16, 2019

8
Ryu Yoshizawa's latest under the name Koeosaeme is launched with a 13-second radio news bumper gone wobbly. It is an entirely suitable introduction to Obanikeshi. Featuring a long list of recorded instruments and the sort of electronics capable of inspiring heated debates about what is and what is not music, this is an album likely to garner strong opinions at both ends of the spectrum.
 
Koeosaeme edits his raw material together with speed-metal intensity; nothing lasts more than a few seconds and most cuts come even more rapidly than that.
 
The work owes a good deal to plunderphonics pioneer John Oswald, but it is clearly progressive. Koeosaeme has borrowed from Oswald conceptually, but he has also incorporated ideas from noise and sound art, free jazz and contemporary classical music.
 
This take on difficult music is uniquely his. Obanikeshi presents us moments that are almost cartoonish in their pacing, but never comical — quite the opposite, its seriousness is self-evident.
 
Even as the juxtapositions pile up — strings to electronics to voices to cuckoo clocks — Koeosaeme never settles for collage. For all their twists and turns, each of these 13 pieces is a small work of carefully composed audio art.
(Orange Milk)

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