Tobira Records01 Review

Review
Thank you so much to those of you who purchased the split.
If you reside in Japan, you could still purchase it at Meditations.




http://www.furthernoise.org/index.php?url=page.php&ID=302&iss=82


"The last time furthernoise.org reviewed Richard Lainhart's releases, we heard an an early work composed on a Moog, recent improvisations on a modified keyboard controller, and a percussive work recalling the perspective of a swing vibraphone player. We now hear him with a different instrument on a recent split release from Tobira Records, New Works for Processed Electric Guitar. Regardless of his instrument, Lainhart continues to build serene, shimmering soundscapes, with the emphasis on bright overtones and elusive harmonies. With a piece aptly titled The Luminous Air, Lainhart's crystalline notes drift without attacks, with a hint of Frippertronic-style melodies and occasional rhythmic implications from flowing oscillations. The clarity of each individual note belies the tendency to get lost trying to follow the circulating harmony, as it slips out of reach into chords impossible to name.

Lainhart's co-contributor is Japanese guitarist Hakobune (aka Takahiro Yorifuji), last noted here on a Waterscape compilation. His piece, A Thousand Delicate Accidents, is darker than its companion, with more tones in the mid range and bass and considerably less distinction between each note. From the outset, the pitch spectrum fills with a warm, prickly cloud. Little melodies gradually appear, at first sounding like a cello but eventually expanding to become a slow moving harmonic choir of gently swirling melodic lines.

Needless to say, neither piece displays overt guitarist origins, despite the fact that both Lainhart and Hakobune recorded their pieces live, without overdubs. New Works for Processed Electric Guitar is the maiden release on Hakobune's new label, Tobira Records. The album's highly limited first edition of sixty copies comes in lavish packaging, which includes a unique, hand-painted rice-paper cover for ten-inches of clear vinyl. Each copy also comes with a CD-R of the two tracks, and a download release is projected in the not too distant future.

Review by Calab Deupree"