Thursday, May 1, 2008

Yoshihide Otomo-Memory Defacement,CD/2ble LP,1997,Japan


One of the weirdest ant most extravageant works of Otomo ,aided by Sachiko M.Fond sounds in the so called black LP,live performance on the one side of the clear LP while the other side is left blank!
here's what Otomo Yoshihide says:
"Memory Defacement" is different from the performances and recordings I have done in the past. It is the project which shows the entire four stage-processes that took place in half a year. Releasing this double-vinyl is its last stage. The first stage was to compose and record the sound resource for the black vinyl. I cracked a record, and based on the cracks I decided precisely where all the sound should be recorded; I put the collage sound in 87 spots with exactly the same timing on the A & B sides are different; I used a variety of music from the 20th century for the A side, and avant-grade music, especially electric sound, for the B side. The second stage was to press 500 analog disks of the sound, and to play them continuously on 10 turntables for 3 weeks at Xebec Hall in Kobe. My initial plan was to use many more turntables and play the records for a longer period, so the songs of the 20th century and the various experiment recorded on the A & B sides would sink into the sea of scratch noise. Unfortunately, the plan did not reach that far and the records were not so damaged. Hopefully, you will play this redord continuously untill the fragments of this 20th century legacy return to sea of noise. The third stage was to have the live performance at Xebec Hall using the original sound redources, and press it on the clear vinyl. This live perfomance became possible with the cooperation of Sachiko Matsubara on sampler, Noriya Maekawa on recording and Tetsuya Kotani on mix. And at last the 4th stage is to release the consumed black vinyl and the clear one as a package to be distributed to the market so you can purchase it. It is up to you how you listen to it. I have no answer for its meaning.The entire above process is the "Memory Defacement".Without Naoko Mizoguchi the producer at Xebec Hall, the entire concept of this project would have never been considered. I would also like to sincerely thank Mr.Shiino, Vestax president who provided the turntables for the performance, Japan Overseas and Shojiro Ishibashi of FMN Sound Factory who administered the manufacturing of the record, Noruhisa Shimoda and other staff of Xebec Hall who made the installation possible.
Yoshihide Otomo / September 24, 1997
Released in a limited 500 copies edition and long out of print.

get it here

3 comments:

SenzuriChampion said...

Amazing. I've wanted to hear this one for a long while. Thanks so much!

Bernie said...

Thank you!
Why last track is in WAV 8-bit 22 KHz?

Anonymous said...

Thanks ! You're awesome!