pop_and

Regardless of what some may think upon giving this release a
cursory listen, it is not "just another collection of field recordings
from somewhere in Asia". Those with the capacity to listen to such a
release with some degree of "poetical imagination", will discover a
rather peculiar release that is "an enigma wrapped inside a
mystery." Shisō contains 34 field recording vignettes made on the
Japanese islands of Honshu and Shikoku. Some of the recordings
are longer versions of the tracks that were part of the Palimpsest
exhibit on the Stasis_space website. The recordings contain no
processing outside of fades and there are also 34 silent tracks of
varying length, making the total track number 68 in all. This is
another release that is highly recommended to be played while in
the random/shuffle mode on your CD player. Comes packaged in a
dvd case.

Cover design by Brian Labycz & Dale Lloyd.

EAR / RATIONAL (APRIL 2004)
One thing that is nice about this field recording disc is that some of
the tracks fade in and out slowly, I hate when these field recording
CDs just cut in and out, very jarring to the atmosphere they create.
The fades on this disc create a dreamy effect - the first track seems
like a recorder left on in an apartment, the second inside a train or
subway. These are glimpses of life, the things we take for granted.
Things like street scenes and your apartment neighbor's TV being
on, but you can barely hear it though they are fed back to us, and you
notice what you hear when you stop this disc. Some of the tracks
are more exotic, but they are things you want to hear when you are at
home. The exotic tracks include ocean waves and a series of short
tracks of a religious ceremony, walking in a park, machines in
nature, people talking, and many others. Keeping the tracks short is
an odd/fresh way to put this all together. (Don Poe)