This is the first full length CD for Sawako Kato and the first replicated
CD release for and/OAR. This is a perfect release for the Spring and
Summer, and a beautiful one at that. Yours Gray shows Sawako's work
begin to drift into slightly different directions from her previous releases,
with more ambient, and at times, vaguely melodic flourishes that can
evoke wistful hazy daydream memories of childhood or perhaps lifetime
dreams yet fulfilled. Obviously each listener can derive what they wish
from this music. All the more so, since Sawako's paradoxical work
tends to encompass deep contemplation, yet with no premeditated
intentions on her part.
This release features collaboration work with people such as
Toshimaru Nakamura, Kiyoharu Kuwayama (Kuwayama/Kijima &
Lethe), Mitchell Akiyama (Sub Rosa, Raster Noton, Force Inc), Asuna
(Lucky Kitchen), and Yuichiro Fujimoto (Smalltown Supersound).
This release is packaged in a slimline jewel case with a four page
insert.
artist: SAWAKO
title: Yours Gray
catalog number: and/15
release year: 2004
format: CD
status: sold out
This text will be replaced
BLOW UP (OCTOBER 2004)
A disciplined Zen grace that is raised to the nth power in the first official
album by tiny Japanese girl Sawako (see also her recent collaboration
with (Taylor) Deupree, a very good album on Spekk for the New Yorker,
and the 12k compilation "Two Point Two"). A veritable storyteller, like
Sophie Calle and Wim Wenders as the press release suggests, with a
background in visual arts, Sawako perfectly embodies that idea of
spontaneity urged by the work of her American colleagues and her
compositions contain field recordings and little else; environmental in
the most literal sense and therefore adjoining, even though lighter than
those of her fellow-countrywoman Miki Yui, looking like silky yarns
wavering in the wind with elegance and delicacy. In the end we want to
point out the presence of special guests such as Mitchell Akiyama on
processed piano on Night Midlight and Toshimaru Nakamura, recorded
in the distance along with sea and train noises as pure elements of the
acoustic landscape, in Cache Cache and Go To Ocean.
(Nicola Catalano)
EAR / RATIONAL (AUGUST 2004)
Subtle sounds crafted from air and dust evoke light thoughts and
introspection. Tones drifting and overriding each other, texture wraps
and warps as if it is the sound wave drawn by watching water flow over a
rock. Slight scratching of what could be sand falling on a metal plate on
track 4, titled "Hole" may be the loudest sound here. A very solo disc to
listen to, playing this while talking to friends will cause the music to
disappear. My favorite sound is the tinny reverberated sound of a truck
starting; recorded, it sounds, through a long narrow pipe. This technique
develops all sorts of overtones and harmonics. Cool! Interestingly
enough, they are doing work on the roof of my office today, the footsteps
and draggings I hear overhead, fit in well with this music. (Don Poe)
SANDS-ZINE (JULY 2004)
Sawako Kato è uno dei pochi personaggi culto di questo inizio
millennio, e lo è perché, a conti fatti, combacia perfettamente con esso,
con le sue istanze, con i suoi percorsi e con la sua silhouette.
Ha saputo gestire alla perfezione la propria immagine attraverso la
diffusione di CD-R autoprotti, la partecipazione a compilation in mp3, la
pubblicazione in alcune delle CD-R labels più apprezzate, la creazione
di un sito personale molto curato ed efficace, i contatti con le realtà
indipendenti di tutto il pianeta… Questa giovane ragazza giapponese è
in grado di insegnare a molti come si può fare, facendolo bene, il
manager di se stesso. I flyers che accompagnano il suo materiale
promozionale sono di una completezza e di un ordine perfetti, con
annotazioni brevi e semplici sul materiale stesso e, in più,
particolareggiate informazioni sulla sua attività passata, presente e
futura… una manna piovuta dal cielo per chi deve scriverne.
Kato Sawako ha saputo cogliere lo spirito dei tempi ed ha utilizzato al
massimo quelle che sono le possibilità offerte da un mezzo potente
come Internet. Un’autentica ‘tokyo digital mutation girl’, come recitano le
parole chiave poste alle porte d’ingresso del suo mondo virtuale.
Sono questi i motivi di un successo spropositato, non rispetto alla
qualità, ch’è reale, ma rispetto a una produzione musicale che, a conti
fatti, è praticamente prossima allo zero. Perché, posso affermarlo per
esperienza, una recensione su Internet di un suo CD-R, magari
stampato in sole 300 copie, riceve molte più visite di una recensione a
un disco di David Sylvian, e posso assicurarvi che non si tratta affatto di
cliccate dell’artista o dei suoi amici. La conclusione non può essere
che una: il popolo di Internet ama questa ‘tokyo digital mutation girl’.
Ho scritto di ‘una produzione prossima allo zero’ e mi spiego meglio. Il
CD-R ha motivo di esistere solo per basse tirature, quindi una
produzione basata esclusivamente su quel tipo di supporto non può
certo raggiungere un pubblico così numeroso da giustificare la
notorietà raggiunta dalla ragazza. Inoltre questo tipo di supporto non
viene trattato dalla maggior parte della stampa, e quando viene preso in
considerazione è guardato come materiale di serie B o, peggio ancora,
è esaminato in modo equivoco, senza spiegare affatto di cosa si tratta.
La maggior parte dei distributori, poi, non accetta in consegna i CD-R.
Buona parte della pubblicità, se mai, gli è venuta dai pezzi piazzati su
Internet. Ma anche di questi se ne parla poco, e allora vuol dire che
esiste un tipo di pubblico evoluto, in grado di muoversi in modo
autonomo rispetto alla critica, alla promozione e alla pubblicità (cose
che, spiace dirlo, a volte fanno corpo unico). La giapponese ha
probabilmente intuito la consistenza di questi ascoltatori, ha saputo
raggiungerli tramite una penetrazione a ‘rete’ ed ha fatto leva sul loro
gusto per costruire una sua piccola mitologia.
Questo CD rappresenta l’opportunità di allargare una cerchia di
pubblico già consistente, un’opportunità che non vale solo per l’autrice
ma anche per l’etichetta, anch’essa rimasta confinata, fino a ieri, nell’
universo della piccola produzione su CD-R, e non è un caso fortuito che
la and/OAR abbia deciso di puntare proprio su Sawako per tentare il
salto di ‘categoria’. La ‘tokyo digital mutation girl’ non delude infatti le
aspettative e sfrutta nel modo migliore l’occasione che le viene offerta, e
fin dalla lista delle collaborazioni raccolte è possibile capire quanta
accuratezza c’è dietro alla produzione di “Yours Gray”.
La scelta dei pezzi, che privilegia sette tracce medio-brevi, è
estremamente felice. La struttura pacata e artigianale, morbida ma non
languida, è affidata a pochi tratti distintivi, e ne prendono forma
acquarelli dai colori tenui, come le foto che adornano la confezione, o
come forme irreali di paesaggi visti al lume di luna piena, magari
coperti da un manto di neve, con i colori che assumono un carattere
magico e fantastico, mentre nello sfondo è possibile udire il crepitio del
silenzio. Arte semplice, povera, arte del quotidiano, del vissuto,
impressioni dettate da uno sguardo attento alla nuance del mondo…
arte impressionista e, dopo tanto espressionismo, ce n’era davvero
bisogno.
I brani sono tutti costruiti con registrazioni concrete, una spolverata di
pianoforte processato, un pizzico di onde corte radio, voci quanto
basta… poesia delle piccole cose che si tinge d’immenso. Gli episodi
più curiosi rispondono ai titoli di Petit Garçon, con l’autrice che scrive di
aver dimenticato quali suoni ha utilizzato, Cache Cache e Go To Ocean,
entrambi assemblati con field recordings raccolti nei pressi di una
galleria dove, e mentre, suonava ‘Toshi’ Nakamura. I percorsi di
Sawako vengono paragonati a quelli di Sophie Calle e Wim Wenders,
ma io vedrei bene un parallelo con la produzione solista di Valerio
Tricoli, un altro giovane che sta finalmente trovando la sua dimensione
nel grande universo della musica. Comprate questo disco e tenetelo
stretto insieme a tutti i CD-R autoprodotti di Sawako, se siete riusciti a
metterci le mani, perché il futuro è dalla sua parte.
(Etero Genio)
TOUCHING EXTREMES (OCTOBER 2005)
In this brief series of ear movies, where snapshots of real world
activities are conveniently paired to disparate electronic sources, sound
artist Sawako brings out her view of a singular - if quite hidden - tuning
between what's perceived in our daily life and a combination of
psychoacoustic materials which assume a leading role in developing
the raw document of a location into a well determined mental state. In
"Cache cache" Toshi Nakamura lends his piercing controlled feedback
to the ambience of what's described as a "quiet residential area by the
sea", while the best overall track for sheer compositional skill is
probably "Night midlight", an insinuating intercourse between Sawako's
processed sounds and voice and Mitchell Akiyama's looped/treated
piano. Concentrating her efforts in 36 minutes or so, this woman breaks
more than one barrier between simple brooding and active listening,
keeping many things unsaid - but visible anyway.
(Massimo Ricci)
VITAL WEEKLY
number 494 week 39 (SEPTEMBER 2005)
This CD is my introduction to the music of Sawako. There are 7 tracks
with a total time of just under 37 minutes. Some of the tracks are hardly
longer than 2 minutes. That is rather unusual in the phonographic
sound scene I would say. The music in general is a mix of field
recordings and electronic (or electronically enhanced) sounds and the
combination works very well indeed. All the tracks have a gentle and
quite still character that envelop the listener, inviting him/her into
Sawako's world. A world that is best described as gentle, quirky and
created with a lot of pleasure. But do not make the mistake of taking this
too lightly: it is very serious, but without getting heavy. Basically one of
those works that has to be heard in order to be appreciated. What more
can I say? Listen! (Roel Meelkop)
BLOW UP (JANUARY 2005)
Top releases of 2004:
- MOTION: Lookback Layback (12k)
- TAYLOR DEUPREE & CHRISTOPHER WILLITS: Mujo (Plop)
- MITCHELL AKIYAMA: If Night Is a Weed and Day Grows Less (Sub Rosa SR20)
- PATRIK TORSSON: Kolväteserenader (Häpna)
- MY JAZZY CHILD: I Insist (Clapping Music)
- THE KONKI DUET: Il Fait Tout Gris (Active Suspension)
- O.LAMM: Hello Spiral (Active Suspension)
- BOB VIDO: Interesting Results. Music By a Committee of One -
or, "I Feel Like I'm A-Fixin' To DIY" (Sonic Arts Network)
- MARGARETH KAMMERER: To Be an Animal of Real Flesh (Charhizma)
- FOURCOLOR: Air Curtain (12k)
- SAWAKO: Yours Gray (and/OAR)
- OZ FRITZ: All Around the World (Sub Rosa)
- LUC FERRARI: Les Anecdotiques (Sub Rosa)
- MICHEL CHION / LIONEL MARCHETTI / JÉRÔME NOETINGER:
Les 120 Jours (Fringes Recordings)
(Nicola Catalano)
ELECTRONIC MUSIC 411 (OCTOBER 2004)
French experimental netlabel Autres Directions In Music have entered
the difficult world of the online compilation, courtesy of their ambitious
The Noise & The City package: no fewer than thirty artists each providing
a piece of text, a photo and a track, all available for free download. The
rules governing the production of the latter were such that artists were
invited to, "revisit their daily environment (urban and sound), ... record
sounds inside their city, then reprocess the material as much as they
like without adding any kind of rhythm or music". The label does in its
accompanying notes acknowledge the debt to Fallt's Invisible Cities
project.
It's probably inevitable that the results are somewhat patchy, partly given
the very restricted 'rules' governing the project, but another important
thing that disappointed me was the lack of variety in how the artists
utilised their source material. Although obviously some people used a
mixture of the two approaches, basically they either compiled a 'collage'
of field recordings on the one hand, or else manipulated these
recordings to then make more straightforward 'musical' elements
(percussion sounds made from samples of trains, that kind of thing),
and so construct a pretty much regular track from there.
There are some nice tracks, sure - Sora and The Remote Viewer are
tremendous, plus Robokoneko is also pretty good - but I suppose that I
listened to this compilation in the context of currently being immersed in
the genuinely stunning Sawako album Yours Gray - and here we're
moving off into actual CD territory - on the experimental and/OAR label.
It's not entirely made out of field recordings in the way that The Noise &
The City (TN&TC) is, but there's certainly a comparison to be made in
terms of how she has approached the making of her music - and the
result is that Yours Gray is just so much more affecting than anything on
the Autres Directions collection. (To be fair, having heard a lot of
Sawako's mp3s in the past and been intrigued if not totally convinced, I
was really unprepared for the album to be quite so overwhelming.)
This is especially true in the way that she isolates sounds, uses the
incredible power of silence and conveys the idea that every element of
sound in her work is perfectly considered and correctly positioned. The
more randomised collage approach of a lot of TN&TC of course can
lead to some interesting textures, etc., but generally in the hands of - to
be frank - lesser artists, it's not going to bring about the creation of
something profoundly exciting.
In contrast, Sawako is able to demonstrate a deeper understanding of
the nature of both sound and (vitally) time in the context of composition
and performance. An example of how this works in practice is the first
time my wife - and she's not really into this kind of thing at all - and I
listened to the album, after it had finished we continued our
conversation literally at the level of a whisper for the rest of the evening,
without even realising what we were doing: Yours Gray is simply
astonishingly successful at re-contextualising sound. (Mike Innes)
IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2005 EDITION
(DECEMBER 2005)
An electronic soundscape of pure tones, but not like pop music; the
dignified attitude of the artist penetrates the album. Sawako's works
here ranges widely, from pastel-tone songs like innocent childhood
memories, to abstract pieces that sound like the rumbling of the earth.
Besides electronics, field recordings of various environmental noises,
such as wind chimes and the chirping of insects, are effectively used.
Her mix of Toshimaru Nakamura's live performance at a seaside open
gallery as part of a neighborhood environmental soundscape shows a
fresh , original sensitivity that is totally free from the fixed image of
conventional Japanese sentiment. (Yuko Zama)
E / I MAGAZINE ISSUE 6 (WINTER / SPRING 2006)
None embody the preservationist ethic more than Sawako.
A study group at Keio University, the Faculty Of Environmental
Information once designed a park of biotropic landscapes for a rapidly
sprawling exurban development in Madrid with no hydration system,
such that within the biotrope, chip-controlled modules called "water
trees" would analyze water tables, purification statistics, and
subsequently purify the wetlands by re-directing "secondary effluent
sewage" below the surface. As a former student, the rhizoid roots of
Yours Gray - Sawako's acoustic-ecological exploration of the tensile
human nexus between technological innovation and nature - run deep
into the FEI's philosophical substrate. Embosomed within field
recordings of water, sand , clocks, spoons, and her own voice, she
creates a wide-horizoned morphology of sonic phenomena
distinguished by an inventive harmonic playfulness rare among her
peers. Though the collaborative tracks are not always obvious given her
fluid, botanical sensibilities (cf., Mitchell Akiyama's muscular
instrumental processing, Toshimaru Nakamura's sine wave
asceticism) the results are portmanteau portraits of environmental
interaction as cybernetically progressive as architectural cyber-solutions
for thirsty 21st century cities. (William S. Fields)
SMALLFISH (JULY 2006)
This work predates Sawako's more well known albums for Community
Library and 12k by a couple of years, yet there's a definite similarity
between the work on all 3 albums. Sawako seemingly uses field
recordings as a large part of the inspiration for this CD and, as opposed
to the more melodic processing that's used on later work this has a
stripped-back and reduced feel that's very appealing indeed. It's almost
as if the source material is enough and doesn't need any extra tinkering
with... the means more than justifies the end. Subtle shifts in sound
work to engage the listener and it's, at times, like listening to a little
corner of Japanese life unfolding before you. For that you can read that I
thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend it as an excellent
companion to the other albums. Lovely stuff. (Mike Oliver)
