artist: KEIJI HAINO
title: Un Autre Chemin Vers l'Ultime
label: Prele
country: France
format: CD
title: Un Autre Chemin Vers l'Ultime
label: Prele
country: France
format: CD
"Keiji Haino is an individual that never ceases to provoke new ideas in the minds of those
that meet him. And so, although he is usually surrounded by amplifiers, a myriad of effects
pedals, and cables plugged into his guitar, he nonetheless amazed his audience with the
power of the simplicity of his purely vocal performance and the Centre Pompidou in Paris,
in 2008, as part of the InFamous Carousel Festival. The following year I had the
opportunity to get to know him a bit better, acting as interpreter for his solo performance at
Les Instants Chavirés in Montreuil. Being the intermediary for all his questions allowed me
to fully understand the extent to which he attempts to give the absolute best of himself on
stage, and how he leads a tireless quest for music. This led me to wonder if what he had
done in 2008 couldn't be done without the technology, replacing the electronic
amplification with the acoustic properties of a space. Solidifying this proposal did not take
long; my musician friend and label associate, Eric Cordier, who has worked for 20 years
with site-specific sound recording, knew of several acoustically interesting spaces in the
region in which he grew up.
And so we find ourselves en route to Normandy, in June 2010. We had a week consecrated
to the exploration of one voice, and this is not just any voice; a voice developed outside of
any school, through a unique journey, a voice simultaneously rock and spiritual, outside
any taboo, a voice that shakes us to the core. This time, in addition, this voice is heard in
its purest state. Of all the spaces visited, amongst them many churches and caves, a forest,
a cliff, a tunnel, industrial wastelands, etc, it was in a quarry cave in the village of La Haye
de Routot that he was able to release his entire being, offering up one hour of
introspective song, so good that I believed at one moment I saw him disappear… in any
case it was at this point that his voice and his body were able to melt into the space, or
perhaps to become the atmosphere itself. This album presents this recording, preceded by
those made in the church in the same village." (Satoko Fujimoto)
that meet him. And so, although he is usually surrounded by amplifiers, a myriad of effects
pedals, and cables plugged into his guitar, he nonetheless amazed his audience with the
power of the simplicity of his purely vocal performance and the Centre Pompidou in Paris,
in 2008, as part of the InFamous Carousel Festival. The following year I had the
opportunity to get to know him a bit better, acting as interpreter for his solo performance at
Les Instants Chavirés in Montreuil. Being the intermediary for all his questions allowed me
to fully understand the extent to which he attempts to give the absolute best of himself on
stage, and how he leads a tireless quest for music. This led me to wonder if what he had
done in 2008 couldn't be done without the technology, replacing the electronic
amplification with the acoustic properties of a space. Solidifying this proposal did not take
long; my musician friend and label associate, Eric Cordier, who has worked for 20 years
with site-specific sound recording, knew of several acoustically interesting spaces in the
region in which he grew up.
And so we find ourselves en route to Normandy, in June 2010. We had a week consecrated
to the exploration of one voice, and this is not just any voice; a voice developed outside of
any school, through a unique journey, a voice simultaneously rock and spiritual, outside
any taboo, a voice that shakes us to the core. This time, in addition, this voice is heard in
its purest state. Of all the spaces visited, amongst them many churches and caves, a forest,
a cliff, a tunnel, industrial wastelands, etc, it was in a quarry cave in the village of La Haye
de Routot that he was able to release his entire being, offering up one hour of
introspective song, so good that I believed at one moment I saw him disappear… in any
case it was at this point that his voice and his body were able to melt into the space, or
perhaps to become the atmosphere itself. This album presents this recording, preceded by
those made in the church in the same village." (Satoko Fujimoto)
