From Utech Records:
FRANK ROSALY > CENTERING AND DISPLACEMENT > URLP074
Centering and Displacement was composed in the winter-summer of 2008 in Chicago. A body of improvised source material was collected, segmented and organized by a simple chance operation. These segments were then orchestrated into a sound program and arranged by order of the strict composed form. At times, the score also regulated post-recorded effects to manipulate the original material. As the material was edited, it was divided into six separate channels (three stereo tracks). Each pair of channels was transferred to a cd and each was played on three cd players simultaneously, creating a simple six-channel sound installation. In 2011, the dense six-channel score was revised and reduced to two channels (one stereo track), which is now the final, preferred version.
The result is a centrifugal record filled with moments of surprise and complexity. Drums, percussion and electronics are at the core, revealing themselves with precision and radiant color. Frank Rosaly has created a piece that stands apart in the field of challenging music.MASAYOSHI URABE > KAMPANERURA > URCD034/Shokyo7
Kampanerura is the name of a boy appearing in the children’s story Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), Japanese poet and author of children’s literature. A boy with pure soul transmigrates and becomes a dissipated man around a trip to the bottom in Asia. Masayoshi Urabe on electric guitar, alto sax, harmonica and other instruments. Special guest Teruhisa Nanbu of Aural Fit on drums and percussion.
THE OBSERVATORY > CATACOMBS > OBS005412 > 2XLP/CD
The heart and soul of The Observatory is in its constant reinvention. With each release, the members have persisted in their experimental take on the pop songform. In ten years, The Observatory has gone from folk electronica to prog to avant rock, approaching a more primal, new dark wave sound with their fifth album,Catacombs. But genre preoccupations aside, The Observatory explores music that’s texturally complex, viscerally emotional and splintering in its bleakness. A study in delusion, insanity and obsession, Catacombs provokes and inspires in a deeply enigmatic way. Even at its coldest and most abstract, it is human to the core. Catacombs is the result of a year’s worth of jamming. Sitting in a studio day after day to see what we could come up with. We only really found our direction in September 2011. The songs that made it onto the album are us after much play and consternation. Once again, we went up north to seek inspiration in the bleak and the cold. With each other, the incessant rain, and our producer Jorgen Traeen for company, we find ourselves venturing farther into the darkness that began with our last album, Dark Folke. It’s us attempting to cross wasted borders and find musical extremities that parallel the polarities within our lives.
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