Naoshima...after your first listen

[godisinthesilences]

i got an email today saying it is shipping out on the 15th .... well better sooner than later!

[Adrian]

sisterlondon: enjoy what you enjoy! life's too short...

[sisterlondon]

sisterlondon: enjoy what you enjoy! life's too short...

Adrian, thanks for understanding

[godisinthesilences]

I received my copy today !! YEAH.
I have not listened to it yet and don't have a moment free until later tonight to give it my full attention.

However, I will comment on the artwork. First off I adore the colour scheme. Lavender/purple is one of my all time favourite shades and energetically speaking it signifies the upper most chakra ... the 7th chakra which represents "knowingness" or pure intuition. On the outer front cover I see what appear to be cords which could be interpreted as etheric cords connecting to everyone and everything... or the cords which connect us in healthy and unhealthy ways to each other. Water is a significant representation of emotional and intuitive thought/energy. Feathers to me represent many things including air energy, divine presence, fragility and nature's purity.
The inner left cover seems to me to look like millions of swirling flies laid over something graphic that appears to be dissolving under the weight of these flies.
The photo behind the cd seems to be this sort of decaying nature scene. I'm not sure if it holds a significance in orientation to the theme of the project or not. It is printed relatively flatly without significant details in either highlight or shadow areas.
Over all I think the artwork is beautiful. In fact when I directly opened the package I thought WOW how gorgeous this is.

[Smalldot]

I sat in front of my laptop for the duration of the piece running iTune's visualizer while it was playing. I swear, I think I now understand what an acid trip is all about. Who needs drugs?

[godisinthesilences]

I sat in front of my laptop for the duration of the piece running iTune's visualizer while it was playing. I swear, I think I now understand what an acid trip is all about. Who needs drugs?

tee hee.... now i must try it

[krausy]

Well, I guess I am the "lagger behind" as I haven't even ordered it, or even thought of it until now.

Considering they are printing more then I guess I have plenty of time........

[godisinthesilences]

Well, I guess I am the "lagger behind" as I haven't even ordered it, or even thought of it until now.

goofy girl.... i told you about this a couple weeks ago and asked if you bought it yet. LOL
Well they are selling them on amazon.com too so it isn't exclusively through samadhisound could be why they needed more of them made

[krausy]

Well, I guess I am the "lagger behind" as I haven't even ordered it, or even thought of it until now.

goofy girl.... i told you about this a couple weeks ago and asked if you bought it yet. LOL
Well they are selling them on amazon.com too so it isn't exclusively through samadhisound could be why they needed more of them made

yeah, I remember you asked me---but you know me---being difficult, stubborn---lol!!!

What is the word of the day? Forgiveness? bwaaaahhhhhaaaaa!!!!

[godisinthesilences]

Well, I guess I am the "lagger behind" as I haven't even ordered it, or even thought of it until now.

goofy girl.... i told you about this a couple weeks ago and asked if you bought it yet. LOL
Well they are selling them on amazon.com too so it isn't exclusively through samadhisound could be why they needed more of them made

yeah, I remember you asked me---but you know me---being difficult, stubborn---lol!!!

What is the word of the day? Forgiveness? bwaaaahhhhhaaaaa!!!!

YOUR word of the WEEK is R E L E A S E !!!!!!

[untitled]

So it finally arrived today!

Presentation
People have already done a better job on this section than I could ever do. However, I would have liked some more sleeve notes!

How did I listen?
Headphones. But like Baht, found I had the volume up too loud for certain bits. It starts very quietly so the temptation to crank the volume up initially is overwhelming. I tried eyes shut and eyes open. The former makes for a very intense listening experience, you’re aware of everything. A blindfolded walk in another land. I preferred eyes open. I lay down and looked out the window. It is wet and windy here tonight and watching the elements whilst listening, not surprisingly I guess, seemed right. I wondered what it would be like to be outside being buffeted, whilst listening?

The piece itself
Loved the opening few minutes, the waves lapping, wind whistling. Then the vocals come in – I thought they were Arve Henriksen's vocals with a Rabelais filter at times, but will stand corrected if they’re not! I seemed to get lost for a bit. I was thinking, “Yeah, this is all very well, but where’s it going? Then around 24 minutes in, I remember thinking there was a really lovely bit (Fennesz and some birds maybe?) and after that, the bits I really liked came more frequently. By 50 minutes, I stopped thinking in terms of bits that I liked and was just listening to it as a piece, that I was enjoying. The last 20 minutes were just great.

How did it make me feel?
The “field-recording” bits, the wind in particular, made me think of my childhood. I lived in a house on the side of a very windy hill and often went to sleep with the wind and rain beating against my bedroom window. Other than that and kind of eerie, spirituality, seemed to pervade the piece.

What am I not sure about after the first listen?
The length of the piece. It seemed more like something you should actively listen to, rather than have as background music. So finding 70 minutes to spend on listening alone isn’t always easy. Oh…and the loud bangs.

Last thoughts?
I was reminded of a thing David Toop wrote about the Japanese gardening concept “shakkei” (meaning borrowed scenery) where bits of the garden are designed around features actually outside the garden itself) and how this can be applied to some musical compositions.

[Yoshi]

Before I express the first impression, I apologize for my poor English.

After the first listen, I’ve received impression that this work may be considered to be extension of piece 'Epiphany' and 'Rain Tree Crow.

I guess that DS always has a wanderlust to a border of the ambivalence, a border between the stability and the instability, the certainty and the uncertainty, the visibility and the invisibility,
and a border between the physicals and the metaphysicals.

A sigh of the wind, the waves lapping and the spirit voice give me peace of mind. However, these sounds are not cradle songs but invoke the space and the silence, just like a japanese style paint.
I sympathize with the idea of "shakkei" that Mr.untitled mentioned. Expressing the silence, we need the bit of murmur, whisper, and creak. Looking at the brightness, we need the shadow. One dimension, one landscape, one world is contrasted with another one. Nothing is able to be defined itself and everything is defined each other multifariously.

In 'Naoshima, sometime the sound of jar may make us uncomfortable. Someone’s sleep might be disturbed. It is, however, neither mischief nor banal antithesis. DS sometimes reminds me of another dimension. This is like a method I can find also in 'Plight and Premonition - the spiralling of winter ghosts'. Yes, he sometimes reminds me of another dimension not mysteriously but with very daily thing.

I consider that DS doesn’t leave himself in an obsession but is inquiring the dignity of life.

BTW, I found the message DS gave for the exhibition of Sachiyo Tsurumi who designed front cover.
http://www.magical-artroom.com/press/pdf/tsurumi_press.htm
Maybe it will be helpful to you imaging WLWBN:

Sachiyo Tsurumi creates works that act as a bridge between what is seen and what goes unseen but is often perceived by other means in our experience of the world. She reminds us of the multi faceted dimensions of our reality in the everyday. it's conceivable there's some sort of mediumistic transformation taking place through the creation of her work. - david sylvian