SAWAKO - Bitter Sweet

Format: CD

Label & Cat.Number: 12K 12K1047

Release Year: 2008

Note: latest album of this female sound-artist from Tokyo

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00

More Info

"Die Musik der Japanerin wurde in BA 49 als „Gänseblümchenikebana“ und in BA 56 als „sonntäglich versonnener Nachmittag eines kulleräugigen Manga-Mädchens, das mit dem Laptop wie mit Puppen spielt“ in die niedliche Ecke gestellt. Sie bleibt sich treu und würzt ihre dröhnminimalistischen Tagträumereien erneut mit Zimt und Zucker. Akustische Gitarren (von Radiosonde bzw. Ryan Francesconi, die bei ‚April - From Sea Shell‘ bzw. ‚Utouto‘ auch als Co-Autoren genannt werden) oder das Cello von Jacob Kirkegaard blinken und summen Licht- und Schattenspiele für Sawakos ‚Deep Under‘- und ‚Ex.o.tico‘-Dreamscapes. Katzen träumen von Vögeln, Mädchen von ‚Hugbugs‘, die sie kitzeln, Fische singen ihren Nachtgesang, Sawako haucht ‚A Last Next‘. Sagte ich ‚niedlich‘? Seit der Entdeckung des Kindchenschemas hat das Niedliche seinen Zauber verloren (Herodes)." [Bad Alchemy]

"New York/Tokyo-based Sawako is a musician, software designer, and multimedia artist whose multi-disciplinary works intermix and pollenate her music with inspiration ranging from nature, science, academia and poetic motion. Following releases on Anticipate and And/Oar, Bitter Sweet is Sawako's 2nd release on 12k after the critically-acclaimed Hum in 2005. Her music is fragile and intimate, delicate, ephemeral and resonant. Bitter Sweet is unmistakably Sawako but finds itself moving into much, much deeper territory than her previous works. Building on her past forays into experimental pop, she uses low and mid-frequency drones and soft, melodic highlights to shape beds of stripped-down, hypnotic and very linear tracks that fill the space in which they exist. Bitter Sweet is more drone and tonal-based than Sawako's previous works. However, these gentle movements are punctuated by field recordings and acoustic instrumentation with cello provided by Jacob Kirkegaard and guitar by Radiosonde and Ryan Francesconi who also co-write two of the pieces on the album. In what has become a bit of a signature, Sawako lends her own voice to the ending lullaby, 'A Last Next.' These combinations produce rich results. Bitter Sweet's diffuse and hazy soundscaping is Sawako's most mature work to date, relying less on her previous child-like melodies while remaining feminine and tender. She has come into her own after having established herself for a number of years as a New Yorker where she has tirelessly performed, studied and created as an important member of the city's electronic music community. Bitter Sweet is packaged in a 6-panel digipack with photography throughout by Brooklyn-based artist and photographer Maki Kaoru." [label info]

www.12k.com