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ONODERA, YUI & CELER - Generic City

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Two Acorns 2 A 01 Release Year: 2010 Note: collaboration recorded 2007-2009 using lots of different field recordings from Japan and Los Angeles - creating 4 long tracks of highly minimal, contemplative but also more concrete & rough daydream-drones for a different state of mind; first release on Will Longs (CELER) new label ! Price (incl. 19% VAT): €12.50 More Info " 'Generic City' is the debut release for Two Acorns, a new label/publisher curated by Will Long of Celer. 'Generic City' is presented in a custom-designed CD package, created by mondii, with photography by Danielle Baquet-Long, and mastered by Taylor Deupree. 'For this collaboration work, I made a lot of field recordings. Songs of migratory birds that come to a big lake only in winter, the sound of breaking ice, frozen on a lake, the peal of huge bells in a temple, voices in prayer to the Buddha, footsteps in the subway, on the ground, made by coming and going people, machine sounds at a construction site, rain flowing into a steel pipe with a hard sound, the oscillation sound of rubbing iron which was recorded through a contact mic set on steel, the conversation of people walking in the city, noise of vehicles and trucks, kids voices from an elementary school, and so on. Like a time trip to transcend places, these sound-scapes are presented as a imaginary tale. To collaborate with foreign artists became a chance for facing Japan again for me. Reflecting on each of our localities to compose let us be aware anew of the vernacular which has been lost in the global world. Artists can't be unrelated to the characteristics (culture) of places (surroundings) where they live, and they are influenced obliviously in some way. By watching our everyday surroundings closely, we can engender a most realistic language of where we live, and how we think. I sense that peculiar, unfamiliar cultures and customs are invaluable wealth in human history.' - Yui Onodera 'In this collaboration work with Yui Onodera, we contributed many instrument sounds, and field recordings such as the streets of Los Angeles, rain on our doorstep, water draining into the gutter, cars passing on wet and slippery streets, people walking on their way home from work, talking in an airport baggage claim, crosswalks, airliners flying over, taxi rides, riding bikes through traffic, conversations in restaurants, the Metro Link train in Los Angeles, and walking on quiet streets. In our part of mixing, since we were working with someone's instrument sounds and field recordings from a city that we haven't visited, much was left to our imagination to re-create an environment and city setting for the piece. Trying to keep a balance between the heavily processed material and the entirely unprocessed material, created a natural bridge of movement inside the city. Processed elements became backdrops and scores to real activity, sometimes simply drifting away from the daily life, or the finding the soul of the pieces. When these two entirely different cities came together, it created an all new way of looking at, and hearing the city's movements around us. Cultures parallel one another, with the views of the skylines and empty streets left the only visible evidence of similarity.' - Danielle Baquet-Long, Will Long " [label info] www.thesingularwe.org/twoacorns "Two Acorns is a new label started by Will Long, one half of Celer. He deals with 'things you can hold in your hand, or keep on your bookshelf, to keep these feelings, memories, and experiences. There is no replacement for the smell of a book, the spin of a CD player starting'. Hear hear. The label starts of with a collaborative release of his band Celer (which was Long and his partner Danielle Baquet-Long, who passed away) and Yui Onodera. The latter provides field recordings, electronics, guitar, violin, piano and musical box, while Celer holds the mixing board, cello, violin, piano, field recordings, theremin, electronics and ocarina. I am not sure but I don't recall seeing many collaborations of Celer, but the result, four lengthy pieces work out quite well. Its probably everything you would expect from such a collaboration (you could debate wether that is good or bad), but the gentle, sustaining, of course drone - a word that can't be avoided when talking about Celer nor Onodera - like atmospherics work quite well, but what seems interesting is that many of the field recordings go unprocessed into the mix. Lots of rain, water, animals, street sounds, stuff that seems to be picked up with contact microphones and such like, and they bathe quite well in the string of sounds woven together on the various instruments. They add a great spice to the music, which doesn't stick that much in the world of 'just' drones too much. Beautifully ringing overtones, 'heavy' street sounds, air traffic and crackling of leaves: together they create a mighty fine aural landscape. Beautiful." [FdW/Vital Weekly]