FOURCOLOR
"LETTER OF SOUNDS" (12K1038)
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AVUI
(IT)
Keiichie
Sugimoto és un dels artistes electrònics més
prolifics i consistents del moment. A part dels projectes pop,
com Minamo i Filfla, lidera Fourcolor, un dels millors grups
d'electrònica experimental, amb el qual ara publica un
segon disc.
BAD ALCHEMY (DE)
Keiichi
Sugimoto ist ein unermüdlicher Designer von Geplimpel,
das offenbar Wohlgefühl auslösen soll. Auch als Filfla
und mit Fonica und Minamo, mit Apestaartje, Plop und 12k als
für derlei munter morphenden Minimalelectro einschlägigen
Foren, feilt er an einer Vorstellung von Schönheit, so
geleckt und steril wie die Kalbfleischerotik einer Bilitis-Elfe.
Dazu passt das Lolita-Gesäusel von Naoko Sasaki aka Piana
bei ’Rowboat', ein Titel, der wie auch ’Season',
’Fountain', ’Flyaway' oder ’Leaves' ebenso
gut für ein Strandkleid- oder Sommerblusenmodell im Waschbär-Katalog
stehen könnte. Synkopierte Clicks + Glitches, im Laptop
gezogene und geloopte Gitarren- oder Keyboardmolekülketten
und repetitive Musterkollektionen stellen den Stoff für
eine Syntax aus gleichzeitig melodischem Gelulle und fiebriger
Nervosität. Typisch ’Japanisch' kann man das nicht
nennen, weil Labelkollegen wie Deupree, Kirschner, Shuttle358
oder Willits einem ähnlichen Ästhetizismus frönen.
Dass ich das nicht als belangloses Zeug abtun kann, dafür
sorgt Fourcolor mit ’Leaves', dem mit gut 14 Minuten längsten
Track, der mit seinen dunkel abgedämpften, wie halb erstickten
und abgerissenen Orgeldröhnfetzen und verträumt gezupften
Gitarrennoten eine andre, rätselhaftere Sprache spricht.
BIG LOAD (DE)
Verfluct,
bin ich aber süchtig nach diesen Instantnudel-Süppchen!
Schnell den Dreck aufkochen, kurz ziehen lassen, und China Syndrom
später liege ich betäubt am Teppich, genau in der
richtigen Stimmung für Herrn Sugimotos Quattro Stagioni,
ein typisch japanisches Electronika-Erzeugnis, das darauf getestet
wurde, auch im heftigsten Delirium glutamans die Sinne schmeichelweich
zu erreichen: ein die Grenzen des Erträglichen bei Weitem
nicht auslotendes nervöses Pluckern, hochausgestoßene
weibliche Stimmreize, ein Wasabi-Wabbern verleiht dem ganzen
Gemisch Würze, kleine Keyboard-Melodiechen, die fast schon
klingen wie gestrichene Kristallgläser, werden per Zufall
aus einfachsten Tonabfolgen zusammengezimmert und über
Gelooptes aus der Konserve gelegt. Bleibt man am Teppich, sind
das schon sehr sehr feine Stückchen, doch ist das Gift
mal wieder abgebaut, bleibt der fade Scheiß gefälligst
draußen! Allerdings kriege ich schon wieder so einen Appetit..
CRACKED (AT)
In
the last decade "ambient" has lost its intended meaning
of inventor Brian Eno, which I want to bring back into memory
again at this moment. Cue parts of the liner notes from his
1978 masterpiece Ambient #1: Music for Airports: "Ambient
music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. S¹ Ambient
music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention
without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable
as it is interesting." So, originally the term wasn't intended
to mean slow, longwinding textures of music that don't move
or ever change (though it didn't exclude that) and it definitely
didn't mean music that is so inobtrusive that it diffuses into
the background like tapestry or furniture. The whole loads of
records constipating the racks of your local music store that
are called "modern living" or "café sounds"
are bland and bleak misunderstandings filled with meaningless
beats and none better than small doses of narcoticas sold as
sleeping pills. Forget all about that.
Keichi Sugimoto has taken up again and again the original definition
of ambient music and expanded and inhaled the basic principle.
On "letter of sounds" - oh, what a telling title -
he sparks a flame that hopefully carries across the wide deserts
of music formed by boring electronic music. Even in his previous
work, in the electro-acoustic quartet Minamo or as Filfla, he
has bypassed the non-ety of a lot of electronic music. He has
also chosen or been chosen by labels that stand like bonfires
of interesting ambient in the wide desert mentioned before,
like 12k (see also Sawako), Apestaartje (see also Anderegg)
or Plop (see also Kazumasa Hashimoto, Gel: or Fenton). If these
labels carry the image of being of utmost boringness by some
music listeners and critics, then they have already fullfilled
one half of Eno's original statement, ie. to be ignorable. That
these listeners and critics are only able to see or hear that
one half tells a lot more about them than about the labels or
artists on them. These music journalists put on CDs and expect
to be gripped by the music (or shocked, awed, puzzled, fluffed,
rocked, whateverS¹) and this doesn't happen. Because it reduces
music to something used for effect like a tool.
Ambient music on the other hand at first consists of something
outside the listener, it is just there. It seeps into the background
and sudddenly (or not) enters the listeners mind. It has given
him freedom to explore his thoughts, to think and dream or to
concentrate on the music. This subconscious effect on the mindest
of the listener is the true aim of ambient music and what differentiates
good ambient from music that is only called ambient but actually
is not.
Which also means that the music, as unobtrusive and easy to
listen to it might be, must also be of high quality. Something
Sugimoto has become known for in the last decade. On "letter
of sound" he builds soft tracks that glisten on the outside
and feel like swimming in a calm ocean at sunset on the inside.
Percussions are on this side of glitches, bass sounds pulse
warmly without origin, keyboards and sounds follow their own
gentle harmonies. Even disturbing sounds like rings or digital
skips are incorporated into shining structures of endless possibilites.
All tracks are about open rooms with a lot of echoes and light
effects. They don't fascinate with size but with detail and
their grandness opens up only by surprise. Like the metro station
Les Halles in Paris, which seems so small at first but then,
after you enter through a tiny two wing door you suddenly find
yourself in a mall that goes over four stories and features
everything from fnac to designer clothers.
That tiny door is the listeners attention. It is but a possibility.
Staying outside or going in is just the same. But whatever you
do loitering about on the outside is another possibility fabricated
by what is behind the door. Summing up I am almost sure that
"letter of sound" refers to a letter as in the alphabet
and the beginning of a plan to build a collection of intricate
constructions of sound that all follow their own implemented
rule and aim. Now, don't start talking about architecture and
music, because good archictecture is just another kind of ambient
(music).
P.S.: I didn't even mention at the necessary length the highlight
of this CD, the collaboration with vocalist Naoko Sasaki aka
Piana, but I'll leave that as an incentive for you to walk through
the door.
DE:BUG (DE)
"Letter
of Sounds" ist die Pop-Platte von Fourcolor alias Keiichi
Sugimoto, dem umtriebigen Produzenten, der auch noch in die
Projekte Minamo und Fonica involviert ist. Sogar richtig ausformulierte
Beats gibt es diesmal. Das habe ich bei Fourcolor noch nie gehört.
Und auf einem Stück singt die wunderbare Piana. Trotz der
Avancen, die Keiichi Sugimoto hier in Richtung Pop-Musik macht,
ist die Platte natürlich noch längst keine extrovertierte
Musik. "Letter of Sounds" ist Pop-Muzik für Leute,
die lieber schweben würden als laufen, für die, die
ihre Empfindsamkeit stolz nach außen tragen. Dass die
Musik trotz ihrer Dünnhäutigkeit nie in sowas Überspanntes
abrutscht und sich jeglicher melancholischer Schwere entzieht,
finde ich immer erstaunlich. Von Grund auf gelassene und sensible
Musik. Ganz großartig.
D-SIDE
(FR)
...
La démonstration
commence avec le prolifique Keiichi Sugimoto qui explore, avec
un meme bonheur, des climats relativement proches sous les identités
de Fonica, Minamo, Filfla et Fourcolor, pour lequel il signe
aujourd'hui son troisième album. Pourtant, une fois encore,
Fourcolor se refuse à se répéter, et après
avoir prvilégié le drone et les mélodies
aqueuses, d'est cette fois-ci le rythme que Sugimoto met en
avant, en sculptant en orfèvre patient des micro-beats
cliquetants et scintillants. Profondément ancrée
dans une certaine idée du Japon, raffiné, délicat
et subtil, la musique de Fourcolor construit en toute discrétion
un palais de glaces où l'on se prend à rever,
saisi par la pureté d'un reflet, par la réminiscence
soulevée par la voix de Piana qui flotte sur "Rowboat",
où l'on épelle ces lettres de son pour ne former
que des mots dels que "beauté", "paix"
ou "harmonie".
E/I
(US)
There’s
a downward slope implied on Letter of Sounds making
it a music ideally suited to the demands implicit in following
after any literal or imagined denouement. So, beginning after
the event with a somewhat more structured piece that relies
on recognizable pacing, contrast and the entrance and exit of
various fields gated against the muted pulse of an electric
piano-like voice, the deconstructed rhythmic gestures of Letter
of Sounds wastes no time in choosing the entropic path. From
that first—called “02”—the trajectory
tails into a shimmering and vocally-induced piece that plays
with resonance, extending and sharing frequencies between sources
as it hovers between the intelligible inflections of song and
a kind of early 21st century melisma, all beauty and decay.
The rest follows a trajectory of thinning and clotting. Fourcolor
traces an arc of accumulating abstraction, where traditional
scales gradually yield their adherence to tonality and the silences
become dominant over the sounds which at one point cease any
and every intimation of motion. The overall effect is one of
persistent, subtle and hushed airiness, opening and closing
with and against every occurrence. Ultimately, Letter of Sounds
arrives in terra cognito, a post-ambient harbor that finds the
right mark between minimalism and extravagance, attention and
inattention, gesture and stillness and the wholly impartial
surround.- K. LEIMER
FLUCTUAT
(FR)
Minimalisme,
micro-sons, évanescence, abstraction, tout, dans Letter
of Sounds, porte la marque élégante du label 12K.
Pourtant Fourcolor, projet solo du japonais Keichi Sugimoto
est certainement la plus accessible des parutions du label new-yorkais
à ce jour. Pour preuve, il suffit de se laisser bercer
par "Rowboat", un morceau quasi pop accompagné
au chant par la compagne de Sugimoto, Naoko Sasaki aka Piana
(sur Happy, sous division du label). Letter of Sounds cultive
les ambiances apaisées ("Season") - comme c'est
souvent le cas dans la structure du spécialiste de la
computer music et des sons microscopiques, Taylor Deupree -,
mais n'est pas non plus dépourvu de rythme, ni d'aspérités
(voir "Foutain" ou "Frame"). Digne représentant
du courant laptop music (la vraie, celle qui se bidouille derrière
des machines invisibles), il n'en cultive pas maladivement les
défauts : froideur désincarnée, abandon
de l'harmonie, etc... Letter of Sounds affiche même un
certain classicisme qui le rapproche d'un genre malheureusement
en voie d'extinction : l'electronica chaleureuse et généreuse.
A écouter chez soi, en profitant de ces moments de bonheur
éphémères, dont il faut savoir tirer parti.
GO MAG (ES)
A
veces uno se pregunta porque algunos artistas se buscan un segundo,
un tercero o incluso un cuarto nombre para firmar sus discos.
Keiichi Sugimoto, el laptopista más atareado de Japón,
es uno de ellos. Además de formar parte del cuarteto
Minamo y del dúo Fonica, Sugimoto también firma
como Filfla o, sobretodo, Fourcolor, su proyecto más
conocido y también el más productivo. "Letter
of Sounds" es el cuarto disco bajo este último alias
y el segundo editado en el sello 12k. Pues bien, aunque "Letter
of Sounds" venga con la firma de Fourcolour, parece que
Sugimoto continúa, en cierto modo, bajo el influjo de
FilFla, su personal excursión al floreado mundo del pop
digital. Como si se resistiera a volver a ese ambient subacuático
de drones resonantes y melodías dilatadas tan típico
de Fourcolour, el japonés tiende a la fragmentación,
cambiando las habituales texturas de consistencia vaporosa por
ritmos concisos y cartesianos ("Vigente", el sexto
tema, remite directamente a SND). Aún así, Sugimoto
pisa un terreno por el que sabe orientarse la mar de bien. Experto
en el trucaje tímbrico y en la melodía suspendida,
el japonés consigue reinventarse con éxito en
este nuevo disco de Fourcolour, sin duda el más dinámico
y colorido de todos los editados hasta la fecha.
LA VANGUARDIA (ES)
...Bajo
su alias Fourcolor (pero mas cerca de su trabajo como Filfla)
Keiichi Sugimoto utiliza sus habituales processos de pixelado
digital para crear dulces melodias repetitivas que esbozan una
estructura pop a partir de siminutas particulas sonoras.
LOST AT SEA (UK)
For
some reason, minimalist electronica has become shrouded in theoretical
discourse. These days, trying to seek out a review free of talk
of digital processes, software and the sort of jargon that must
isolate as many as it embraces can sometimes be easier said
than done, and to its newcomers the genre can come across as
off-putting and impenetrable. Quite fittingly then, it?s a breath
of fresh air when an artist like Keiichi Sugimoto resurfaces
to add scope to it.
Sugimoto has been churning out delicate drones under the Fourcolor
moniker since 1998, in between stints as part of Minamo, an
electro-acoustic quartet also working with 12k. While Fourcolor
sits comfortably with the rest of the 12k roster, it represents
the label?s most perceptible nod towards pop ? a suggestion
that has been accentuated with the arrival of Letter of Sounds.
The most striking feature of Sugimoto?s latest batch of tracks
is their incorporation of beats. We?re not talking Prefuse 73
here ? a Fourcolor beat is microscopic, consisting of little
more than clicks and skitters ? but beats nonetheless.
Though still miles away from bass-driven, "02" and
"Fountain" fit more comfortably with the commonly-assumed
concept of a ?song? than the past Fourcolor themes ever did.
That said, the crystalline, astutely precise elements of Air
Curtain, released in 2004, remain, but in souped-up form: here,
Sugimoto leaves little to chance ? he has fastened his dreamy
scapes into tight rhythms that skip between breaks, expanding
his palate and making it more inviting on the whole.
If half of Letter of Sounds? triumph can be attributed to its
accessibility, the other half would be to its sheer simplicity.
The signature Fourcolor production is remarkably spacious, and
doesn?t allow the gentle washes of sound to get bogged down
with superfluous instrumentation or endless loops. Sugimoto
doesn?t allow space for that which he deems unnecessary, and
his tracks are the better for it.
MUSIQUE
MACHINE (.COM)
Letter
of sounds is a mellow colour wash of sound.Mixing soothed glicthy
electronics, micro beat complexities, restful electronic pulse,
and organic instrumental hues. Really giving the whole album
such a dreamy yet focused feel. Been gentle and restful, yet
very disciplined and thought out in its execution.
You'll find your self locked into it’s sound season from
the outset- the opener 02 feels like child’s bike rides
through spring colour, both active and warming in it's flow.Mixing
micro beat patterns, click and weave, ambient guitar sooth and
eltro pitter-patter- that keeps the mind active, almost feeling
you feel going round the next Connor of tree lined , thats bursting
with spring colour road. Season finds you watching slow on &
off autumnal showers from a calmly lit room. It Breath's in
a slow revolving melodic Pattens of guitar sound, and settling
ambience. Frame finds us looping through lazy summer air, breeze
ruffling ones hair, cricket buzzing off in the distant. You
feel like your slowly going from a stroll to a slight jog, as
your frame moves from shadow to sunlight of the overhead branches.
Folding harmonics and tones, mixes guitar stretched lazy day
charms, with electro bend and warmly warp
A rather captivating collection of beatworks and ambient warmth.
ROCKERILLA
(IT)
Poche
etichette riescono a mantenere una chiara e definita indentita
come la 12k di Taylor Deupree, ed in questo senso "Letter
of Sounds" di Fourcolor si propone come degno portabandiera
di un suono raffinatissimo e delicato. Egregiamente sorrette
da strutture ritmiche realizzate con brevissimi campioni acustici,
le otto tracce qui raccolte mantengono il calore pop di Filfla
e le efficaci interazioni elettroniche di Minamo; tutti progetti,
compreso Fourcolor, dietro cui si cela Keiichi Sugimoto, eroe
della nuova melodia digitale giapponese e perfetto manipolatore
di tiny-sounds per laptop music. Non saremo alla corte del miglior
tecnico del momento ma, in un periodo cosi parco di emozioni,
l'ascolto di un glitch cosi concreto e minmale non pup che far
bene al cuore.
VITAL
WEEKLY (NL)
Keiichi
Sugimoto is a busy man. He's a member of Minamo, has a pop outfit
under the banner of Filfa and works as Fourcolor. As such he
delivers his second release for 12K, following 'Air Curtain'
(Vital Weekly 437) and 'Water Mirror' on Apestaartje (see Vital
Weekly 430). Sugimoto is a man who loves his guitar as well
as loving his computer. The eight pieces captured here all display
that love, but it moves away from the more ambient spacious
nature of his previous work. The guitar is sampled into shorter
frames, creating shorter blocks of rhythm and even adds a rhythm
in 'Flyaway'. Still spacious stuff, and still warm as campfire.
A fine release? Yes, a fine release, but that is only in as
much as to the actual music and the production. If you are looking
for something new to happen in the field of microsound than
I must say I am somewhat disappointed. Sugimoto may move away
from his own previous sound, but it still stays firmly inside
whatever else is known in this kind of music. That is a pity.
Time to make new waves in this music.
THE
WIRE (UK)
Fourcolor
is one of the various projects of Japanese electronicist Keiichi
Sugimoto, whose work ranges from the elctroacoustic experimentation
of his Minamo quartet, through the Ambient dronescapes of his
2004 album Water Mirror, to poppier work as Filfla. Letter
of Sounds is informed by all three approaches and is a
low-key delight.
The first half of hte album focuses on bright, accessible pieces
that extract bouncy microgrooves from the rhythmic pops and
clickcs of rigorously chopped and edited instrumentation, most
obviously guitar. "02" sets these itchy rhythmic pulses
against a backdrop of dancing guitar harmonics and dreamy, slightly
detuned chords that recall the blurred ambience of Ken Ishii's
best work. Sugimoto's melodic sensibility has some of hte pristine
classicism of No 9 and Naoko Sasaki alias Piana, whose wraithlike
vocal presence on "Rowboat" is characteristically
lovely and slightly odd.
While not quite matching the standard of these two opening tracks
- though "Fountain," with its silky, miniature House
manoeuvres comes close - the remainder of the album does offer
some quietly radiant mood pieces. The latter stretches are darker
and more fragmentary, with the 14 minute minimalist sketch "Leaves"
consisting of little more than a single feedback drone and irregular
chordal smears and distrubances. Like the album as a whole,
it's a simple pleasure, but no less of one for that.
