Neural (IT)
Behind the moniker Illuha are hidden the Japanese experimenter Tomoyoshi Date and the cosmopolitan Corey Fuller. The first works of both sound-artists date back to the second half of the last decade; so they belong to the last generation – the very last, actually – of audio manipulators who weave ambient, field recordings and microsound. The duo have already shared their musical approaches and views in a previous album, Shizuku, released in 2011. As with the latest work, Shizuku was characterized by pure improvisation and was based on a physical place where it was possible to build relationships and give life to a number of projects in a defined and evocative environment. In Shizuku the location was a majestic and ancient church, but now the two musicians are in a room, not far from the city and semi-immersed in a wood. The place is a liminal work-area, actually a place that is not a place, where the passing time is no time, a place where the sound combinations, their unconditional flux beat the daytime; of course, the flux also includes normal daily happenings, not only work activities but life on the whole. The care with details is clear, but Date and Fuller know well that the power of creation is not merely the act of creation; this reminds us of the ancient strain between art and life: “only art allows to escape so well from the world, but no closer relation can be between us and the world, if not through art”, said Goethe. Somehow this lesson echoes so purely and essentially in Interstices: among the interstices, the pride of art and the vulgarity of life are magically put in a state of suspension.