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PT12

Utah Kawasaki / Takahiro Kawaguchi / Nick Hoffman - Noise Without Tears  10" lathe

Recorded May 3, 2010, Loop Line, Tokyo

10" lathe edition of 30
**Cut by Peter King**
Released April 2011

mp3

OUT OF PRINT 



REVIEWS:

The Wire (Byron Coley)
August 2011


The Watchful Ear (Richard Pinnell)
July 16, 2011

Today’s release is another involving Nick Hoffman, the youngish Chicago based musician who also runs the Pilgrim Talk label, on which this CD, named Noise without tears was issued. I was actually sent both a CD copy and a clear vinyl 10″ disc (a lathe cut apparently, whatever one of those may be) of what appears to be the same music by Nick, perhaps covering all bases! So far I have only played the CD but will listen to the vinyl when I next set up my turntable (something of a chose to do this here!) just to be sure that the music is indeed the same on both.

The disc then is a bit of a curio. It is a trio recording of Hoffman alongside Utah Kawasaki and Takahiro Kawaguchi made in Tokyo in May 2010. the trio played a concert at Loop Line, but what we hear on the CD is not actually the concert, but the soundcheck, recorded to microcassette. Yes, microcassette. So for the length of the twenty minute recording we hear a blanket of microphone hum overlaid by a crackly, brutally severe recording of footsteps, things being moved about, some vaguely musical sounds and some conversation, maybe between the musicians, but none of it is legible to the point of being able to tell even which language it is spoken in. We are left with a kind of badly zeroxed copy of the sounds heard during at the soundcheck. Not even a bad recording of the concert itself, which may have been great but we will never know…

The press release that came with the disc contains a line- “What then of intention?” A good question to ask here. I find myself wondering why the microcassette recording was made in the first place? Were all of the musicians aware? Were any of them aware? Could this be a bootleg that found its way to the musicians, or did one of their number set out to deliberately capture these sounds? Was the choice of microcassette a deliberate, aesthetically made one, or was it the only recording equipment immediately to hand? Did whoever made the recording then go on to also capture the concert itself? If so, why did the label decide to release the soundcheck instead, and why as a (I’m guessing) expensive lathe cut edition?

As a piece of music to sit down and listen to, to enjoy the details, the composition, this recording obviously falls completely short. As some kind of post-Cagean playful experiment however, or, more likely, as some kind of loose commentary on the preciousness of the recorded artifact it is an interesting piece. As a listener I find myself wondering what I am meant to do with it. Should I be listening carefully trying to extract tiny bits of “music” out of the clouds of hiss? Should I be trying to guess how the eventual concert sounded from the glimpses we are given here? Or should I treat this like a piece of random field recording, trying to find patterns and naturally occurring constructions in the sounds?

This CD reminds me of a minor personal revelation I had many many years ago when working on the design of one of the many ill-fated fanzines I used to produce or contribute to in my mid to late teens. Back then, in pre digital design days we drew everything by hand, and cut and pasted it literally into place before trudging off to Mrs Photocopier. One day, having traced, drawn, inked, cut and stuck everything I put the finished work to one side, only to see on my drawing board a pattern of loose lines, discarded sketches, offcuts of paper and the like which I immediately preferred far more than the work I had just completed. I ended up taking all of the loose elements and pasting them into a collage of their own (which alas I don’t think I have any longer) but this recording made me think of that event, an occasion when the rough, perhaps unintended offcuts of something turn out to be more interesting than the actual piece itself. A curious CD then, one that certainly got me thinking.

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