IZUMI MISAWA
Speaking Behind The Raindrops
SIC007
Symbolic Interaction 2008
10 Tracks. 43min45secs

Izumi Misawa stirs the atmosphere with hypnotic suggestion whereby vibration, tremors, repetition – whether of a musical rhythm or a spoken phrase – and special tone colors affect the mind through various levels of pressure on the senses.  These cycles of wistful instrumental sketches and flights of elytra often seem innocent enough, and even seem caught in the web of a giddy eclecticism, but the mood is one of serendipity, and the impassioned whirling is not without its justifications.

The tracks are of a patient, unhurried, un-mechanized mind.  A frenetic succession of scratched fragments cracks the proceedings open before a lurching procession of wobbly, spasmodic beats settles them down, at which point they are wedded to beatific textures, shimmering keyboards and disparate shards of found sound that provide moments of dizzying disruption.

Further tracks are of equal assurance, with ample sonic events both playful and distinctive.  This veritable kaleidoscope of mushrooming textures, found sound, and heavily treated instrumentation is a hand by no means seldom played, yet Misawa makes its flaccid, fixed gesture break slowly around an oftentimes convincing discontinuity of expression.  Misawa not only moves from fractured, digitally processed and suggestive fragments to more fully formed, organic pieces of music with a steady hand, but in his endless shifts in emphasis and instrumentation, spreads a good deal of life into them while, at odd moments, also transforming these respective realms through a process of overlapping and augmentation that has something ritualistic about it.  At times there’s not much purpose behind the sounds, but Misawa undoubtedly has an ear for transforming gentle patterings and unhinged minutia into richly plated constructs perched tantalizingly between naivety and complexity.

3/5

Izumi Misawa | Symbolic Interaction