MINAMO - DUREE (CD)

"Back in 1999, on the forefront of the Japanese electronic/acoustic microsound scene, was the then two-piece live improvisation band Minamo (two more members were added in 2001 to make the current four-piece lineup). Their live concerts helped pioneer this hybrid of delicate and natural instrumentation with microscopic electronics and subtle digital processing bringing an organic richness to a genre that threatened to remain coldly digital. Fans of Minamo not lucky enough to see them create their music live have enjoyed their studio albums and collaborative releases which captured these performances and processed them into hypnotic drones and electro-acoustic soundscapes. Durée, their last studio work since 2007's collaboration with Tape, and their follow-up to Shining on 12k, takes influence from the French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson's concept of "pure durée" an idea that one´'s consciousness is a constant flow and not something that can be divided, reversed or measured. Minamo used these ideas in creating their music, despite the contradiction of the time-stamped CD format, to try to subvert the ideas of compartmentalized "time" and "space". With a strong sense of non-linearity and flow taken from Bergson's ideas, Minamo have created a colorful, skittering wash of music, noise, and texture that embraces a sense of out-there-ness." (label info)