MACHIDA, YOSHIO - THE SPIRIT OF BEAUTY (CD)

"Commissioned work from a legendary French jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels to experimental steelpanist / composer Yoshio Machida. This is a soundtrack for their first retrospective exhibitoin at Mori Art Center in Tokyo in 2009-2010. From minimal ensemble like Nyman and Bryers to Jazzy ambient pieces with feeling of Penguin Cafe, some instruments/sounds; piano, strings, winds, sitar, steelpan, Gamelan, field-recording and electronics are integrated neoclassically. In very slow tempo, each polyrhythmic phrases are intricately-intertwined in silence. It's like resplendent points of jewel. Machida took ambient suite format to express the exhibition themes (nature, elegance, adventure=Eastern design). At the gallery, there are 3 rooms for "nature", "elegance/adventure" and "Incarnation". For instance, for the room of "elegance/adventure", 8 channels multitrack system was used. Each sounds were out from different loudspeakers installed all around. This album was remixed as stereo recording. For the exhibition, Patrick Jouin (French architect/designer became independent from Philippe Starck) designed all installations." (label info)