Connection between cage, eno, miki yui (Japan 1999)_english
DE:BUG (germany)
Da ist Sie wieder! Miki Yui, die schon einmal eine grosse CD auf LINE (LINE_03) veröffentlicht hat,
jetzt mit einer kontinuierlichen Fort-, und logischen Weiterentwicklung Ihrer Musik.
Oder sollte ich besser sagen: Ihrer Geräusche? Denn dass der auditive Inhalt dieser CD
als Untermalung unsererräumlichen Umgebungs-atomsphere konzipiert ist,
macht dann auch größtenteils nur in diesem Rahmen Sinn.
Ist dieser aber gegeben, entfaltet sich die Umsetzung der konzeptionellen Intention
auf äußerst reduzierte unddoch vielschichtigen Weise, deren Spannung man unweigerlich ausgeliefert ist.
ambientrance (usa)
Unusual electronic environments are emitted from Silence Resounding are they real or imagined?
Perhaps they are now-real because they were imagined by Miki Yui?
Subtle eclecticism sprawls in these mini-soundscapes.
Bubbly sci-fi atmospheres warble and blip in the computeriffic-sounding stew of Ancienne,
followed by the watery sizzle called Smoke
which swishes and spews indecipherably. Blurty swirls of feedback and scree emit from... Small Fish?!
In Atomu, ephemeral warbles rise and fade, like the output of mournful electric loons.
After moments of practical nothingness, Garden (5:59) begins to bloom, a bit...
with a few rows of crystallized jet-trail gusts.
Twitchy unknowns slip like tiny digital ghosts through Golden Dropp (1:17).
In more-mechanical At A Harbour, distant thrums swirl,
accented by occasional elevator-like dings, rippling vapors and not-quite-rhythmic scritches...
oddly peaceful!
The very faint harmonica-like scrawls of D. Rain are topped with twittering bird life
and what may be weather-related activities.
Thin tendrils hover above Tele, as some unseen life form barely squeaks,
but mostly just possibly-exist in a gaseous nonplace.
It's not the silence, but the hushed little oddities that arise out of it from time to time...
With 11 tracks in 38minutes, Silence Resounding is interlaced
with softly esoteric textures as envisioned by Miki Yui.
It's always interesting to hear the feminine point-of-view when it comes to ambient abstractions! B+
incursion (canada)
I listened to Silence Resounding, a new release from microsound-minimalist composer Miki Yui,
while it was still raining. I was, of course, sitting safely
indoors, warm and dry, sheltered from the summer rain. Even while wearing my headphones,
I could hear a little something of the rain gently beating against the trees, the rooftop, the windows.
These sounds, which could have gone unnoticed, now, when faced with the muted soundtrack of a record
such as this, it became clear that they were blending effortlessly with the subtle tones and combinations
moving directly into my ears from within my headphones.
I closed my eyes, and forgot the rain. I forgot the headphones, the bed, the lamp, the house I was in.
I forgot Miki Yui. I discovered a new space in the time
I spent with these recordings, with its own geography, its own mythology.
I discovered some alluring and evocative sounds, resting gently on the waves of silence,
electronic sounds mixed with environmental ones,
mixed even further with the sounds of my own environment,
making the experience of listening entirely unique.
Some pieces are, naturally, more compelling and original than others ‹and Miki Yui seems at her best
when working with sine tones and harmonic combinations> but on the whole it's an excellent work,
attempting to draw a map "between acoustic landscapes and amorphous memories,"
creating a unique listening space in which to rest, travel, discover new details, if only for a while,
before the rain passes.
e/i magazine us
Consequently, and without paying much attention to detail, the wayward pedestrian
new to Miki Yui's musicmay take much of Silence Resounding
as New Age environmental tweeness.
While that may not be an entirely incorrect proclamation
(take "Smoke", which amplifies the white noise of precipitation into a sea looming with electrostatic
charges), Yui uses a familiar palette of sounds that have aknack for simultaneously pacifying
and agitating those who wish to absorb it. Ergo, squealing shortwave fallout
gets trampled beneath feedback on "Small Fish," while birds chirp and squawk below
the rumbles of distantthunder and preening synthesized ectograms on "D. Rain".
Silence Resounding is something of a darkhorse; eclectic in the narrative of its patterns,
it is at times a frustrating, confounding listen yet, in the most pragmatic sense, keeps in Line
with the label's diminuitive ambitions.
Who searches for the great
Helplessness at the Wittener days for new chamber music
On the stage stands a table, an open Notebook on the table, behind that is motionless face
of a young Japanesewoman, whose Hands are probably on the keyboard.
Possibly she is just giving complicated orders, but possibly
also the computer is doing that after a simple click started the whole thing. Enlighten sound-fields
with only somecharacteristics are moving sometimes in this corner, sometimes in another,
sometimes in several, without showinglogical structures.
Who is searching for the great, must sometimes be content with the small
– and for the short time may even find oneself happy. Only ten minuets long was Miki Yui’s wonderful
soundscape “every01” by the Wittener days for new chamber music, in which the listener may have discovered
many beautiful and possibly also true Japanese cliché.
Mysteriously balanced calligraphic drawing for instance, nearly empty papers with only a hint of painting or those half-transparent paper-walls,
which more marks than limits the space. “every01” marked a quiet climax in a Festival where otherwise spread
so much helplessness as rarely before.
About 10 years ago the big festivals for contemporary music, ahead of others Donaueschingen,
began to expandthe ancient genre of composed music to installation, performance,
and experimental theatre. Meanwhile seemsthat more and more the new and incredible
could only be expected from periphery.
Especially the old masters who further on knows how to get on in the centre,
for instance the Portuguese Manuel Nunes who present a powerful score mixed with rough gestures,
which could
possibly give the impression that this métier could go on – if it would not sound as if it would have been
composed already 20 or 25 years ago.
Nunes, perhaps fully aware of crisis simply goes on. Others are just only beginning and want to establish
themselves where possibly not everything but very much has been said before. New works of Johannes Maria
Staud, Jörg Birkenkötter, Elena Mendoza-Lopez or shooting star Jörg Widmann produced in Witten
déjà vu-entendu event: sovereign written score without any doubt, which however could not add something
crucial to the commonly known. For instance Widmann’s “Violin Etude” played by his sister
Carolin Widmann,sounded only like a conclusion of her special field and also
“ Signals for Six Voices” was if new land only forthe composer himself who for the first time tried
a cappella chorus.
Missing impulse from periphery
Even the Austrian Bernhard Lang could not fulfil the expectation, the innovative concept
of his work series“DW” (Difference / Repetition) made one to expect: only slightly he succeeded
to make capital out of dialectictension between “ equal “ and “ unequal “ or “ copy “ and “ variation “.
Even more regrettable for the 35th edition of Wittener days that even from the peripheries
only few impulses hadappeared. Nevertheless remarkable two installations by Dan Senn and
Nikolaus Heyduck, self-made musicmachines, electronic performance mixed
with kind of comic humour by the Stuttgart Duo “ Strom “,Viola-improvisation of Walter Fähndrichs
– and at the end very strong piece of Bernhard Lang:“ monrendo – double / echo “.
Lang edited ultra thin Flute voice onto an introverted -tape-recorder composition
of Roman Haubenstock – Ramati who died in 1994. The result is a quiet, densely woven music like
beneath themagical magnifying glass.
english translation Klaus Dinger and Miki Yui
Wer Großes sucht
Ratlosigkeit bei den Wittener Tagen für neue Kammermusik
Auf der Bühne steht ein Tisch, darauf ein aufgeklapptes Notebook, dahinter das regungslose Gesicht einer jungen
Japanerin, die Hände wahrscheinlich auf der Tastatur. Vielleicht gibt sie gerade komplizierte Steuerungsbefehle,
vielleicht erledigt die aber auch der Computer, nachdem ein einfacher Klick die Sache ins Rollen brachte.
Helle Klangfelder mit nur einigen Charakteristika bewegen sich, sind mal in dieser Ecke,
mal in jener, mal in mehreren, ohne dass sich logische Muster abzeichneten.
Wer Großes sucht, muss sich mit Kleinem manchmal bescheiden
- und kann sich für kurze Zeit dann doch noch glücklich schätzen.
Gerade einmal zehn Minuten dauerte Miki Yuis wunderbare Soundscape "Every 01"
bei den Wittener Tagen für neue Kammer musik ,
in der der Hörer viele schöne und vielleicht ja auch wahre japanische Klischees entdecken mochte:
geheimnisvoll ausbalancierte kalligrafische Zeichen etwa, nahezu leere Blätter mit der blössen Andeutung von Malerei
oder jene halb durchsichtigen Papierwände, die Räume eher markieren als begrenzen.
"Every 01" markierte einen ruhigen Höhenpunkt in einem Festival, das ansonsten so viel Ratlosigkeit
wie selten zuvor verbreitete.
Vor etwa zehn Jahren begannen die großen Festivals für zeitgenössische Musik , allen voran Donaueschingen,
das betagte Genre der komponierten Musik zu erweitern um Installationen, Performances, experimentell Theatralisches.
Immer mehr scheint es mittlerweile, als ob nur noch von diesen Rändern her Neues, Unerhörtes zu erwarten sei.
Es waren vor allem die Altmeister, die in der Mitte weiterhin etwas auszurichten wußten, etwa der Portugiese
Emmanuel Nunes, der in Witten mit "Improvisation 1 - für ein Monodram" eine mächtige,
von schroffen Gesten durchsetzte Partitur vorlegte,
die einen an den Fortbestand des Metiers glauben lassen könnte - klänge sie nicht, als wäre sie bereits vor 20 oder 25
Jahren komponiert worden.
Nunes, vielleicht ja in vollem Bewusstsein der Krise, macht einfach weiter.
Andere fangen gerade erst an und wollen dort Fuß fassen,
wo vielleicht nicht alles, aber halt sehr, sehr viel vor ihnen bereits gesagt wurde. Neue Werke von Johannes Maria Staud,
Jörg Birkenkötter, Elena Mendoza-LÛpez oder vom Shooting Star Jörg Widmann produzierten in Witten déjà vu-entendu
Erlebnisse am laufenden Band: zweifelsohne souverän geschriebene Partituren, die aber dem hinlänglich Bekannten
kaum etwas Wesentliches hinzusetzen hatten. Widmanns Violin-Etüden etwa, von seiner Schwester Carolin Widmann
fulminant realisiert, klangen wie bloße Resümees ihres Fachbereichs, und auch "Signale für sechs Stimmen" war Neuland
allenfalls für den Komponisten selbst, der sich erstmals am unbegleiteten Chorsatz versuchte.
Fehlende Randimpulse
Selbst der Österreicher Bernhard Lang mochte die hohen Erwartungen nicht erfüllen, die das innovative Konzept seiner
Werkreihe "DW" ("Differenz/Wiederholung") doch nahe legte: nur ansatzweise gelang ihm, aus der dialektischen
Spannung zwischen "gleich" und "ungleich", zwischen "Kopie" und "Variation" Kapital zu schlagen. Umso bedauerlicher
für die 35. Ausgabe der Wittener Tage, dass selbst von den Randbereichen nur wenige Impulse ausgingen.
Bemerkenswert immerhin zwei Installationen von Dan Senn und Nikolaus Heyduck mit selbst gebauten
Musik maschinen, eine von comicartigem Witz durchtriebene Elektronik-Performance des
Stuttgarter Duos "Strom", Viola-Improvisationen Walter Fähndrichs - und am Ende doch noch ein sehr starkes Stück
von Bernhard Lang: "morendo - double/echo". Auf eine introvertierte Tonbandkomposition des 1994
verstorbenen Roman Haubenstock-Ramati pfropfte Lang eine hauchdünne Flötenstimme.
Das Ergebnis eine stille, dicht verwobene Musik wie unter einem magischen Vergrößerungsglas.
Noi Sawaragi
12.1999 for magazine MRh
Is it not John Cage who had first opened the door to Ambient Music in 20st Century?
For example, the famous piece called " 4'33" " .
Is it too extreme to say that this piece which has been a representative work as conceptual piece
in contemporary music now becomes pop - music?
At least from the 90's as the contemporary music has lost its meaning, and our attitude toward
listening and thinkingabout music has totally shifted from historical sense to topological
or geological sense.
To be honest, this is much fun to listen to this piece.
Now with its release on CD, without noise of analog record, it transforms surrounding sound
to a soundtrack, sometimes as a meditation music, or music for relaxation.
Not only this, i can imagine there will be many more ways of listening to his piece.
When we go on a picknick in a forrest or by a lake rather than to spread the noise of boring pop,
why not to take the" 4'33" " with you? Just like John Cage himself was into collecting
and studying mushroom, the richness of silence in this piece
brings the joy of collecting sounds from surrounding environment.
In the 70's Brian Eno transformed this idea to another form of music. this is the origin of what we call Ambient Music.
Intereting, how he came to his "Ambient Series" through his accident and some other 'negative' experiences.
Sound artist Miki Yui born 1971 in Tokyo, working in Duesseldorf Germany,
shows a new possiblilty to develope this genealogy of sound.
Her CD release of "small sounds" is interesting also as an object in its Felt package, made from,
as how it is called, diverse "subtle sounds" .
with a decent volume, these "subtle sounds" of electronic and natural sounds mix with the listener's environment,
and its slight but sure shift changes the listener's view and emotion.
this is so to say, music to breathe, rather than only to listen.
her new project a collaboration work with Felix Hahn is called "acoustic survival kit 01".
it is so to say media-suits, but not like the other media-suits which separetes the person from the environment
and puts her/him in a closed virtual environment, this "ask01" tends to open the person towards the environment.
from several small Piezzo speakers which are integrated into the cloth,
"small sounds" fuse into surrounding environment and spread like a fine fragrance.
this is a music to wear, but different from Walkman.
it presents the different possibility of electronic sound in our brutal, distructive
acoustic environment in the city.
endless echo of 21st Century version of " 4'33" ".
english trancelation miki yui
