Various Artists - From:/To: (A Bruit Secret)

This collection of enigmatic improvisations is something of a summit produced with the cooperation of labels Hibari, Pricilia, Vert Pituite, and Fragment. This electroacoustic compilation – forgive me if I don’t press my 7” inch single comparison from some months ago, tempting as it is – features pieces created through the exchange of source materials through the mail. Most of these improvisations document meetings between young improvisers from Japan and France (though guitarist Sharif Shanaoui is apparently Lebanese). Many of the names are unknown to me and the opportunity to check out new players is one of this disc’s pleasures. So: on to the play-by-play.

It opens with a meeting between electronicians Jean-Philippe Grosse and synthesizer player Utah Kawasaki. The kettle lets off steam as a backdrop to grinding stones and rustled sandpaper; it’s extremely busy stuff for Kawasaki, who I’m more accustomed to hearing in a spare environment (though this may be a function of the fact that he’s so often recorded in the noise-constrained Off Site venue). The following piece (they’re all untitled) features Olivier Brisson (amplified percussion) and Yoichiro Shin (cymbal, laptop) in a hugely sonorous exploration of amplified percussion, cymbals, and laptops. This piece reminded me a bit of Such or Sakada, opening with the slow tolling of gong and cymbal and slowly folding in aqueous sounds like trickles and burbles. Eventually it opens up completely to a landscape of scraped metal and waterfall.

The third track pairs trumpeter Masafumi Ezaki with Hugo Roussel, who plays self-input mixing board. Ezaki’s subtle squeaks, whinnies, and scrapings fit well with the effervescent whirr and sizzle. Next up is an elliptical and mysterious (even for this music) sound exploration from guitarist Quentin Dubost and Yasuo Totsuka’s mixing board, largely exploring the juxtaposition of an extremely high sine tone, an insistent buzz not unlike a mini fan, and floating spectral sounds from the guitar. Excellent stuff. Bass clarinetist/bass tubist Masahiko Okura’s meeting with guitarist Sharif Shanaoui is the most traditional of the performances, largely because of Okura’s Dolphy-cum-Vandermark squawkings (not necessarily bad, but they don’t really fit with the prepared guitar). Yet any sense of disappointment is compensated by the thrill of hearing Ami Yoshida’s astounding voice squeaks its way through the tapestry of wheezes, hisses, and crackles from Alfredo Costa Monteiro’s accordion. Yoshida is at her most unsettling here, singing with an energy and intensity quite different (filled with harsh, guttural noises and compressed breaths and squeals) than that heard with Cosmos or Astro Twin. The seventh track constitutes an odd twist on the guitar duet, featuring Taku Unami’s banjo and Norman D. Mayer’s guitar. The extreme spaciousness – with only an occasional plunk or worried string – contrasts nicely with the density of many other tracks. And the final track closes out this rich compilation with a subtle drone from Kazuhige Kinoshita’s violin and Fabrice Eglin’s amplified guitar.

Between the relative sparseness favored by the Tokyo musicians and the garrulously crackling soundscape constructed by many of the French players, the performances here document a unique synthesis.