Mitsuhiro Yoshimura - And So On

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Mitsuhiro Yoshimura raises all sorts of problems vis a vis performance and intentionality. His customary mode of operation involves a microphone, a mixer and a pair of headphones, recording the sounds of the room in which he happens to be, running it through some modulations on the mixing board (apparently unadjusted once the parameters have been set), then allowing the output to be heard through the headphones which he may move, intentionally or otherwise, a little bit during the performance, thus tweaking the resultant sounds a tad. From the descriptions offered in the liner notes by Yoshio Otani and Taku Sugimoto, Yoshimura appears to demonstrate very little concern with what actually eventuates, seemingly considering the sounds produced on a given occasion as equivalent to anything else going on, evincing little overt interest in manipulating them, listening calmly with little or no movement and eventually turning off his equipment.

That being said, the sounds contained herein turn out to be far more “active” than I would have guessed based on such a description. With three pieces from live performances in 2005 & 2006, I wonder if there’s a kind of progression in Yoshimura’s music captured here, from more participatory to less; I can pick up this notion if I try, though I may be reading too much into it. The opening of “And” (the other tracks titled “So” and “On”) does provide something of the impression audience members can create for themselves at a Sachiko M solo show: an ultrahigh pitched wave fluctuating the way it can when moving one’s head. Perhaps a similar phenomenon results from moving the headphones slightly. But this soon shifts into other related areas, often abruptly, ranging from a rapidly flickering, almost pure tone to sizzling, buzzing “dirty” ones. While I’m curious as to whether these changes occur as part of the process initially set up by Yoshimura or due to movement choices he makes during performance, I’m not sure it matters in the end. It’s different from Sachiko M (just to take an example of a musician whom it’s natural enough to think of while listening to this music) in that tension is generated from watching her during performance, waiting to see when/if she’ll choose to alter the issuing sine tones. Here, it seems that the incidental drift if part of the game, possibly because the locational shifts necessary to generate large sound adjustments are physically minute and practically unavoidable. I imagine Yoshimura sitting on some small stage, cradling the headphones, discovering the sounds they’re going to emit only after he moves his hands slightly and they do so.

I found each cut to build satisfyingly on its precedent. Some atmosphere enters into “So”, as well as a sound of soft ticks as though from an adjacent room, affording the still-flitting ultrasonics a volume of air in which to whistle. Their pitch has more of a sting on this track, a bracing acidity. The first moment of “On”, though, flings the door open to the outside world and, as a whole, seems to come the closest to capturing the ideas expressed in the notes, that of filtering the ambient sounds with only moderate interference, sometimes none at all. It’s a lovely work, recalling some of the stronger Tsunoda I’ve heard, as those high-pitched tones mingle on equal terms with passing vehicles and youngsters’ chatter.

Since Yoshimura does perform this work in live situations, several questions are raised, especially if he does almost nothing but turn on his machine. Otani writes:

The end result of powerfully extracting sound from these circuits is that the sound
becomes the same everywhere. No matter where or when he plays, the sound is similar.
But if it is not performed, it will not be heard. The audience listens to Yoshimura’s work as
a performance. The sounds can arise in a certain place and time, but, at the same time,
can occur anywhere, anytime.

Anyone can do it. Very few people do it. Not anyone can do it.

One might almost expect to go to such an event and be handed instructions on how to do it yourself. Maybe not such a bad idea. Until then, “And So On” is here to assuage our thirst for mysterious, striking and troublesome new sounds.

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I believe that, outside of Japan, “And So On” is only available through
erstdist