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Jikken Weekend, also known as Experimental Music Concert, is a small artist/composer group based in Tokyo. They mainly hold performance events at l-e, a small venue/art space in Osaki. Two CD compilations of their works have been released on the Taku Sugimoto’s label Slub Music, Experimental Music Concert (2015) and Experimental Music Concert Vol.2 (2017). Early on, many of the members of Jikken Weekend were participants of Sugimoto’s composition workshops.
Aside from that, the members are almost unknown, even to Tokyo’s experimental music scene. In recent years, some of the original members have left, and some new names have joined in. It is said that some of their latest compositions are not suited to audio recording.
So, this cassette can be seen as a chance to check in on Jikken Weekend’s recent work. Hirohiko Yamada, Toshihisa Hirano, Hisayo Kobayashi and Mamoru Nakajo are original members. Similar to their previous releases, each of them brings their own compositions in for recording, while they also contribute as musicians in other pieces. Besides these four, other musicians in the recording sessions include other members from Jikken Weekend, l-e buddies, and even some Korean mystery guys including Ryu Hankil and lo wie. One piece on this cassette was recorded in Seoul.
All this is just a bit of background information for the cassette. But what does Jikken Weekend’s music sound like? You are welcome to have a listen and a read.
----- Zhu Wenbo, edited by John Wilton
Jikken Weekend(实验音乐演奏会)是一个东京的小团体。他们主要在品川区大崎一带的小场地 l-e 活动。他们的作品此前曾有过两张CD发行:2015年的《实验音乐演奏会》以及2017年的《实验音乐演奏会 vol.2》,都是在杉本拓的厂牌 Slub Music 出版。事实上这个小组织的很多成员起初都是杉本拓的作曲工作坊的学员。
Recorded by Hirohiko Yamada and Toshihisa Hirano
Mastered by Toshihisa Hirano
A1, B1, and B2: Recorded at l-e, Tokyo, December 21, 2019
A2: Recorded at namsan/flat, Seoul, October 13, 2018
A1 combs
Composed by Hirohiko Yamada
Mamoru Nakajo, Reiko Shioda and Hirohiko Yamada: Melodion
A2 Don’t Look Away
Composed by Toshihisa Hirano
Ryu Hankil, lo wie, Yijinkee, Inkyung Kim, Takuya Sakamoto, Mamoru Nakajo, Reiko Shioda and Guests: Humming
Toshihisa Hirano: Conductor
B1 from the faucet
Composed by Hisayo Kobayashi
Hisayo Kobayashi: Water jug, LED light
B2 DJ (Digest Jockey)
Reiko Shioda, Hirohiko Yamada, lo wie and Ryu Hankil: Speaking about 2019 news
Toshihisa Hirano, Hisayo Kobayashi and Takuya Sakamoto: Reading about 2019 topics
Mamoru Nakajo: Conductor
The world of human civilization is only valuable to us. The construction of this human civilization is based on a system that extracts as much as humans needs from the essential and excludes the rest. Civilization has evolved over time, and it has become a gigantic filter through repetition of extracting the necessary ones from the increasingly micro ones and excluding the rest.
The human culture is the sum of history that quantifies countless things while changing the aesthetic standards of the time.
The culture, the capital, the politics, the society, and the technology are harmonized as a chord which is named as "the human culture".
In other words, the culture and civilization are the filtered things of the time, and the vaster ones still remain as unknown and unthinkable areas.
For example, in the coffee production, after the harvest, the distribution, grinding and filtering, high quality coffee can be highly valued as an element of culture, but leftover coffee as a by-product is not seriously considered.
Now, in order to advance civilization, the function of the filter is more compact and requires a higher pressure or Q (Quality-Factor) value.
I'm listening to the recordings now. I can experience the areas without Q value that are sometimes serious and sometimes humorous.
These conditions and structures they had created make them experience that even the standard of value judgment can be neutralized.
It reminds me of the possibility that the by-product leftover after brewing coffee could spark a change in a direction we couldn't have imagined.
Brash experimental electronic compositions from this Tulsa-based musician heavy on serrated sheets of sound that hiss and scald. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 27, 2023