U01 | mathieu ruhlmann | tsukubai
part IV : excerpt
format : CD ltd to 200 copies
release year : 2009
length : 34’27
status : still available
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: info :
Approached for elaborating an audio-gift on the occasion of close friends’ marriage, and being given a few of their specific interests (of whom, mainly Japanese culture), Mathieu opted for the Nitobe memorial garden in Vancouver as the place to investigate and collect some sound material…
Not very frequented, that garden epitomizes some typical zen values, each element of its scenography/design being symbolic of an idealized conception/representation of Nature…
Spanning a period of two years, and paraphrasing its theme of temporality, passage through time, and the ambiguous question of choice, “tsukubai“, through its different versions seeped gradually further into the bowels of the place, literally catching the “kami“, which can be translated as the spirit residing in all surrounding natural objects…
this is especially true since Mathieu wanted the final version to be a reflection of his current craze for hydrophone recordings, a most appropriate way of sneaking in, under the surface of things…
“tsukubai“ is a Japanese word for a stone container filled with water strategically placed in front of temples or ritual spaces – literally, “the basin where you lean over”, used for purifying ablutions before performing the tea ceremony… probably an apt metaphor for sharpening perception of an evasive reality…
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: reviews :
The first episode in the Unfathomless series comes from a man who can do such assemblages in his sleep (and probably has !) : Mathieu Ruhlmann has been audio-documenting anything that moves (or lies) for years, and the Vancouver-based sonographer doesn’t have far to go for Tsukubai‘s recording – the Nitobe Memorial Garden at the university of British Columbia. Most of the album is based on hydrophone recordings, evident throughout as little is done to mask nature’s tones. The tracks unfold steadily, soft focus drones slowly seeping through as the 8 seamlessly blended tracks evolve, each a variation on a theme, compare and contrast, for example “Tsukubai IV” & “Tsukubai VI”…
Alan Lockett
Furthernoise
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…The Unfathomless releases are beautifully presented in very nice sleeves that remind me a lot of the heyday of Trente Oiseaux’s lovely sleeve designs. The eight pieces here then are all created using field recordings and a lot of hydrophone recordings made at a Japanese garden in Vancouver. The different recordings are then layered, edited, stopped, started and generally merged together into one long stream of watery,echoey, whispery sounds…It is very well recorded, put together and presented…
The hydrophone recordings are generally underlaid with distant soft drones recorded from the air, the odd passing aircraft, perhaps distant traffic or softly blowing wind, sometimes treated heavily, sometimes allowed to play through naked…
there is a series of roaring, sizzling sounds in the eighth piece I rather like that do set that one track apart…It all drifts along very nicely…I am certain that fans of this area of music (and suddenly there does seem to be an awful lot of them) will enjoy this release…[edited version]
Richard Pinnell
The Watchful Ear
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…What struck me also as odd is the fact that this release would have been also very suitable for a release on Mystery Sea. The recordings made by Ruhlmann here were made with a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) at some gardens in Canada (sorry, the exact location is hard to read), and whilst cut into eight smaller pieces, I think we must see the entire thing as one long track. It dwells heavily on field recordings, well, perhaps only on field recordings, as a matter of fact, of events happening in a pond, although I’m clueless what those events would be. However, the resulting piece of music stretches beyond the notion of a pure piece of field recordings, even when there is perhaps little sense of post processing, save perhaps for some equalization. At the start there is water sounds, ducks maybe but as the piece evolves we sink deeper under the water surface and things get more and more abstract. Quite a solid work of field recordings that actually get beyond the idea of ‘just’ field recordings and is a beautifully composed piece of music.[edited version]
Frans de Waard
Vital Weekly
U01² | mathieu ruhlmann | funayūrei
format : CDR ltd to 50 numbered copies
release year : 2009
length : 29’40
status : the special edition (U01+U01²) is now SOLD OUT !
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: info :
“funayūrei“ imbued with the same concern, gives you the opportunity to explore an intermediary state of the “tsukubai“ project… more melodic & structured, perhaps, it’s an attempt to capture the spirit of long faded ghosts, an awakener of memories…
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: reviews :
First copies of Tsukubai come with a bonus disc, Funayūrei on which the elements underpinning the field work are more homogeneous, and post-processing seems to have been brought to bear more on process to contribute to a better tempered product. Eno-esque treatments serve to mollify the sounds, lending a nice inhale/exhale aspect to its cadence. Less for lovers of true grit, perhaps, but a bonus of buried harmonic elements unearthed for those who like their field reality more diluted. If Tsukubai leans towards the field recording side of things, then “Funayūrei” tends more towards a lulling, dark ambient series of swells and hums, with hints of early-mid period Eno, or those Dark Satanic Mills drone crones like Mirror, Jonathan Coleclough and Ora. Overall “Funayūrei” has a greater euphony, seemingly from purposive intervention of a more musical sensibility between source and outcome
Alan Lockett
Furthernoise
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Funayūrei is formed by one half hour long piece, which as I say, might be formed using the same source material. Here though it is very heavily treated into a lulling, dark ambient styled series of swells and hums that do indeed remind you of mid Eighties Eno… All of the edges are filed off, everything is slowed right down and the music feels like the soundtrack to a deep sea diving documentary, as if the hydrophones were taken deep down into the water to its murkier depths. Here and there throughout Funayūrei there are a few escaping bubbles from the untreated hydrophones, just left to pop up from the surface now and again.
Overall the music here also becomes somewhat predictable once it is clear that it isn’t going to change a great deal over its length, but somehow, perhaps as there is much more that has happened here to make this music I prefer Funayūrei to the main release… Exceptionally well recorded and stitched together, the remix just feels like more of a statement has been made… It does take more effort to listen to properly and dig down into the music to get anything out of it, and that is a good thing for me. I like to be challenged, to be made to try and find a way into music…[edited version]
Richard Pinnell
The Watchful Ear
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…’Funayūrei’ sounds a bit different. I am not sure if it is derived from the same sound material (I guess so, as there is more water here), but throughout, and this is perhaps the most curious thing about the release, this is a bit more melodic. If ‘Tsukubai’ hoovers towards the field recording artists, then ‘Funayūrei ‘ is more linked towards the drone scene, think Ora or Monos. I must admit that if it was up to me I think I would I have chosen this one to be the real CD and ‘Tsukubai’ to be the bonus. Daring move, but two great pieces of music.[edited version]
Frans de Waard
Vital Weekly
Unfathomless 