Electronic sounds are faintly audible from various directions inside an anechoic room. These sounds - ranging from sustained tones to short sounds, and including silence - are randomly played on several devices set up at points across the room. Also audible in addition to these sounds are noises generated by two record players' needles running through silent sound grooves in vinyl records.

These limited, subdued elements generate a certain acoustic setting in the room. The visitor's experience of this acoustic setting in one specific moment can never be repeated, as the combination of acoustic elements is continuously changing. Furthermore, the sound grooves in the records are gradually abraded, as a result of which the needles' scratch noises increase and change as the records are worn out.

Sachiko M and OTOMO Yoshihide perform not only composed music, but also improvised music that hasn't been composed beforehand and only comes into being when/where it is performed. They have even been pursuing the ultimate improvised situation in which the players are unaffected by each other's performance, and for example don't even hear the sounds the other one makes.

This work represents an attempt to create an alternative improvised acoustic setting by translating such experience into the appreciating format of the installation.

Filament (Sachiko M, OTOMO Yoshihide) Profile
Formed in 1997 by OTOMO Yoshihide (electronics) and Sachiko M (sinewaves). Built around Sachiko M's unique composition method as a central axis, and based on thorough analysis and dissection of the acts of hearing and generating sounds, the duo's works induce acoustic experiences that are fundamentally different from those of music created by conventional ways of "composition" and "improvisation." Their sound, subdued to the utmost, along with its performance, has significantly affected the development from techno minimalism to electroacoustic improvisation.
Past Exhibition / Event