TAPE japan tour 2003TAPE japan tour 2003

live ::: TAPE . suzukishi [ soup-dish ] . place called spacedj ::: Minoru Hatanaka [ICC ] . Tetsuro Yasunaga [cubic music ]
poussez gallery ::: Hiroko Ito [ hisui ]

TAPE japan tour 2003

Total Imformation ::: cubic music [ 03-3304-0904 ]
cubicmusic.comhapna.comhapna.com/tape
TAPE ::: Andreas Berthling . Johan Berthling . Tomas Hallonsten

I can't claim any prior knowledge of Tape before an earful of Opera knocked me
for a loop. Drawing equally from the kitchen-sink aesthetic of Richard
Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith's low-fi multi-instrumental acoustic drone-adelia
and the high-end soundhacking of Fennesz and friends, Tape -
Berthling brothers Andreas and Johan and Tomas Hallonsten - has synthesized an
enormously appealing electro-acoustic variant. In addition to the
expected laptops and guitars, Opera's constituents include zither, flute, bells,
accordion, trumpet, harmonium, glockenspiel, melodica, bells, field
recordings?even rubbed styrofoam and rumpled paper. No run-of-the-mill Max/MSP
extravaganza, this rainbow of natural tones has been layered atop
sweetly strummed acoustic guitars and what could well be recordings of moths and
fireflies caught in moonlit forest flight. Harmonica, accordion, and
alto sax ramble upon soft, stuttering microloops and mingle with the residue of
instrumentation erased and retraced many times over. The tellta
le textures of digital process permeate the delicate acoustic and organic
elements without obliterating them, imbuing every sound with a luminescence
of genuinely electro-acoustic character. Opera is enigmatic and extraordinary,
sustaining a casual, intimate gathered-'round-the-campfire atmosphere
in spite of the assiduous care apparently taken in programming and arrangement.
I've never heard anything else quite like it. (Gil Gershman/FakeJazz)