Live Critique Of Judgement

Description

This session was performed with absolutely no prior discussion or planning whatsoever; it was entirely improvised in the moment. As someone who plays both guitar and bass, Tabata found improvising with Morita especially engaging because, in sessions with fellow string players, he usually had a sense of what they might play next. Morita's keyboard and live electronics, however, produced sounds that were completely unpredictable. Morita, for his part, describes Mitsuru Tabata as a guitarist with exceptional reflexes, precise musical direction, and a strong improvisational instinct. Morita goes on to praise Tabata's "dynamic vision" for sound itself, possessing a vast vocabulary grounded in wide-ranging listening experience, and an exceptional sensitivity to rapidly changing sound.

During this performance, Morita set up drum patterns on his modular system while incorporating unusual glitch noise effects, beginning to gradually repeat rhythms from the second piece onward in order to create space for Tabata's guitar to unfold. Tabata, meanwhile, deliberately avoided overly complicated interpretations, cultivating an environment in which Morita could easily intervene. Perhaps because of this, listeners may notice a pervasive acoustic openness.

In 2021, the instability brought about by the pandemic affected not only the musical environment but also everyday living and the economy as a whole. In some ways, the atmosphere resembled the social confusion and chaos of the late 1960s. Although this recording documents only a duo performance, listeners might fruitfully hear it while recalling, somewhere in the distance, musical collectives such as Chicago's AACM, the early German group Amon Duouol, or Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra in the UK. Tabata's psychedelic guitar effects are characteristically present as always, yet once Morita's rhythms enter, the music sometimes sounds to me like a form of krautrock collapsing in on itself.

This recording can be understood as a piece of improvised music born within the spatial and temporal air pocket created by pandemic-era society. In that sense, it stands as a valuable historical document.

Packaged in a gatefold digisleeve with an obi strip and risograph-printed insert. Manufactured in Japan
Guitar : Mitsuru Tabata
Electronics, Mastering : Jun Morita

Recorded live at Bonobo, Tokyo, on June 20, 2021. Fully improvised performance with no overdubbing

Mitsuru Tabata began his musical career in 1982. Since then, he has played a key role in many of Japan's most influential underground and experimental groups, including Noizunzuri, BOREDOMS, Leningrad Blues Machine, YBO2, ZENI GEVA, Acid Mothers Temple, and Gaseneta, as well as projects related to tributes to The Stalin centered around Jun Inui. Alongside his work in these seminal bands, he has toured internationally, participated in numerous collaborative sessions, and released a series of home-recorded solo albums on labels in Japan and abroad.

He is currently active in several groups, including Missing Heads, a trio with Tatsuya Yoshida and Kazuhide Yamaji, as well as lemonsours and RQRQ.
As a solo guitarist, he combines a highly improvisational approach with a constantly shifting sonic palette created through the extensive use of effects processors. Moving effortlessly between destructive noise and lyrical phrasing, he constructs distinctive soundscapes that challenge and reshape the listener's perception of space. His psychedelic, high-energy, and unmistakably individual playing style has earned widespread acclaim both in Japan and internationally.

Jun Morita is an electronic musician and DJ. He has released solo works through labels such as \u03C6onon, run by Kaoru Sato (EP-4) and also released collaborative works with So\u0302-si Suzuki and Keiji Haino on Les Disques d'Ailleurs. He reissued Michio Kadotani's works via his own independent label << Wine and Dine >>. He has Performed a 24-hour live set on a program by theater artist Masahiko Akuta. He was part of the band TACO, led by Harumi Yamazaki, as well as GRAVESTYLE with Naohiro Ukawa (Dommune), and the band-format project Omega f2;k.