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CD Feature/ Miya Masaoka: "For Birds, Planes & Cello"

  Tobias

A few minutes into this composition, I find myself lost: Where am I? I check the backcover for support and learn that my coordinates are a San Diego canyon at 5:30 AM. I am lying strectched out on my back, listening to the sounds of airplanes hovering high above and 150 different birds filling the air with their voices. “They’re so resounding”, Miya whispers, “that one could think of each as a little jet plane”. I don’t need to think of that – I’m a dream, I’m a bird, I’m a plane.

This album takes music to one of its remotest corners. The weightless and colourful chirping and tweeting merge with the deep, protracted roars of the planes, which perpetually change pitch and timbre. Underneath, Joan Jeanrenaud’s Cello slowly rises from high-pitched tones to otherworldly, pulsating strokes, rising from the unconscience and then falling back into limbo. With all elements in this single, 54-minute track constantly evolving and changing focus, it is becoming less and less clear, whether it’s Jeanrenaud you’re hearing or the flying machines. Despite Masaoka’s poetic introduction and obvious similarities in their methods, this piece actually sounds nothing like the harmonic excursion on Sinebag’s “Pres de la lisiere”, which we presented on these pages just a few days ago. Instead, the mood is mysterious, greyish-blue and detached from life’s regular stream. Rather than asking questions or pushing for some kind of progression, “For Birds, Planes and Cello” presents us with one of art’s most sacred treaures: Capturing a moment frozen in time and showing us a hidden truth behind the veil we considered reality.

Which means that you’re not going to play this for your candle light dinner or while brushing your teeth in the morning. Rather, this record is a space you can revert to whenever you feel the desire to do so, a refuge and a place of insight. As long as you still feel lost here, there’s still lots more to discover.

Homepage: Miya Masaoka
Homepage: Marcos Fernandes
Homepage: Joan Jeanrenaud
Homepage: Accretions Records