Gate – Sekai

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Track List

Part 1: Descent
Part 2: Now
Part 3: Illusions of Emptiness
Part 4: Industrial Speleology
Part 5: Ascent

Gate - Sekai

Gate is an experiment in improvised music by Lajos Ishibashi-Brons, a Dutch philosopher and musician living in Japan. The name of the project, ‘Gate’, summarizes its intended nature: a gate is in between, in between inside and outside, between here and there, between now and then; and a gate is a passageway, both an entrance and an exit, and a point where paths cross. The symbol |˟˟| is a simplification of the ‘broken gate radical’ 鬥, which (on its own) is a Chinese character meaning ‘struggle’, representing another core theme of the project: dissonance, discomfort, distress.

We have asked Lajos his thoughts about his new album on Fluttery Records:

"Bury your romantic proclivities for harmony, for order, for purpose. All of that is illusion, paint. Look at the world, listen. There is beauty in discord, dissonance, disorder, destruction, decay, corruption, contrast, arbitrariness. Life is discord, life is destruction, randomness, change. Look at the world, look at the power- lines, open-pit mines, rivers and lakes, factories and power plants, mountains and roads, buildings and forests, trash dumps and oceans. Look at them clash, interpenetrate, infest, defile. Look at the transformation of landscapes. Look at the haphazard collections of streets and buildings, and at the people living in them. Look at the dirt, the mess, the disharmony. Just look: it’s beautiful. And listen. Open your eyes and ears. Listen to the sounds of the world, to the crashing, grinding, and banging. Embrace the dissonance, the discomfort, the randomness. Those are our sounds, our world. Listen. And travel in sound."

The new album by Gate, “Sekai” (世界, ‘world’), is a mix of four layers of solo improvisation on multiple instruments, one of those layers being a mix itself. The four layers resulted from four recording sessions. The first and longest of these was focused on creating loops, drones, and background noise. Selected material from this session was arranged on the four audio tracks that together form layer 1. Layers 2 to 4 were added one after the other by means of improvisation while listening to the previously recorded layers. These sessions were exactly as long as the finished recording (i.e. 69 minutes and 2 seconds), and no edits or changes to the session recordings were made other than volume adjustments (and a bit of reverb in case of layers 2 and 3). For layers 2 and 3, only acoustic instruments were used (and thus no effects or other electronics). Session 4 made use of electric instruments and a number of effects.

Instruments used include Bassanxi, a four-string instrument (tuned like a bass) combining design elements from both the guzheng (古箏) and huqin (胡琴) families of instruments; Chaĭlaazkhuur, a tea can with a neck, fingerboard, and one string; Hichiriki (篳篥), a traditional Japanese double reed instrument used mainly in Gagaku (雅楽), Japanese classical music; Sousen, an electric string instrument used for sound effects and noises; and Zarazara, a small box with short pieces of bass B-string attached on one end for creating crackling and other noises. Except Hichiriki, all of these instruments were designed and built especially for this project.
“Sekai” comes in two editions. The Original (White) Edition is the original 69 minutes, four-layered session, as it was created and as it was and is intended to be heard. The Black Edition is a remix, cutting up the original in 5 parts each between 12 and 17 minutes. The Black Edition is only available as a download.

FLTTRY051
Release Date:  January 14, 2013
© Fluttery Records

Also available on:

Gate – Iterations

LISTEN

Track List

1 - // 66x2 // 02:05
2 - // 70e // 14:05
3 - // 66x1 // 02:59
4 - // 55e // 19:27
5 - // 72e // 09:54
6 - // 56e // 13:58
7 - // 66x3e // 08:29

Gate - Iterations

|˟˟| (pronounced 'gate') is a Dutch-Japanese free music / noise project based in Tokyo, Japan. The project was started by Lajos in June 2009 as an experiment in solo improvisation on multiple instruments simultaneously, some of which were built (or adapted) especially for this project. In November 2009, Taka joined the project.

'Iterations' is the first release by |˟˟| as a duo. Here is what they say about their new album:

"Freedom is an illusion. Spinoza pointed out that those who think that they are acting freely are usually just ‘carried away by impulse’. In practice, ‘freedom’ often means nothing but ignorance of the causes of one’s actions and desires, and ‘free choice’ is the unrestrained surrender to unconscious impulse. ‘Free improvisation’ is only ‘free’ in that rather limited sense. Music flows, and as soon as an improvising musician steps into the current, there is no (or little) time to consciously decide upon the next note or sound; rather, the musician allows him/herself to be ‘carried away by impulse’.

There is, however, a choice to start or end, or to step in or out of a current, to try to bend it into different directions, or to disrupt it. And by exploring one’s motivations and influences (the aforementioned causes of one’s actions and desires) and becoming aware of those, such choices can (to some extent) escape the grasp of unconscious impulse and be free. The ‘freedom’ of ‘free music’ (rather than just ‘free improvisation’) then, does not lie in the lack of written scores or predetermined musical constructions, but in the consciousness born from (self-) exploration, and the choice of currents and directions based thereupon. ‘Free music’ is the conscious manipulation of uncovered impulse.

‘Free music’ is the means of expression, but not the purpose, of the project |˟˟| (‘gate’). Our music is the result of an exploration of and response to our influences and motivations. Some of these are musical (or aural at least) -- jazz, noise (urban, natural, musical), drone doom, Japanese traditional music, and various other sounds and genres are all reflected in our music -- but perhaps even more important is the exploration of non-musical influences – life in modern society, discomfort and alienation, and the limits of freedom itself.
Human freedom is as illusory as the freedom of the improvising musician, but while ‘free music’ offers an opportunity to escape the grasp of impulse through exploration and conscious manipulation of impulse, the exploration of the causes of one’s actions and desires and the attempt to freely choose direction based on that exploration can only lead to the realization that there is little similar opportunity for freedom in human existence. Human freedom is an illusion, and paradoxically, the discomfort born from that realization is what we (‘freely’) choose to express in our (‘free’) music."

REVIEWS

Whisperinandhollerin / Martin Raybould RATING: 8/10

If you are searching for an easy listening experience, look away now.

Gate is based in Tokyo and started out as a solo vehicle of Lajos Ishibashi-Brons (Lajos). He conceived the project as an experiment in improvisation on multiple instruments, many of which he built himself.

These are often played simultaneously and distorted using loops or delay pedals.

The home made instruments include a sousen, an electric four string instrument used to create drones, and an electric morin khuur, an adaptation of a Mongolian stringed instrument played with a bow. Lajos also plays electric and bass guitar.

After three solo excursions, he has now teamed up with a Dutchman with the very Japanese sounding name of Takahito Hayashi (Taka). The result is Iterations; Gate's fourth release but the first as a duo.

Taka plays soprano sax, flute, ryuuteki (dragon flute), recorders, whistles, and didgeridoo; a relatively normal range of instruments compared to Lajos but by no means played in a conventional manner.

All the music is the product of free improvisation without scores or predetermined ideas and recorded in single takes with no overdubs. In a mission statement improvisation is praised in the following terms: "by exploring one's motivations and influences and becoming aware of those, such choices can (to some extent) escape the grasp of unconscious impulse and be free".

They get deeper into philosophical matters by quoting Spinoza's assertion that those who think that they are acting freely are usually just 'carried away by impulse' and expressing the belief that "human freedom is as illusory as the freedom of the improvising musician".

All this places Lajos and Taka squarely in a Catch 22 situation of striving for freedom of expression cognitive of the fact that freedom itself is a delusion.

You will get the point that this is not music conceived as lightweight entertainment.

This is also evident from the track titles which are identified by numbers and letters (70e, 55e, 72e, 56e, 66 x1, 66 x 2 and 66 x 3) rather than anything so bourgeois as names. Even the is duo's name is actually written as a symbol but is also pronounced and written as Gate.

After reading the philosophy and working methods of 'Gate' and learning that their influences include free jazz, noise, drone, doom and Japanese traditional music, the expectation is that the music itself will be a wild , unhinged cacophony of atonal abandon.

Surprisingly, Iterations is a relatively subdued affair. The long droning tracks evolve slowly, punctuated by saxophone honks and squawks or by eery sound effects. The latter are often akin to flapping of wings or someone searching desperately in a drawer full of metallic objects.

This makes for an undeniably strange and enigmatic album. There are no beats to tap along to or tunes to hum, but if you can live with its abstract concepts the effect is oddly calming.

FLTTRY009
Release Date:  August 6, 2010
© Fluttery Records

Also available on:

Gate – Deconstructed

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Track List

1 - 81 U.R
2 - 55R
3 - 58R
4 - 75R
5 - 56R
6 - 67R
7 - 72R
8- 65R
9 - 30 Seconds Of Silence
10 - 57R

Gate - Deconstructed

|˟˟| ('Gate') was founded in 2009 as an experiment in 'free music’ in between free jazz, noise, and drone. Initially it was a solo project, making use of a variety of instruments and electronics that were designed and built especially for the project, but later it became a duo with the addition of a wind instrument player, strengthening the project's jazz element. The tracks on |˟˟|’s two previous CDs released by Fluttery Records, ‘No Exit’ (2009) and ‘iterations’ (2010) were selections from such free improvisation sessions; solo in case of ‘no exit’, as a duo in case of ‘iterations’. This CD, ‘deconstructed’, radically deviates from these previous CDs, and from the basic idea behind |˟˟| itself – the tracks on this CD are not unaltered recordings of free music sessions. Rather in the contrary, these are ‘remixes’; noting that that that term does not really capture the extent of de- and reconstruction and (digital) manipulation involved. Nevertheless, it is still very much a |˟˟| CD – the source material for these remixes are the same sessions from which material for ‘iterations’ was selected. Any track on this CD makes use of longer or shorter fragments of sound from one and only one session from that period. Hence the addition of capital letters ‘R’ after the session numbers. The original versions (the source material) of three tracks on this CD can be found on ‘iterations’. These are 55, 56 and 72. The original session recordings of the other tracks can be listened to at last fm. 81U was recorded on a hill top in a park. Only acoustic instruments were used in that session, |˟˟|'s first and only ‘unplugged’ session. 75 was a session of throat singing (mainly kargyraa) and sax. The other sessions were more ‘typical’.

All 'remixes' by Lajos Ishibashi-Brons.

At the time of the original session recordings, |˟˟| consisted of Lajos & Taka. Lajos: strings and noises (7-string bass, guitar, bassanxi, sousen, zarazara, crank-in-a-box, throat singing, and various effects and electronics). Taka: wind instruments and percussion (alto and soprano sax, soprano and sopranino recorders, ryuuteki, flute, bells, nose flute, various other (small) wind instruments, and found objects).

REVIEWS

Caleidoscoop / Jan Willem Broek

The Dutch-Japanese project |˟˟⌡, pronounced as 'Gate', was founded in 2009 for the purpose of solo improvisation on multiple instruments simultaneously. Founder is the Dutchman with philosophical background, Lajos Ishibashi-Brons (married to a Japanese), who moved from Groningen to Tokyo, and is associated with a university there. Lajos creates improvisations with 7-string bass, guitar, sousen, electric morin khuur, zarazara, and various other effects and noise makers. Half a year after the project was founded, the Japanese wind instrument player Taka joined the project, and with his saxophones, flutes, ryuuteki (dragon flute), recorders, whistles, and didgeridoo, he adds an extra dimension to the project's sound. Lajos's philosophical background undoubtedly contributed to the way of making music, although one shouldn't take the term 'music' too literally. He refers to Spinoza who said that freedom is illusion. Nevertheless, they create a free sound, albeit as free as the listener experiences it. What I mean is that the one will hear unstructured cacophony, while the other recognizes patterns and structure. To that extent freedom stays an illusion. Let me take the freedom to say that they manage to create immense tension between recognizable and undefinable sound. They open a 'gate' to your own interpretation. And that is exactly what makes the different CDRs and CDs 'no exit' (2009) and 'iterations' 2010 so fascinating. The sounds almost became secondary to their elaboration. The result is a kaleidoscopic whole of drones, noise, jazz, industrial, doom, and Japanese traditional music, in which the sounds freely 'wander' through indescribable, capricious soundscapes. |˟˟⌡ now released the CD 'deconstructed', which lets go of the founding principles. Philosophy also means time for reflection and seeing things in a different light. Lajos squeezed the material of the previous CD into the straitjacket of the remix. Freedom gone, one would say, but on the other hand, one could also argue that twisted freedom still is freedom, albeit caught in another reality by electronics; an extrapolation of freedom to a new reality; something like that. That new reality consists here in cacophonous versions of earlier material. With this, Lajos moves into the territory of Aube, Merzbow, KK Null, Otomo Yoshihide, God and John Zorn. It is like looking at a 3D image and suddenly seeing depth. Between the gates of the different dimensions, the music of |˟˟⌡ moves in a wayward and most of all captivating way. Incomprehensibly good!

Evening Of Light

Lajos Ishibashi-Brons‘ project |˟˟| is back again this year, but with a new approach. Where his first three albums featured an eclectic mix of rock, industrial noise, and free jazz that was above all improvised, his latest album Deconstructed focuses instead on remixes/deconstructions of recordings from the sessions of the album Iterations.

While sitting down and treating improvised recordings to an overhaul entails the risk of losing a sense of spontaneity, the resulting tracks on this album are certainly not complacent and over-polished affairs. If anything, a good many of the tracks offer even more layering and sounds from many different directions than what we heard on the previous album.

Some tracks, such as the fourth, “75R”, are a bit more laid back, resting on a constant drone and with subdued woodwind improvisations on top. Others, however, dive deep into chaotic and dense compositions, with screechy loops, guitar and woodwind melodies nearly climaxing into cacophony. Overall, there is a pleasant balance between these extremes, and in this way the album combines tendencies that were heard separately on earlier albums, as well as adding a few textures that are only achieved with later editing and mixing.

As such, Deconstructed has a lot to offer to those who enjoyed any or all of |˟˟|‘s earlier releases, but if you’re a newcomer interested in highly experimental sounds on the borders of jazz and extreme offshoots of rock and industrial, this album is recommended just the same.

FLTTRY018
Release Date:  April 21, 2011
© Fluttery Records

Also available on:

Gate – No Exit

LISTEN

Track List

1 - // 28 ss.rd // 7:12
2 - // 38 ss.mk // 2:40
3 - // 13 ss.rd.gt // 2:49
4 - // 44x ss.rd.bs // 2:54
5 - // 8 ss.rd.mk // 8:47
6 - // 29 ss.rd.gt // 12:19
7 - // 21 ss.rd.mk // 6:28
8 - // 27 ss.rd.mk.bs // 27:50

Gate - No Exit

Gate, also written as |˟˟| creates a wild environment in his debut on Fluttery Records. 'No Exit' is a path to discover his music which stands somewhere between noise and jazz, but which is also influenced by drone, industrial and Mongolian traditional music. In this Tokyo based project everything is product of solo improvisation without any overdubbing; it is completely free music without plans, themes, or melodies; and the music on the CD is - except for some fade-in or out - exactly the same as when it was first created. 'No Exit' is an expression of discomfort, restlessness and oppression. Lajos Ishibashi-Brons (the person behind the |˟˟| project / pronounced as 'gate') says “Modern society expects - even demands - people to be happy. Vast numbers of people walk around with a forced and fake smile, pretending to be what society wants them to be, until they break down. Such fake happiness and its commercial products, such as most pop music, is depressing and nauseating more than comforting. Perhaps my music is a response to and expression of the discomfort caused by this euphoritotalitarianism.”

REVIEWS

Abolute Zero Magazine

Ah Jap Noise its always an adventure no matter who creates it Merzbow, Masonna, Melt Banana and Incapacitants etc. Gate is just the same where they try to add a bit of freeform jazz elements into there nutty collection of tones, rumbles, blips, feedbacks other forms of various broken and rewired pedals and odd laptop effects. No Exit will drive most to the point of ultimate madness but to the fans of this style myself loving this . I would say if the brilliant Jap noise label of SSSM was still around this would be a highlight to its roster. So I'm glad a newer label like Fluttery Records is keeping this style out there to the masses even if there are just a few thousand of us out there. I look forward to many more challenging releases from Fluttery and Gate...

Devil Has The Best Tuna

Gate, also written as |˟˟| (if it was good enough for Prince it's good enough for Lajos Ishibashi-Brons The person behind |˟˟|) creates a improvised masterpiece on his debut on Fluttery Records. 'No Exit' is pitched somewhere between noise and jazz, between drone and industrial with a dose of Mongolian traditional music thrown in for good measure. This Tokyo based project is as close to pure music as you can get.

In Forty

Seven minutes of deafening, near-formless noise opens No Exit. Two minutes of something akin to electronic whale song follows. Track six sounds like some megalithic spacecraft grinding slowly past your window. The improvisational project of Lajos Ishibashi-Brons is certainly not easy – this is an hour of droning, freeform, unsettling noise; anti-music that you might admire, detest, or both.

Connexion Bizarre

The album is a very diverse one. Lajos starts it off with dirty drones and a primitive melody scratching itself out in "28 ss rd". He brings in strings on "38 ss mk" with what I guess is the morin khuur being bowed, the piece later develops into a delightful grating loop which keeps time with an ominous drum beat. "13 ss rd gt" is a complete surprise as it bursts onto your speakers with vigorous pounding rhythmic noise. This is followed by "44x ss rd bs", an introspective piece dominated by echoing plucked strings. Again on a completely different vibe "29 ss rd gt" is a noise ambient piece with claustrophobic engine room sounds and haunting drones.

FLTTRY004
Release Date:  November 15, 2009
© Fluttery Records

Also available on:

Gate’s new industrial layered, noise music world: Sekai

Gate is an experiment in improvised music by Lajos Ishibashi-Brons, a Dutch philosopher and musician living in Japan. The name of the project, ‘Gate’, summarizes its intended nature: a gate is in between, in between inside and outside, between here and there, between now and then; and a gate is a passageway, both an entrance […]

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Noise master Gate release a new album: Deconstructed

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