MERZBOW, MATS GUSTAFSSON, BALAZS PANDI / CUTS OPEN (2LP盤)
日本の孤高のノイズアーティストMERZBOW、スウェーデンのフリー・ジャズ・サキソフォニストMATS GUSTAFSSON（マッツ・グスタフソン）、MERZBOWとの共演でも知られるハンガリーのアンダーグラウンド・ドラマーBALAZS PANDI（バラージュ・パンディ）による、2018年に吉祥寺GOK SOUNDにて録音され2020年にリリースされた、大気の体動のようなスケールのコラボレーション作!!! <a href="https://matsgustafsson.bandcamp.com/album/cuts-open">Cuts Open by Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson, Balazs Pandi</a> On the all-too-rare occasions when Japanese noise legend Masami Akita (aka Merzbow), Swedish saxophone aggressor Mats Gustafsson and blistering Hungarian drummer Balázs Pándi converge, listeners know to brace themselves for a brain-rattling sonic assault. Each of these men alone had long been established as among the most ferocious of artists long before they came together to record their savage 2013 debut, Cuts; the onslaught was only intensified with the addition of Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore for a pair of overpowering follow-ups. The anticipation of such musical violence is what makes this most recent outing, Cuts Open so entrancingly unsettling. Reconvened as a trio once again, Gustafsson, Pándi and Akita found themselves exploring far more spacious and airy soundscapes than is typical for their explosive meetings. The results are no less sanguinary for being unusually quiet (relatively speaking, of course; this trio’s “serene” is the equivalent of most musicians’ wildest extremes). Instead, the use of agitated percussion and hair-raising breathiness makes for a decidedly ominous atmosphere. When the occasional bursts of brutality arrive – and they do arrive, in all their eviscerating glory – they’re almost cathartic in their relief from the teeth-gnashing tension of the album’s more subdued moments, where menace hangs in the air like a thinly veiled threat. Of course, the unexpected lies at the very heart of the music that these three make together, which seems to be less improvised in the traditional sense than summoned from some primal beyond. Asked to describe the kinds of sounds he prefers to explore with his bandmates, Akita offers the single word, “Spontaneous.” But the direction that Cuts Open took, nearly a decade into the trio’s collective existence, took even the artists themselves by surprise. （RareNoiseRecords） Side A I WENT DOWN TO BROTHER Side B AND WE WENT HOME Side C WE WENT UP WITH MOTHER Side D HE LOCKED THE DOOR Masami Akita : noise electronics, percussion Mats Gustafsson : flute, fluteophone, baritone saxophone, live electronics and percussion Balázs Pándi : drums, percussion All compositions by Masami Akita, Mats Gustafsson, Balàzs Pàndi Published by RareNoisePublishing (PRS) Recorded at Studio Gok, June 18, 2018 Edited and mixed by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Tokyo, June 2018 Mastered by James Plotkin @plotkinworks, June 2020 Titles inspired by Karin Smirnoff Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords: Giacomo Bruzzo Artwork and Design by @rokhond Format：2LP Label：RareNoise (UK)
