a r t i s t : Ami Yoshida & Christof Kurzmann
t i t l e : A S O
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Erstwhile 047
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Dec/2006
t r a c k s : 08
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 69,7 MB
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Ami Yoshida: voice, microphone
Christof Kurzmann: lloopp, clarinet
All tracks by Ami Yoshida and Christof Kurzmann
Recorded by Christoph Amann at Amann Studios, March 2004
Mastered by Christoph Amann
Produced by Jon Abbey
Images by asuna
Desigh by Hirozumi Takeda
Released in October 2006
"Ami Yoshida and Christof Kurzmann are both well-respected
artists within the international community, each performing in
a wide range of contexts from abstract to pure pop. Both are
best known for their long-running duos, Yoshida for Cosmos
(with Sachiko M) and Kurzmann for schnee (with Burkhard
Stangl). This project finds them in far less comfortable
territory, and a s o is the outcome of two years of hard work.
Ami Yoshida strives to create a pure sound, abstracting her
voice until it becomes almost completely unrecognizable. She
created her unique style with no conventional training,
initially inspired by Meredith Monk. Cosmos and Astro Twin
(with Utah Kawasaki) are her two longest-running projects, and
their split release won the 2003 Ars Electronica award. She
has also recorded as a solo artist, most notably Tiger Thrush
(IMJ), a kaleidoscopic catalog of 99 fragments. Her small
catalog almost exclusively finds her working with other
Tokyo-based musicians; a s o is one of her first releases to
break that formula.
Kurzmann has been a prominent part of both the Vienna and
(more recently) the Berlin scenes over the past decade. As an
organizer, he cofounded the phonoTAKTIK festival, helped begin
the prominent Rhiz club in Vienna, and runs the prestigious
Charhizma label. Since moving to Berlin in 2001, he has
organized countless shows, including the Berlin half of
AMPLIFY 2004: addition. Kurzmann has been an essential part of
many Erstwhile-related live events, in Tokyo, Berlin and the
just concluded ErstQuake 3 in NYC, and was the first to work
at Amann Studios for an Erstwhile release, beginning a crucial
relationship for the label.
a s o contains recordings from the first meeting of Yoshida
and Kurzmann in March 2004. The collaboration was a difficult
one, partly because of their wildly different backgrounds and
partly because of the communication issues due to their
language differences. Four translators helped the project
along over the course of the two years it took to make this
record (Taku Unami, Toshimaru Nakamura, Yuko Zama and Kae
Uchihashi). Although it was a long and complicated journey,
the end result is very organic and accomplished. a s o
contains an extremely broad range of abstract approaches from
both artists, resulting in a wildly different soundworld from
any of their previous recordings, and has been beautifully
captured as always by recording engineer Christoph Amann. The
impeccably minimal yet lush CD design is by Hirozumi Takeda,
utilizing images provided by asuna."
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01-A S O Part 1 [04:12]
02-A S O Part 2 [05:16]
03-A S O Part 3 [03:52]
04-A S O Part 4 [04:39]
05-A S O Part 5 [08:09]
06-A S O Part 6 [02:07]
07-A S O Part 7 [07:52]
08-A S O Part 8 [14:00]
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50:07 min