{"id":6188,"date":"2019-04-02T16:24:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T15:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wasserbassin.com\/site\/?post_type=product&p=6188"},"modified":"2019-11-19T01:26:06","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T01:26:06","slug":"june-chikuma-les-archives-lp-7","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/product\/june-chikuma-les-archives-lp-7\/","title":{"rendered":"June Chikuma – Les Archives – LP+7″"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Les Archives<\/strong>” is composed, arranged, and produced by the elusive Japanese artist June Chikuma<\/strong>. While Freedom To Spend\u2019s<\/strong> reinvented edition bares little visual evidence of its origins in the composer\u2019s name, title, or sleeve design, the album, a whooping gonzo of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and a mysterious string quartet, remains as vibrant now as it did when released on Toru Hatano\u2019s<\/strong> Picture Label as Divertimento<\/em> in 1986. In fact, the music of\u00a0“Les Archives<\/strong>” now glows with a different purpose; one that revises the past while maintaining, and finally elevating, its hidden influence.<\/p>\n

A woman of multiple disciplines and identities, June Chikuma<\/strong> (\u7af9\u9593 \u6df3, Chikuma Jun) has composed for TV, film, and video games over the past thirty plus years. Her proto-techno and drum and bass soundtracks for Nintendo\u2019s Bomberman<\/em> franchise in the 80s and 90s is an oeuvre unto itself. In more recent years her musical focus has turned toward classic Arabic and Egyptian music. Chikuma<\/strong> studies Arabic nay, playing and performing with Le Club Bachraf <\/strong>ensemble. In a melding of June<\/strong>\u2019s contrasting, colorful worlds, Le Club Bachraf composed part of the original score for the 2007 video game Sonic and The Secret Rings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For “Les Archives<\/strong>“, Chikuma<\/strong> constructed a sonic stage to animate her imaginings as a one-person show. The primary props, a KORG SDD-3000 digital delay, an audible, overt display of unclassified drum machines and samplers, and a litany of literary references. Following the original album\u2019s sequence, \u201cBroadcast Profanity Delay\u201d bursts onto “<\/em>Les Archives<\/strong>“\u2019<\/em> first scene full of buoyant energy and fluttering atmospheric pressure. The composition was conceived by Chikuma<\/strong> for a make-believe marimba ensemble, and in this shapeshifting form, takes on its own mutant life.<\/p>\n

\u201cPataphysique\u201d is a term for the study of an imaginary realm additional to metaphysics, and the track on Les Archives <\/em>most conducive to dancing (even if those movements might conjure the jerkiest imagery). \u201cDivertimento,\u201d the heretofore title track of the album, brandishes a tough electro exoskeleton with a molten 18th century orchestral interlude nine minutes into the nearly thirteen minute piece. Chikuma<\/strong> dedicates \u201cDivertimento\u201d to composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart<\/strong> and Paul Hindemith<\/strong> for his alignment with the New Objectivity movement. By the composition\u2019s conclusion, the object\u2019s particles have been completely obliterated and assembled again.<\/p>\n

The cacophony of\u00a0“Les Archives<\/strong>” parts to reveal a clearing with \u201cClimb-Down,\u201d Chikuma<\/strong>\u2019s tribute to Erik Satie\u2019s<\/strong> Furniture music (musique d\u2019ameublement<\/em>). The Michiyo Toda String Quartet\u2019s <\/strong>somber string interpretation of June\u2019s composition offers a grace unlike the Rube Goldberg<\/strong> of punchy programming and found sound on the surrounding electronic machination. After this acoustic respite the electricity is switched on again. \u201cDual Use\u201d repurposes the constitution of \u201cDivertimento\u201d as a slight samba, complete with Godzilla samples.<\/p>\n

Recorded during the original Divertimento<\/em> sessions at Hugh Studio in Tokyo but excluded from the original album release,\u00a0“Les Archives<\/strong>” presents two unheard pieces. \u201cMujo to Ifukoto\u201d works as interspecies smalltalk between synthetic instruments and environmental samples. Lush strings interrupt synth sweeps, said sweeps giving way to a concr\u00e8te concert of crickets and church bells. Countering the title\u2019s claim of dispassionate decision-making in the midst of crisis, \u201cOddman Hypothesis\u201d is deliberately restrained, aside from the shatter marking the start, and resembles the City Pop and fusion movements that defined Japan\u2019s musical landscape in the 80s.<\/p>\n

Chikuma<\/strong>\u2019s neon-vibrant aesthetic would be at home soundtracking films like After Hours<\/em> or Teknolust<\/em>. However,\u00a0“Les Archives<\/strong>” is the score for a movie of mistaken identity \u2013 clones redressed in a guise of the artist\u2019s re-coding. The legitimate artifact deceives history. There is no original, but this copy is singular and complete.<\/p>\n

Freedom To Spend
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom To Spend
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

“Les Archives<\/strong>” is composed, arranged, and produced by the elusive Japanese artist June Chikuma<\/strong>. While Freedom To Spend\u2019s<\/strong> reinvented edition bares little visual evidence of its origins in the composer\u2019s name, title, or sleeve design, the album, a whooping gonzo of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and a mysterious string quartet, remains as vibrant now as it did when released on Toru Hatano\u2019s<\/strong> Picture Label as Divertimento<\/em> in 1986. In fact, the music of\u00a0“Les Archives<\/strong>” now glows with a different purpose; one that revises the past while maintaining, and finally elevating, its hidden influence.<\/p>\n

Chikuma<\/strong>\u2019s neon-vibrant aesthetic would be at home soundtracking films like After Hours<\/em> or Teknolust<\/em>. However,\u00a0“Les Archives<\/strong>” is the score for a movie of mistaken identity \u2013 clones redressed in a guise of the artist\u2019s re-coding. The legitimate artifact deceives history. There is no original, but this copy is singular and complete.<\/p>\n

\u25ba CLICK HERE TO LISTEN<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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