Seijiro Murayama - Solos

Seijiro Murayama: one head snare drum (with microphone... without sound effects)

The man who played drums in ANP (a duo with KK Null) and Fushitsusha (with Keiji Haino) returns to playing solo here, 'using one head snare drum with microphones, without sound effects', as it says on the cover (although the press text mentions a cymbal too). I assume he plays the snare drum with something, objects, sticks, brushes? Two pieces do rather sound the same: 'Ssei' and 'Llott' (if I read that well, its handwritten and not easy to read): rubbing sticks over the head and producing trainlike sounds, rolling faster and faster. In 'Aug' he plays the most 'traditional' piece of improvised music, hectic, nervous, but with a great control of the instrument, making it sound entirely different throughout this piece. In 'Ejie', the final and longest piece on the CD is an entire drone like piece. Hard to imagine how he plays this, but it could be objects pressed hard to the surface or perhaps some sort of bowing technique. This is the best piece of these four, but through I thought
this was a pretty strong disc anyway. Excellent solo improvisation. (Vital Weekly - FdW)

2009 SOLOS