SUZUKI, AKIO - Stone

"On Stone, Suzuki expounds his approach of "throwing and following," casting out sounds and gestures into space and catching their returns. Each of the pieces explores the materiality of his chosen objects and the space within which each is activated. The recordings catch this process of sonic offering, and receiving, that characterizes the generosity of his relationship with sound, space and time. Originally recorded in 1994 in Berlin, this 30th anniversary edition features a new booklet with text by David Toop and photo documentation, some of which has not previously been published. The edition is also entirely remastered from the original recordings. From David Toop (excerpt from the Stone booklet): "With concentration, or elevated tension as he has called it, Akio Suzuki enters completely into the substance of sound, its emergence and its passing. What he does with sound may propose a rarefied world to many people, and yet it possesses a persuasive quality of rightness. One of the most difficult aspects of music and soundwork to explain is the concept of 'right action.' How is that music can be evaluated almost immediately, just as quickly as a fire alarm or a baby's cry? When Akio performs, certain qualities (grace, warmth, a quiet authority of mind and action, an engagement with the vessel of nothingness through which sound can emerge) are evident as presences, as soon as he begins. He begins from a state we call silence, by listening, yet at the same time raises questions about our ideas of what this silence might be. Time passes; fixity gives way to destruction; visual perfection is relinquished within the faintest of sound fields. As for the work, this ceremony returns us to nothing, 'to the feeling of not knowing exactly what is before us,' so to the uncanny, to the shell-like ear found by the sea, the 'ungraspable phantom of life,' the record of a haunting, time regained. The sound is a parabola, a finger tracing on skin, a brush point, bird in flight." Recorded in Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Studio I on 11, 12, 13, and 17 October 1994. Mixed by Hans Peter Kuhn. Recorded by Junko Wada. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space." - Room 40