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Yamaoka Yasuhiro Everything Stops
01. once
02. twice
03. thrice
04. quarce
05. quince
06. sence
07. septence
08. octence
09. novence
10. tonce
all Alchemy plays recorded and mixed by Yamaoka Yasuhiro April 2020.
catalogue number: YOR-42
the frequency number words after thrice are all protologisms.
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro melting contact
01. texture of a day
02. D
03. point flow
04. melting contact
all files created by Yamaoka Yasuhiro March - April 2020.
catalogue number: YOR-41
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro impairment variations
01. impairment variation iii
02. impairment variation i
03. impairment variation ii
by Yamaoka Yasuhiro July 2019 - March 2020.
catalogue number: YOR-40
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro No music, Ok
01. No music, Ok #1
02. No music, Ok #2
03. No music, Ok #3
04. No music, Ok #4
05. No music, Ok #5
06. No music, Ok #6
composed by Yamaoka Yasuhiro July 2019.
original materials recorded in May 2011 in New York.
catalogue number: YOR-39
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non stop mix version is also available.
Yamaoka Yasuhiro Piano Sonata no.1, Latitude and four piano pieces
Piano Sonata no.1
01. movement one
02. movement two
03. movement three
04. movement four
05. Arbitrary Projection
06. Predictive Conversation
07. Corrupting Correction
08. Elemental Mapping
09. Latitude for four piaonos
Piano Sonata no.1 was composed under my imagery of avant-garde music since 100 years ago; if it is defined that avant-garde music began after world war 1. the four movements were all fixed to 100 bars in four-four time, and all played in 100bpm.
Latitude for four piaonos was composed on the assumption that setting two pianos on the each edge of stage, playing them with the damper pedals on, and setting the other two pianos on the center of stage, playing them with the damper pedals off. this is based on my old idea around 1980. the four pianos are supposed to be softly played with transposing each simple pattern in 60bpm.
Arbitrary Projection, Predictive Conversation, Corrupting Correction and Elemental Mapping was composed with some motives and their variations that were made by “copy and paste then edit” technique.
all pieces were composed with pcm piano samples and the sequencer of Apple Logic Pro X. the used piano sample is Bösendorfer for Piano Sonata no.1, Steinway for the other pieces.
composed and recorded by Yamaoka Yasuhiro February – October 2018.
catalogue number: YOR-38
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parabola
loopholds one hour
i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi
the extended one hour versions of loopholds i-vi.
all files composed and produced by parabola.
extended one hour versions mixed in march, 2018.
catalogue number: yor-22x
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parabola
loopholds
i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi
around 1977, i came to know about 1min/3min looped cassette tape, and got the idea of playing numbers of looped sound endlessly at the same time. but, it was too difficult to prepare the looped cassette tapes and the players, i couldn't complete this idea. This time, i tried the similar idea with audio editor software on computer.
all files composed and produced by parabola.
recorded in tokyo, saitama, new york, february 1998 - march 2018.
mixed in july, 2007 - march, 2018.
catalogue number: yor-22
the extended one hour versions are available.
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro Elephantom
Recordings 1995-2017: Selected work by Yamaoka Yasuhiro
01. The Backlash (1997) 5:04
02. Dynamo (2002-2003) 4:03
03. Alchemically Scratched (1995) 7:25 revised in 1999
04. Three Phases for Time (2013) 3:13 revised in 2017
05. Glare on the Beach (2009) 5:23 revised in 2017
06. Unknown Flute (2003) 1:59
07. Another Movement (1996) 10:05
08. Forest of Rain (2016) 4:02
09. Rewind (2000) 6:03
10. Jam (2002) 4:18 revised in 2009
11. White, Orange, Blue (2001) 6:15
12. Retort (2001) 1:00
13. Pure Arc (2001) 6:07
14. A Home in Flare (2017) 3:46
15. Return (2002) 10:01
The title Elephantom was prepared for an album that is now called 1/2 after 5. When I got the sample-editing software Passport Alchemy in 1995, and completed the first work Alchemically Scratched, I decided to use the title Elephantom for another album that fully featured Alchemy. At first Elephantom was planned as a collection of audio work using a slow overlapping technique to create gradually changing eerie sound textures. While I was creating strange sound files with Alchemy, I was also about to edit my old pre-computer generated work from the 1980’s. This gradually changed the album’s concept into assembling a collection of my old ideas that I did not/could not complete when I first thought of them. I began to work with older ideas, but when I had a newer idea, I always wanted to try the newer one. Working intermittently back and forth between making newer work, with new ideas, and finishing older work later, the project entered a long time span. The concept then again changed into the idea of making a collection of work from various periods as a two disk set of older and newer work: The Memorial Junk (a ten year assortment) and Elephantom (a twenty two year assortment).
After changing the direction of Elephantom, I decided to compose the opening track using my old recordings from 1976 to 1986. I constructed it in my original editing way with a cut and paste process, but using newer precise computer technology. The draft title was Flashback. It was then turned into Rush Back, and then using word play, into Backrush, but just before the completion of Elephantom, I settled on The Backlash because I felt that this word contained both of these two meanings: a strong backward reaction against something, or a motion between the loosened parts of a machine that may create a squeaking sound.
Dynamo begins with an NEC PC9801-like start-up beep because the idea of this composition came when I first heard this sound in 1987. The imagery is a program running on a computer. Its title is taken from the programing language called Dynamo, and Dynamo’s name was taken from dynamic models, a program used by industry to calculate global resource depletion and limits to growth; not an electric generator, although the composition could relate to both images. The idea of the rhythm structure for Dynamo already existed at this time, but was never completed. Later in 2001, I tried to finish this idea, and the result without the start-up beep is titled Pre-Charge. It was published as the prototype for an EP called From the Small Stack. One year later, I made it a little more straight-forward with a colder touch using simulated computer background noise signals.
Alchemically Scratched was built with my first software oriented synthesized sound files using the additive synthesizer Function of Passport Alchemy. The generated sounds are like playing a broken vinyl record with many scratches. Emphasizing the tonal part from these noisy files is similar to the techniques used to make scratch art. The title comes from these two references.
The concept for Three Phases for Time happened in 1978 when I was operating the speed controller of a compact cassette tape recorder my father had given to me to learn English. Instead I used the English Lesson tapes to make music. The idea was to overlap very short fast sounds and very long slow sounds, both beginning at the same time: layering of super-compressed and super-extended sound. The short fast sound would repeat much faster than the long slow sound, and the two would never repeat again. The overlap would always be different. This idea was difficult to do at the time because I was using ping-pong recording with two tape machines, but I did not have a dubbing console, so the process was very long and labor intensive. Later, I discovered that by using granular synthesis technology, I could more easily accomplish the same thing. The English text used for this composition is; Time nature diversely changes its attribute from the observer state. It is read by Alex: a synthesized speech voice on Apple MacOS, and is taken from Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
In 1983 I read about the nuclear tests in Bikini Atoll. I imagined that light from the atomic bomb traveled from the distant island through the sea. Glare on the Beach is based on my image: three video projection panels with the images of sea waves slowly turning into bright white light, then switching back to the original sea waves but instead they have a deteriorated, faded film texture. Tonal high signals are the extracts from recorded sea wave sounds using an intense filtering effect.
Unknown Flute is a modulated extract section from another work called uwn. The title uwn is shortened from the word unknown. The idea is from 1993, and is a random filtration used to make a melodious line from a harmony sound. I tried to compose it in a formal way, but it did not work well, because I could not get the right pitch range that I wanted. I used the same technique for a part of uwn, and I thought it worked better, because this uwn section already had a melody that I made for it before using random filtration. This emphasized the imagery of a windy melody that I hoped to achieve.
Another Movement is a remaining composition that was first created under the original concept of Elephantom. The following work, Forest of Rain, is composed for sampled cymbals. Another Movement and Forest of Rain are connected with an overlapping section. This was planned from the beginning when Another Movement was composed. When I began working on Another Movement, I decided use it as a long introduction to Forest of Rain. The idea for Forest of Rain is from 1985. Using this old idea with the cymbals became a reason to change the direction for Elephantom. Forest of Rain was once composed with drum machines in the same year as Another Movement, but this version was discarded. 20 years later in 2016, I discovered the sound module software Cymbalistic that is specifically for cymbal samples. I decided to try my idea again.
Rewind is made from my old work B. I took some sections from B, then modulated the extracted parts together to produce a new sound. I felt the result was like a strange rewinding auditory effect. This became an alternative possibility to use as an opening track for Elephantom.
The concept for Jam was made in 1981 when I learned another meaning for the word: crowded and stuck. I first tried this idea in 1984 using a drum machine while playing an acoustic piano randomly in a very fast tempo, but I thought the result was too rough. In 2002, I remembered this idea and tried to realize it again. Now with the aid of a computer, I could make the drum pattern more complex. In contrast with the drum pattern I created simple arpeggio-like patterns using synthesizers. The two together give a feeling of crowded busyness.
I began White, Orange, Blue and Pure Arc in 1981. I was often listening to audio check records that contain test signals, and wanted to compose work using only pure noise or pure sine waves. Between 1982 and 1984, I tried to make a series of pieces that contained the test tones but these were not exactly what I wanted to compose. I could not manage the material well enough to produce the effect that I had hoped for because the original information was on vinyl records, and I was copying onto audio-tape. The tapes inherently contain a hissing sound and each time I transferred the information to another tape, the hiss noise increased. Consequently, this rounded and distorted the sound rather than reproducing the original pure tones of the test records. It did the same to the sine waves. Using newer computer technology available, I decided to try this idea again in 2001 and was able to complete three pieces. The title of White, Orange, Blue comes from the frequency spectrum of noise: the colored noise. Noise like light is divided into color ranges that most closely resemble the frequency waves of visible colors. White noise, like white light contains all of these sound frequencies in equal volume. Although there is no color orange in academic noise classification, I used a little higher frequency width than traditional red noise for this piece, and called it orange. Blue noise is filtered to a higher frequency. The noise that I used for this work was weighted to a higher range than the definition of blue noise, and is considered to be violet noise. I was not aware of this until after I presented the work publicly as part of my EP qliqly.ep in 2001, but I didn't correct the title because I liked the contrast of orange and blue, rather than orange and violet. Retort is added as a bridge section to Pure Arc. A retort is a filtration device used to distill substances. I used this concept to filter pure noise to pure sine waves. Pure Arc is composed totally with pure sine waves. Sine waves contain no harmonics, but just one basic core frequency. It is the opposite of white noise that contains all frequencies.
A Home in Flare. The text: My home was in a small town. / Nearby a small park with a big tree was. / After the tree faded away. / Left a pile of fallen leaves. / Brought a day with a dry air. / And a little heat in it. / I saw a house in the flame. / The home remained in a light. This musical backtrack composition was first completed in 1997 without the lyrics. I had not recorded the work on DAT, and it was lost in a computer malfunction. Since I had changed the direction of Elephantom and right before completing it, I recalled this piece. I decided to place it just in front of the last track Return. The composition reflects my feelings and regard for the past. The result is not as close to the one from 1997, but still has its original mood. The text is read again by Alex, but in a lower key.
The last track Return has the same title as the last track of The Memorial Junk: collection of my 1977-1987 work. Elephantom was planned to make a set with The Memorial Junk, so I decided to share the title of their closing tracks. At first, I planned this Return as a piano improvisation like I used to do in my childhood; however, the original concept of Elephantom was as a collection of electronic compositions so I made the new Return using modulated pure electronic noise. The result sounds like the strange noise from the airwave reception as I used to hear it on the radio during my childhood.
All files created by Yamaoka Yasuhiro January 1995-December 2017.
Catalogue number: YOR-21
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro More Deaths into More Lives
01. On the Creamy Floor
02. Truthy Falsy
03. School of Pleasure
04. Straight Yard
05. Star Seekers
06. A Right Light
All audio files processed and mixed by Yamaoka Yasuhiro through August to September 2016.
catalogue number: yor-36
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro Broken Constellations
01. mix five (a)
02. mix one
03. mix four
04. mix three
05. mix two
06. mix five (c)
extra. mix five (b)
All audio files processed and mixed in October 2014 - August 2016.
catalogue number: yor-35
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro Nothing is better than the Worst and the Worst is better than Anything
01. Nothing is better than the Worst
02. the Worst is better than Anything
all compositions by Yamaoka Yasuhiro September 2013 - June 2016.
catalogue number: yor-33
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yamaoka yasuhiro the switch (or unidentified frequency oscillator)
init_puls
01. ip_h
02. ip_f
03. ip_m
04. ip_y
programmed, recorded and mixed by yamaoka yasuhiro, august 27th-september 10th 2006, tokyo japan.
use waving isolation
init_puls :: reviewed by n
何だか新食感のアメ玉みたい。しかも無味の！食感のみの楽しみのための変なアメ玉。最初は硬いので奥歯でカラカラ弄んでると、そのうちに唾液がジワジワ〜っと滲んで来てシット〜リヤンワ〜リになったかと思うと、いきなり表面がホロホロっと剥がれ落ちザラザラした層が現れて、何じゃこりゃぁ？とか訝しがりながらも舌の上でコロコロコロリン♪と転がしてるうちに、さらに奥の層が剥離したかと思ったら、今度は歯にネチャネチャくっ付きそれが溶けきるか溶けきらないうちに、小さくて硬いツブツブが口いっぱいに広がって…‥・
init_puls :: reviewed by n (english translation: y with m)
like toffee with a new texture that's tasteless! the weird toffee is just for textural fun in the mouth. while playing its hard surface with back teeth, saliva begins oozing out slowly, making it wet and soft, suddenly the surface peels off little by little, its rough interior appears, still rolling on the tongue, wondering what kind of layer is revealed, soon the deeper layer is separated, the gluey something begins sticking to the teeth, just before it melts away, tiny hard grains spread fully around the mouth... . .
init_puls :: reviewed by n (興奮和訳)
....タフィー。..充填、新しいShoccan、どうにか。 そのうえ、ノーというのは味がします。Shoccanだけの楽しみのための奇妙なタフィー。時がたつうちに最初に、騒々しくプレーするとIsが汚す大臼歯とRiyanwa?糞のWhatで困難であるのが、突然Horohoroを剥き取って、秋が表面であるということであるということであるので唾液 Gewagewaであり、ふさわしいRiを考えながら、荒い層、およびいつに見えますか?内部の層が、それが疑わしいのですが、舌の上の Corocorocororin♪でそれを回転させている間、はげて、それが終わるとさらに、思うなら。Nechanecha Ts歯か今回…・・に溶けます。拡大… 満。固いTsbtsb、小さく、溶けることを終える前に口の動きで伝えます。
init_puls :: reviewed by n (excited english translation)
...toffee.. ..filling.. of new Shoccan somehow. Moreover, a no taste. Strange toffee for the enjoyment only of Shoccan. Is saliva Gewagewa in the course of time first because it is hard when clatteringly playing with by the molar?Is does blot and the shit?Riyanwa?What is it does peel off suddenly Horohoro, fall the surface, appear a rough layer, and when thinking becoming Ri?If the layer in the interior in addition thinks that it flaked off while rolling it with Corocorocororin on the tongue though it is dubious, it finishes ..Nechanecha Ts..melting to teeth or, this time, ... . . ..the extension... a full ..hard Tsbtsb.. mouth small before it finishes of melting
ritomica
05. ritomica 1
06. ritomica 2
07. ritomica 3
all files created by yamaoka yasuhiro, february 2006, tokyo japan.
oh, what a clap!
the switch (or unidentified frequency oscillator)
08. the switch 01
09. the switch 02
10. the switch 03
11. the switch 04
12. the switch 05
13. the switch 06
14. the switch 07
15. the switch 08
16. the switch 09
17. the switch 10
at the beginning of this project, the title was u.f.o. (unidentified frequency oscillator). while processing the sound files for this project, suddenly, an image came to my head: a switch on my forehead. it became very obsessive to me. i decided to change the title from u.f.o. to the switch.
i was recalling when i was child, it was great fun to play with the switches on the panel of audio devices. such as; tape recorders, amplifiers, radios, etc. these new electric toys gave me much influence in my improvisation. and yes, it was greater fun than practising the piano.
and i understand why the switch on my forehead. i am still doing the similar things with the new audio device: personal computer. i am just playing with the switches on the screen, like in my childhood.
i may be obsessed by the switch on the panel of u.f.o.
all switches built by yamaoka yasuhiro, april-october 2006, tokyo japan.
turn on the switch
catalogue number: yor-18
released on 15.10.2006.
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro Four Variations in Stretch
01. Choir and the Phantom Strings
02. The Pianist Is Sleeping
03. Rocking Rolls
04. A Long Walk
Granular synthesis technology produces a quality of sound stretching without tonal pitch changes. When sound is over stretched, it causes a metallic feeling with a kind of quirky trembling from the granulated synthesis texture. Even though the result is not so smooth, the effect is like a microscopic view, zooming into the details of the sound. With this technique, the sound can be controlled for the wished duration and pitch, and short sound can be transformed into another kind of longer aural experience.
Four Variations in Stretch was created with this stretch technique and pitch changes from May to December 2013 by Yamaoka Yasuhiro.
Choir and the Phantom Strings: male chorus, The Pianist Is Sleeping: piano, Rocking Rolls: electric guitars, basses and drums, A Long Walk: a city noise.
Catalogue number: YOR-32
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro Piano Play, MSX Play, DX Play
Piano Play
01. Tour on Corridor (1984)
02. Untitled (1984)
03. Untitled (1984)
04. Untitled (1984)
05. Untitled (1984)
06. Into Dusk (1984)
07. Gleam on Water (1982)
08. Upstairs (1984)
09. Before and After (1984)
10. You Are Honest (piano part) (1982)
All piano improvisations by Yamaoka Yasuhiro.
This is the collection of my piano improvisations that have been recorded in 1982 and 1984. I recorded more piano plays, but most of them have gone somewhere I cannot find. All the time, I used to play the piano with less idea, or with no idea. I would love to play it arbitrary though I do not have any better skill. I think I cannot play piano like these recordings any more. I was always a bad piano learner, and I am still worse.
MSX Play
11. Comperc (1985, revised in 1999)
12. Antenna (1984)
13. Pulsation (1984)
All MSX programmings by Yamaoka Yasuhiro.
These three monotonous compostions are programmed for MSX computer. Comperc was originally with a bassline that discarded in 1999. Antenna and Pulsation is inspired by the weird pulse sound from my hand-made airwaves receiver. Especially, Pulsation is very close to what I heard from it.
DX Play
14. Trial two (1986)
15. Trial four (1986)
16. Trial five (1986)
All DX21 improvisations by Yamaoka Yasuhiro.
Just after I had got Yamaha DX21 synthesizer, I began to dub two or three improvisations on to a compact cassette tape, almost having no idea, as I always did. Here are some of the survived results since some of my trial over dubbed improvisations have lost forever.
Remastered and edited in February 2009 and November 2012.
Catalogue number: YOR-25.
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Yamaoka Yasuhiro VaiNarQ (music for poetry reading)
01. VaiNarQ (music for poetry reading)
02. Ceremony Study
03. Pilgrimage
extra. Scriptures
VaiNarQ (music for poetry reading) was originally composed as background music for reading VaiNarQ Gyorkto 69: poetry by Ukai Rope/Hisaka Yogo. (these two names are used for the poet. both the new name and the old one.) in December 2005, he asked me how to record his readings with background music into a personal computer, possibly, with new original music. in March 2006, he brought me his rehearsal recording of poetry readings with his pianist friend playing background drone "cosmic" organ sounds. the duration of this recording is over 38 minutes. VaiNarQ (music for poetry reading) is composed from the images of this rehearsal recording. I dubbed his alternative poetry reading over this new original music.
all music by Yamaoka Yasuhiro, March 2006.
front image was taken in Urawa, Saitama, January 2006.
catalogue number: YOR-16
originally released on 22.3.2006.
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yamaoka yasuhiro dying carnivores while they are pretending herbivores
01. dying carnivores while they are pretending herbivores
title: dying carnivores while they are pretending herbivores
author: yamaoka yasuhiro
duration: 60:00:00
date: 09/january/2005 - 13/january/2005
softwares: sintrilium cool edit pro v1.2, arboretum systems hyperprism v1.55
a trash can at the ground zero nyc usa 23 november 2002.
catalogue number: yor-14
released on 16.1.2005.
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