Agencement - untitled LP (Pico, 1986)

Tracklisting

Side A

Untitled

Side B

Untitled

Here's something a bit more challenging after a streak of comparatively more palatable postings. Agencement is the solo project of Hideaki Shimada, a violinist who became interested in European improv music in the late 70's before releasing his recordings at the suggestion of noise artist Masami Akita (Merzbow). The music falls squarely between those two camps, and is both "free" and utterly purgatorial.
This particular LP (released in an edition of 300) contains two side-long recordings of scrawling violin, sputtering away without variation or direction. Side A is acoustic solo violin, while side B features Shimada layering and electronically manipulating multiple recordings, resulting in a cacophonous din of squeaking, scattering noise.
Completely bleak and austere, so if you find it impenetrable, save it for one of those days where you feel like staring into the abyss.
Shimada's artwork deserves special note. The back cover of the LP showcases some seriously impressive work, complementing the music perfectly in a way similar to the alien hieroglyphs adorning Mick Barr's Orthrelm albums. Upon very close inspection, one can faintly make out contorted faces, bizarre appendages and arcane symmetrical edifices, conjoined in massive clouds that I imagine stretch beyond the edges in an infinite, hellish universe.

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