Kiyoharu Kuwayama / Urabe Masayoshi - From The Abolition Port (Intransitive Recordings, 2010)

A gripping, devastatingly patient, and emotionally raw improvisation for cello, saxophone, and metal chains recorded live at Kuwayama Kiyoharu‘s cavernous warehouse space in Nagoya, Japan in March 2002. Rather than an event-driven, linear performance, From the Abolition Port is a single structure, with the ghostly presence of the space acting as either a third performer, or perhaps as the composer. The music is violent in its sparseness; sharp instrumental outbursts push with great effort against a backdrop of blackness as dense and heavy as the sun. From the Abolition Port suggests a private ritual, or a seance… or perhaps absurd theater, with unseen players circumnavigating a pitch-dark industrial space, sending out desperate distress signals and futilely listening for a response.

Alto sax player Masayoshi Urabe is known for his solo performances, but has worked alongside fellow psych/noise travellers Kosoukuya, Junko, Hiroshi Hasegawa (Astro, CCCC), Kan Mikami, and Chie Mukai. Kiyoharu Kuwayama played cello in the duo Kuwayama-Kijima, but his primary project is the Catastrophe Point series, which he records under the name Lethe.

(note: this album was recorded on October 2, 2003, not October 3, 2002 as is printed in the insert)
Intransitive Recordings

you can also read an interview from Kiyoharu Kuwayama with Seth Nehil in Umbrella Action

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petit rappel / little reminder: a new Lethe on Invisible Birds

Je profite de la sortie du nouveau Vital Weekly pour rappeler à tout le monde que le nouveau double CD de Lethe est toujours disponible sur Invisible Birds, voici ce qu'en dit Frans De Waard / I take out the new Vital Weekly issue to remind everyone that the new double CD by Lethe is still available on Invisible Birds, here is what Frans De Waard says

Kuwayama Kiyoharu is the man behind Lethe. Under his own name he works within the field of improvised music, playing cello and electronics, in a duo called Kuwayama-Kijima and as Lethe he creates music that deals with large spaces with lots of natural reverberation, such as abandoned warehouses, shinto temples, mausoleums and factories. These works are called 'Catastrophe Point' and on this double CD we find two of them. One (from 2004) was recorded at Arsenic in Lausanne, Switzerland and the other at an ex-power station in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2006. Inside such spaces, Kuwayama goes about to record the empty space, picking up large reverberations with the tiniest of sound information. Found metal is being scraped, hit and dragged across the floor. Now that may seem like a 'heavy' thing, but if you listen to these pieces, there is a great sense of 'emptiness' in these recordings. It stays far away, like being removed far away from the microphone(s). I suspect he picks up his
'action' with various microphones and then mixes these together when it comes to releasing such works. Its hard to say (and no doubt not really necessary) what this is, this music of Lethe. Ambient? Perhaps, but not as we commonly know it. Experimental? Surely. Action music, performance art? No doubt that's true as well. You could wonder why two discs. There are some interesting differences between both works. The Scotland work is very sparse: an empty space, a few sounds (in all three tracks). The Switzerland piece has some sort of drone/alarm/buzz going on, with lots of more activity. Towards the end of the first part, the space around is removed and we have a very clear picture of all sorts of acoustic activity going on. In the second part a 'clear' piano pops up. Maybe we have to keep the time frame in mind: in 2004 Lethe was perhaps more focussed on 'music' in a big space, whereas in 2006 he was more interested in the space itself. I am not entirely sure. Of the two 'Catastrophe
#7' would count as the more musical one, whereas 'Catastrophe #8' would count as a piece of sound art. For either drone lovers, improvised music fans and art goers, there is something for everyone in this quite unique sound world of Lethe.
Vital Weekly

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The new Lethe on Invisible Birds is ready for shipping

disc one - catastrophe point #7 - 50.50
sound materials recorded at arsenic: lausanne, switzerland
2004.10.21 - 11.28

disc two - catastrophe point #8 - 58.00
sound materials recorded at ex power station : edinburgh, scotland
2006.10.23 - 10.28

all compositions by lethe
photos by kuwayama kiyoharu
sleeve design by invisible birds & kuwayama kiyoharu
letterpress printing by ben owen at middle press, brooklyn
liner notes by giancarlo toniutti


for more details & buy your copy visit Invisible Birds

and visit Lethe (here or here) !

Jonathan Coleclough & Lethe - Long Heat (Second Part) (ICR, 2005)

1 Long Heat (Second Part) (38:14)

Comes with the 250 first copies of Long Heat....

sold out visit Jonathan Coleclough, Lethe & ICR

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