In Tokyo (2001)*

Burkhard Stangl

In Tokyo. First concert – second take.

Much of what was told, was already told in perfect form. For the today’s artist remains nothing than to do what the artists seems to be imposed: to express again and again those topoi in new form, that cover the spiritual, mental and emotional status of humanity, to represent them as well as to make them visible. And to make clear, that the development of tools, devices, or technology in total (or productive strength, as Marx called it) shows only one part of the human continuation. One of the elements that mankind invented to represent itself as a whole – the artistic expression – is engraved on this CD.
The three musicians Taku Sugimoto, Burkhard Stangl and Christof Kurzmann develop on their CD “Live in Tokyo. First concert, second take” a fine sonic network of touching commitment, not without giving enough space for interpretation. They knit a language, whose semantics unfolds themselves speechless in music. The restraint melancholy which is resonant all the time and the disturbed gentleness, which is inherent in all of the sounds, remind of a thought of the Romanian-French writer E.M.Cioran: “The music, this system of seperations, leaves you thinking about a physic, whose starting point would not be the seperated atoms, but tears”.

notes on April 10th, 2001 / Off Site Gallery, Tokyo:

With a lot of time we place our desks and chairs into shape, we sit down, arrange our equipment, plug our cables together, check whether each of us has enough space, whether everything is in the right place.
Amplifiers are on, the computer started up, the microphones for the clarinet and acousticguitar are set, the guitars get tuned, the clarinet reed gets moistened, various implements for the dissection of the guitars are already in their correct place, everything for the recording is prepared, the record button flashes red – then we wait.
What will happen? Which music will we produce? We know that Tokyo is a loud city. But in addition, we also know that Tokyo can be one of the quietest cities.
Thoughts about Chris Marker’s Tokyo sequences in his movie “Sans Soleil” appear. We three musicians know each other, but we will play along for the first time. Without saying it, we are convinced, that we will add a musical-poetic reference to the quiet side of this metropole.

(translation by Gisburg)

Sugimoto/Stangl/Christof Kurzmann: In Tokyo. First concert – second take appeared as musica genera CD 002, Szczecin 2002