Tetuzi Akiyama & Anla Courtis
Naranja Songs
USA PUBLIC EYESORE 127 CD (2014)
After wading chest deep in sound camps that were almost polar opposites, avantist nomads Tetuzi Akiyama and Anla Courtis have finally bumped into each other somewhere in the middle ground with the Naranja Songs c.d. Tetuzi has teetered on the brink of inaudibility with Günter Müller and the ultra-quiet, walking on eggshells onkyo scene and has upped the volume; his microscopic gesturing temporarily put on hold. While Anla has down-noised a smidgeon since his tenure with clatterists Reynols and collaborations with Daniel Menche and Okkyung Lee.
Surprisingly Naranja… has only just seen release action having been initially hatched in Buenos Aires back in 2008. Its four tracks of measured acoustic guitar improv can be split into two easily discernible halves. The methods of application, in essence, tell us that it’s a plucked versus catgut-bowing world that this duo inhabit. “Mind Mochileros” and “The Citrico Vibe” provide a halting and mildly dischordant landscape, with Tetuzi’s needling scribbles, tweaks and pings acting as a counterpoint to Anla’s blurred, propulsive frottage. The more agitated and forceful “Springs and Strings” and “Los Frets Nomades” both lean heavily on foreign objects and random bowmanship (resp.) with a light industrial ambience coming to the fore on the latter piece; conjuring up a choir of lathes, their rough tongues rasping in unison.
Aside from Derek Bailey, Roger Smith and a small handful of other worthies, the art of acoustic free guitar appears to be approaching a near dead end, probably because it’s a sound source that suggests a narrowing of possibilities, compared to the all singing, all dancing electric. Messrs Akiyama and Courtis wont berate you with a rolled up newspaper to the noggin to get you into their hollow-bodied mode of thinking. In an unassuming/understated way, they just politely suggest that this approach should be taken out of his mothballed locker and re-evaluated every so often and that’s fine by me.
And…I think there could be another contender for “The Golden Rotring Award of 2014”. Feast your eyes on Hana Taherasako’s stunning artwork concerning three days in the life of a decomposing apple; the final picture revealing a leering, grimacing skull.