How would the devil play the flute? For the Japanese bamboo flute virtuoso Hōzan Yamamoto, who wrote the soundtrack to Kôsei Saitô’s 1979 film »Akuma Ga Kitarite Fue Wo Fuku« (The Devil’s Flute) together with keyboardist Yu Imai, it was clear that this »bringer of light« – or whatever else one might call the great seducer – is very inventive as a musician. The gentle sounds of Hōzan Yamamoto’s earlier albums such as »Beautiful Bamboo Flute« are found on this record expanded by various approaches. The sonic arsenal of the corporeal ranges from almost martially straightforward, at the same time otherworldly fusion funk to enraptured dissonant buzzing surfaces. As a rule, these excursions into the borderlands of jazz, pop, avant-garde and Japanese traditional music are not frightening, but rather arouse curiosity to explore unknown territories. In this way, film music takes up one of the main strategies of the devil himself: After all, its »offers« often have to do with the promise of something new. In this case, however, one does not risk having to sell one’s own soul by entering foreign territory (with one’s ears). Although: Do we know?
Tim Hecker
Shards
Kranky