The third solo release by a prominent pillar of Japanese ambient music, after 11 years of collaborations.
Since 2008, "438Hz As It Is, As You Are" is "only" the third solo release from Tomoyoshi Date. The last one dates from 2011. Less is more.
In parallel, from 2013 to 2021, he has recorded some releases in collaborations with Toshimaru Nakamura, Ken Ikeda, Stijn Hüwels, Asuna and Federico Durand.
This record was recorded on Diapason's upright piano made in the 1950s at the house of his maternal grandmother's sister (Mikiko Yamada: a performer who formed a Japanese music group of contemporary Japanese music in 1964 and made Biwa the first five-line score. She also had a samisen, so I called her "Aunt Pen Pen". Her husband was a shakuhachi player, so she was "Uncle Boo Boo"). The piano has moved and tuned many times, and now it has arrived at my living room. It was a pre-mass production piano with a thick board and good sound, but I couldn't tune it without replacing the screws and the weakened base. After consulting with the tuner, I decided to tune the whole tune to the sound of the strings wound around the loosest and most inseparable screws. "As it is"
When I tuned in the summer, I tried to tune at 442kHz, but I changed the tune in the winter to 438kHz. From now on, the pitch of this piano will decrease year by year as the material ages. I will play the decaying piano and continue to record music that can only be done at that time.
When you drop a needle on a record, a sound is produced on the spot, and the sound constantly changes depending on the air, temperature, and humidity around the needle. The sound also affects all of the listener's life, affecting the frequency of the person's body and mind. The effect of the sound once generated will last forever.
This work was created with the intention of having the listener adjust the pitch at the desired speed according to the mood and frequency of the listener at that time. With a little faster 45 turns, you can listen to this dilapidated piano at 440kHz or 442kHz. You can slow it down, or adjust the number of rotations as you like, whether it is 33 rotations early or late. I really like the stretched sound of the recorded piano. When you want to relax, use slow music to adjust the pitch of the space around you, the creatures, and your own body and mind. "As You Are".
Tomoyoshi Date
This project has been thought, created and recorded to be played in 33 RPM and 45 RPM.
Limited edition of 300 hand numbered copies.
Born and raised in San Paulo, Brazil until the age of three, Tomoyoshi Date resides in Tokyo, Japan. He creates acoustic and organic sounds with a little touch of digital processing, a very original minimal music like a combination of the warmness of Brazil and the delicateness of Japan. Drawing from the influences of rock, jazz and post-rock music, he started to create electronic music in 1998. Soon, his tracks were featured on the Fat Cat and
Mille Plateaux websites and radio stations in the US. He formed the group Opitope in 2003 with
Chihei Hatakeyama (Kranky,
Room40, Spekk), ILLUHA with Corey Fuller (with releases on Spekk and 12K), and Melodía with Federico Durand (Own Records, Home Normal).
In 2008, Date released his first solo album
Human Being from Flyrec, followed by his second solo album
Otoha on Own Records in 2011. Date is a physician who practices an integrated approach of Eastern and Western Medicines. Currently, Date is researching tumor immunity, and as a lifework hopes to research the relationships between music, eastern medicine and the brain.
