Chee Shimizu + miku-mari
Reconstructions
ESP Institute (US) 2021
ESP030 (12”)
sleeve : NEW
media : NEW
A collaboration works by Chee Shimizu with miku-mari from the audio/visual party "sacrifice", held irregularly at Forestlimit in Hatagaya, Tokyo, has been released on analogue by ESP Institute, run by Lovefingers. Using the multi-recorded material from a session at Forestlimit in October of the same year as a rehearsal for the 2018 ambient festival <CAMP Off-Tone>, Shimizu reconstructed this work while thinking about the boundary between and beyond comfort, environment and noise. It is an experimental sound work. Please have a listen.
In the 2000s, Chee Shimizu, together with Dr. Nishimura (then house music buyer for Cisco Records), led Tokyo's untouchable DJ team Discossession. Balancing the unit were a young Scottish Jonny Nash (later of Sombrero Galaxy and Gaussian Curve fame, now Melody As Truth and ambient composer) and the late guitar virtuoso and tattoo artist, Zecky. Discossession has been a multi-talented force on the Tokyo underground scene, releasing two EPs on Kenji Takimi's Crue-L label and various mixes on his own, all of which have gained lasting cult status. Chee's mixes for Lovefingers, "Denshi-Meiso" (2006) and "Follow My Dream" (2007), as well as his legendary "listening sessions" at SHeLTeR, a HiFi lounge in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, were later known to his followers as record store called “Organic Music”. And “Obscure Sound", a record guide detailing his tastes, has since become something of a bible for his peers and the younger generation of record diggers.
At the launch of the ESP Institute label in 2009, two edits by Chee were included on Lovefingers' compilation album 'Concentration Vol 1'. The mythical original tracks, offered to Lovefingers as an aperitif for subsequent releases, were only included as demos on 'Golden Age' and 'Dekmantel 061' and have never been officially released. Since then Chee has not made anything new from the old ropes, and what has been offered is a collaboration with Tokyo guitarist miku-mari. The two frequently collaborate on Sacrifice, an experimental audio/visual event held irregularly at Forestlimit in Tokyo, and in 2018 they were asked to perform at Japan's only ambient festival Camp Off-Tone. Chee uses four CDJs to collage various percussion samples and field recordings, adding live windchimes and Andean chachas. miku-mari combined guitar-controlled synthesizers, various sound applications, the Sound Tube, a cylindrical sound device invented by Japanese ambient composer Hiroshi Yoshimura, and live elements such as Tibetan bells and pyramid crystals. The result is a combination of The performance was rehearsed for over two hours at ForestLimit prior to the festival, with all parts recorded as multi-tracks, and the edited version of these recordings is 'Reconstructions'.