Illuha: Akari (12k, 2014)

August 30, 2014 at 1:53 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Illuha: Akari

This is Tokyo-based duo Illuha’s third album, all of which are on Taylor Deupree’s 12k label. The duo creates slowly drifting electro-acoustic minimalism, utilizing dozens of instruments, found sounds, and field recordings. The 5 pieces on here slowly unfold with layers of piano, fluttering backwards guitar plucks, controlled noise bursts, and measured bass notes holding things together in space. Things start out pretty sparse, especially on “Vertical Staves Of Line Drawings And Pointillism”, but around the middle of “The Relationship Of Gravity To The Persistence Of Sound” there starts to be a more expansive, encompassing sound. “Structures Based On The Plasticity Of Sphere Surface Tension” brings in nature sounds, but it’s hard to tell exactly what they are, it sounds like a combination of birds, water, rushing wind, and maybe others, along with more drifty Eno-ish ambience. “Requiem For Relative Hyperbolas Of Amplified And Decaying Waveforms” has similar rolling drone, but climaxes after 5 minutes with a wave of distorted noise which sweeps through and ramps up the intensity, taking things closer to Tim Hecker or Lawrence English than earlier moments on the album, before winding down to a close like an exhilarated sigh of relief.

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