merzbow: monoakuma

"I think the first time I heard Merzbow must have been 1994. I remember not really knowing what to make of it. It was effortlessly deep and aggressive, but also emotive and lyrical in the way the waves of sound would erupt and decay. It wasn't easy then to discover information about artists, but within a few months I had learned as much as I could. In the mid 2000s, I had the chance to meet Masami Akita, aka Merzbow and present him live when I was co-producing the What Is Music? Festival. It was a pretty special event; the first (sonic) meeting of Merzbow and Keiji Haino took place here in Brisbane. Merzbow's solo performance was as transformative an experience as hearing his music for the first time. MONOAkuma is a live recording made in Brisbane in 2012; this was the second time I had the pleasure to present him live in Australia. To me, this performance epitomizes the physiology of Merzbow's sound work. He creates in absolutes; sonically he generates a tidal wave of frequency that sweeps across the spectra with tireless frenzy. Merzbow's capacity to conjure a massive swirling mesh of analog and digital sources is without comparison; his work is one of intensity, a seething, psychedelic and utterly visceral noise-ocean. What MONOAkuma represents is a resolution of Merzbow's work across both analog and digital noise mediums. Here, he brings together his formidable pulsing analog noise and his more recent digital approach. On MONOAkuma, he resolves these modes of operation into an ontology of noise in the absolute. There is no question - this is about the body and the ears being overwhelmed. In those moments of being wholly consumed comes an incredible bodily sense of euphoria that is a truly unique and profound experience. MONOAkuma which epitomizes Merzbow's 40 years as the most important noise musician of our time, demonstrating the intense and complex audio world he's created. It's the perfect starting point from which to wade into the noise ocean that is Merzbow's vast output." --Lawrence English. All proceeds from MONOAkuma will be used to fund research and preservation attempts for the Tasmanian Devil; which in recent years has suffered greatly due to effects of a transmissible facial cancer.