yoshio machida & cal lyall: premeditation

In the early 2000s, Tokyo's SuperDeluxe was a meeting point for many experimental musicians, both international and Japanese. This duo sprung from a live collaboration at the venue in 2006, where Yoshio Machida was experimenting with processed steel pan and Cal Lyall was largely performing using a tabletop guitar setup with a range of electronics. Many subsequent encounters were heavily experimental, ranging from densely layered noise music to sound collage. Through the years, the collaboration shifted to a more tonal approach, with standard tunings and stronger compositional elements. Both musicians have a deep interest in traditional improvisational forms, so there was a natural evolution towards structural ideas -- based on minimal scalar patterns -- as the sound became more acoustic. The most recent instrumentation explores the unusual combination of steel pan, slit drums and banjo, while also delving deeper into the characteristics of the instruments themselves. Personnel: Yoshio Machida - steelpans, gamelan, metal slit drums; Cal Lyall - five-string banjo. Double-10"; gatefold sleeve; eight-page photo booklet.