Zbigniew Karkowski & Atsuko Nojiri – Continuity – Asphodel
If any recording constitutes the sum total of an artist’s career to date, it is Continuity. Both a career overview and a glimpse into renown polish sound artist Zbigniew Karkowski’s promising future, the compositions on this hybrid release sample and re-interpret the entirety of the Tokyo resident’s rich catalogue of work. A master sound manipulator, Karkowski employs a variety of tools to process and rework original acoustic instrument recordings. The pieces presented on Continuity demonstrate Karkowski’s relentless attention to detail, and provide more than ample explanation for repeated invitations to perform at prestigious galleries, museums, and venues around the globe. The Continuity DVD contains visual interpretations of Karkowski’s compositions by Japanese video artist Atsuko Nojiri. Rather than simply functioning as graphic replications of the original musical works, all three of Nojiri’s pieces seamlessly wrap themselves around Karkowski’s sounds as though they were integral parts of their own larger multimedia compositions. In the process, Nojiri’s videos become independent of the original musical works that they purport to document. An argument for the indivisibility of sound and vision, or the emergence of a new aesthetic medium? Quite evidently, the answer is both. *The included CD contains over an hour of unreleased material by Karkowski:
CD:1. Mass-Flow-Rate – 26:10 2. Perceptor – 41:37
DVD:1. Float – 16:22 2. Tritonal Rapture – 10:53 3. Membrane – 14:18