SATORU WONO

Sonata for Sine Wave and White Noise

(SONORE, SON-20, CD 2003)

By Nooz, MUSIC CLUB (Italy, 2005) Bene, passiamo alle cose serie! Spieghiamo innanzitutto il titolo: sine wave scientificamente è un tono senza armonici, alla base di tutti i suoni, white noise invece è la somma di tutti i suoni (come la somma dei colori) ... cose molto affascinanti e senza dubbio piacevoli da approfondire nello studio dei suoni e dei rumori. Wono insegna design sonoro all’università di Tama (Tokio) ed è un affermato produttore pop, compositore e dj... vive insomma a stretto contatto con la musica, senza pregiudizi stilistici, e ora si butta in questo esperimento (ri)creativo ottimamente riuscito. Nuova musica sperimentale giapponese, basata sulla maniacale visione della struttura, che incastra un limitato numero d’elementi sonori. “Sonata” è composto di 7 parti in un crescendo di suoni microscopici che raggiungono l’apice nella quarta traccia, il primo movimento di sonata, l’incrocio tra sperimentale e pop in un incredibile reticolo sonoro; “un’ esperienza fisica”, dice lui, quasi ludica, aggiungo io, in una struttura intellettuale d’avanguardia. Sperimentale, ma al tempo stesso accessibile anche a chi non ha familiarità col genere, grazie all’impatto ritmico, capace di stimolare il nostro piacere irrazionale per la composizione, al di là della sua difficile fruibilità. Non antimusica, ma musica universale, quella di Satoru Womo. A prova di ciò vi racconto un’esperienza personale: durante l’ascolto di questo cd, il mio gatto (abituato ad ignorare tonnellate di dischi) è stato rapito emotivamente dalla musica ed ha espresso i brani in maniera diversa, inscenando un particolare balletto felino. Sembra incredibile, ma è la pura verità! La sensibilità felina è molto più elevata di quella di molti di noi ... Che questa sia musica per gatti? Smettete i panni da umano e cercate il gatto che è in voi!

By Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy (Germany, 2004) Ruins-Fan Franck Stofer, seit 1998 Sonore-Macher und Herausgeber des Standardwerks u¨ber Japanese Independent Music, ist im Januar 2003 seinem Faible fu¨rs Nipponeske folgend nach Tokyo umgesiedelt. "I just wanted to be closer to the artists I want to work with and better understand their work." Dazu passt, dass er gleich mit einer weiteren Entdeckung aus dem Fernen Osten aufwarten kann. Das umfangreiche OEvre des 1964 in Tokyo geborenen und als Assistant Professor an der dortigen Tama University ta¨tigen SATORU WONO umfasst eine Reihe von Sachbu¨chern und CDs, sowohl in Kollaboration mit etwa dem Maywa-Denki-Kollektiv oder mit Juicy Zone als auch solo. "Sweet Science" (1997), "Bikini Moon" (1998, beide Sony), "Sauvage" (1998), "Orgelpunkt" (2000, beide Kaeru Cafe) und "String Quartet" (2002, Steinhand) bestechen durch ihre Vielfalt, durch die sich jedoch ein roter Faden zieht. Ob Vinyl-Scratching, Harmonium-Cut-Ups oder 48 ein-minu¨tige Stringmotive, die zu einem an Rileys "In C" erinnernden Muster verwoben werden, immer sind es minimalistische Konzepte, die Wonos Klangwelt ein stringentes Profil geben. Bei Sonata For Sine Wave And White Noise (SON-20) verra¨t der Titel schon alles. Die Komposition operiert ausschliesslich mit dem simpelsten und dem komplexesten Extrem des Frequenzspektrums. Aber, trotz aller Pra¨zision der Durchfu¨hrung, anstatt experimenteller Strenge erwartet die Ho¨rer die vo¨llig heitere und swingende Easyness von Electro-Pop. Nach 'Overture' und 'Canon' erklingen mit 'Sonata', 'Scherzo', 'Adagio' und 'Divertimento' die vier Sa¨tze der Kernkomposition, gefolgt von der breit angelegten 'Variation in A'. Mechanische Repetitionen und einem Schaltplan folgende Variationen - a¨hnlich den Nadeldruckersymphonien von [The User] - tu¨pfeln und piepsen immer neue Webmuster und Grooves. In denke, man tut Wono nicht Unrecht, wenn man ihn als einen Exponenten jenes typisch japanischen A¨sthetizismus des Einfachen und Klaren betrachtet, der sublime Spiritualita¨t im Design des Allta¨glichen einzufangen versucht.

By Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes (Italy, 2003) The complete title is "Sonata for sine wave and white noise"; Wono is a composer, DJ and an Assistant Professor at Tama University in Tokyo. This is a light-hearted record in which any rhythm, melody and sonority is created by the above elements; I had erroneously expected something along the lines of Alvin Lucier but no - Satoru Wono is a man of simple choices and his general design is making vivid music through a few well organized ideas. "Sonata" needs an attentive listening to be fully enjoyed, because if you don't care too much about its formal structure it could get you in a wrong way - waves, bleeps and frequent techno pacing could easily be dismissed like a hundred records you find today. Only when you realize the importance of the single sound event, the extremely well-timed settings put in motion in a pretty energizing context, existing only to be right there, you'll be able to fully understand this release. So, yes: light-hearted but absolutely not without a brain.

By TJ Norris, Ingloomag.com (USA, 2003) Essentially, this is a four track longplayer, with the actual "Sonata" separated into four parts itself (Sonata, Scherzo, Adagio and Divertimento). Satoru Wono warms us up with an "Overture" that sounds at first like a grocery checkout cash machine, and suddenly its repetitiveness has a beat, a presence, a mechanized mind of its own. The "Sonata" sets pitch free and wide, frequencies so bright that you may find pleasure in their resonance with the many devices that surround us in hospitals, offices, airports and everywhere in between. This is like a disembodied pathway to the edge of the future. Like Pita and Carsten Nicolai, Wono uses sinewaves and other mechanics to speak his universal language. He doesn't treat his audience like dogs or seals, anticipating a higher sense of aural perception, rather he uses the entire spectrum of sound in a compartmentalized way, sort of like a series of finite vignettes. By using pacing and punctuation the sound is uniquely alien. Perhaps this is a wi-fi, online live recording from Pluto? One thing is for sure, this may encourage some to set their mobile phone not to chirp "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy". "Sonata for Sine Waves and White Noise" does for electronic music what Jeff Koons did for the visual arts, to subvert the audience's perception of the immediate exterior with a sense of street smart satire.

By Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly (The Netherlands, 2003) The former French, now Japanese based label Sonore keeps coming up with interesting Japanese artists that at least I never heard of. Satoru Wono for instance is a composer, producer, DJ and writer. As far as I know his albums are quite conceptual. Previously he did a CD on vinyl scratching or a conceptual string quartet one. The title of this new work is quite self-explanatory: he uses just sine waves and white noise. Unlike Elio Martusciello's CD in similar territory (see last week), Wono actually composes songs (or maybe I should say, pieces or compositions) with these two simple things. Sine waves have no harmonics and white noise eats all the frequencies, yet Wono actually knows how to built a nice composition out of it. Although it's not easy not to compare Wono with somebody like Ryoji Ikeda, Wono's output is not as conceptual as Ikeda's. Only in the final piece, 'Variation In A', some of Ikeda's austere use of sine waves can be traced back. But I believe it's Wono act to actually compose a nice piece of music. in 'Divertimento' (all pieces are named after classical terms of music) he tries to do a drum & bass piece, in 'Adagio' things are rather contemplative and so on. Wono tries out various styles of music, mostly techno related, in his various sine wave/white noise excursions. The endresult is a varied CD that finds its origins in a simple starting point, but that is executed with great care, humor and is ultimately just a damm good CD.

By Jason Ferguson, Orlando Weekly (USA, 2003) Patterns always emerge from a distance. Japanese electronicist Satoru Wono generates such patterns -- binary in his case -- and then hones in on them over the course of this "Sonata." And, as in any good classical composition, those patterns are both discrete and hypnotically enchanting. Like the title says, this composition was created with just two sounds, yet unlike many other post-concre´te composers, Wono's search for patterns and parallels means that this piece is rather intricately crafted. The result is sparse and surprisingly organic.

By Matt, No-sword Music (Australia, 2003) WONO Satoru earns points for originality before his music even hits the speakers. The cover art his new album presents to the world is friendly and cartoony without being puerile, miles from the "Hyperminimalist/Jumbled distressed collage" polarisation which has so many electronic-music cover artists in its grip. It features a muscular blue hole-faced fellow identified as the "Soundnaut" standing in the middle of the cover, arms crossed, as if to say "Yeah, I got a hole for a face. You gonna let that scare you off, punk?" And then there? the title, which makes the mundane seem pregnant with possibility: "Sonata for sine wave and white noise". Sine waves and white noise are practically the surf guitars and "Funky Drummer" breakbeats of experimental music, especially in Japan, but hitching these workhorses to a traditional classical form is rare. The excitement builds! What's more, the idea of a long-established classical structure also promises a breath of fresh air in a genre that is awash with introspective knob-twiddling sessions recorded live to PowerBook. But, of course, it isn't until the music hits the speakers that you can test the honesty of that promise. Wono opens the disc with "Overture", a sample of one ITO Aiko pressing buttons on her cellphone which Wono obligingly cuts up, shuffles, and rebuilds into an almost drum-and-bassy frenzy (the sample, not the cellphone itself). The results certainly speed the pulse, but for an overture, they don't foreshadow much of what follows, except conceptually: "reshuffle, layer and repeat" was the MO for at least half of the tracks here. After three minutes of this, "Overture" respectfully winds back to its initial raw sample (plus sniffling!) before giving way to track 2, "Canon". ("Canon", not entirely incidentally, is what originally propelled me from the listening station to the register.) Here Wono takes a simple idea -- long tones that swoop from left to right and follow each other in strict canon, at least initially -- and develops it into a sonic network unlike any I'd ever heard before, like the "Rocket 88" of an entirely new genre. Wow. Hard act to follow, that, but the next four tracks -- the four movements of the Sonata proper -- are not without charm of their own. The first movement, "Sonata", takes a rhythmic idea rather than a melodic one ("Beeeeeeeeeeeeep, bibipBIPbibeeeeeep" in the classical notation) and develops it through a seven-minute procession of interlocking booped-out rhythms. "Scherzo", the energetic second movement, quickly builds up a rubbery funk groove and sets about recombining it earlier generations of itself as low-tech trancey patterns snapping in and out of place overhead. "Adagio" is appropriately slow and meditative, a rhythm-free river of echoing hums and distant R2D2 whistles. It's the only traditionally "ambient" piece on the album, and doesn't seem to make much sense in there except as a somewhat circuitous way to maximise the shock when the final part of the sonata, "Divertimento", breaks in. "Divertimento" is a blast, hijacking your attention from second one with its irresistible "gym full of pneumatic robots working out" sound and ending the long-form piece on a distinct high note. Rounding out the disc is "Variation in A", a tour de force built around seventeen minutes of synthesised tuning-fork A. This is no laughing matter, kids: a third of the album's running time is wrapped around this relentless drone. It's not a pure enough tone to hurt, but "Variation" does outstay its welcome a little, especially once it moves past the "Canon"esque pattern-based simplicity of its opening half and into its more predictably beat-driven final stretch. Still, despite the slight downturn towards the end, Wono has achieved something truly remarkable with this album. There are enough ideas here to fuel an entire German "IDM" label for a year, and they are expressed with an orchestra of hypnotically simple yet unfailingly elegant sounds. Listening to this album feels as natural as breathing. Thank God I don't give number ratings, because I wouldn't even know where to begin. How do you rate the laws of physics?

By Guillaume Loiret, Jipango (France, 2003) Installe´ a` Tokyo depuis plus de 6 mois, le label Sonore profite de son expatriation (il est bordelais a` l'origine) pour de´fricher a` grands coups d'albums les nouvelles sce`nes musicales japonaises. Avec Satoru Wono, il en arrive a` un front pionnier de la musique expe´rimentale : l'avant-garde Onkyo, ou` la composition est aussi recherche sur le son, ses textures, ses possibilite´s. Dans Sonata, Satoru wono passe le son au karcher pour n'en garder que 2 formes : le 'sine wave' (ton le plus simple, non-harmonique) et le 'white noise' (son sourd, qui absorbe toutes les fre´quences). Et il en tire 7 titres. Alors force´ment au de´but, ca vous de´route un peu son auditeur, mais Sonata est un album a` re´e´couter, a` mu^rir, pour s'apercevoir finalement que le son de Wono tire justement sa profondeur de cette e´puration. Nappes sonores, collages de sons e´touffe´s et percants, d'ou` e´mergent des rythmes et des harmonies surprenantes : Sonata rappelle que la musique peut aussi donner a` re´fle´chir, et a` danser.

By Laurent Catala, Octopus/Mouvement (France, 2003) Coi¨ncidence, c1est avec un nouvel album du prospecteur nippon des microcosmes audios e´lectroniques Satoru Wono que le label Sonore ce´le`bre sa toute re´cente re´installation au pays du soleil levant. Incidence, c1est avec ce nouvel album que Satoru Wono vient s1approprier a` sa manie`re les territoires musicaux de´mate´rialise´s et minimaux chers a` un Ryoji Ikeda par exemple. Coi¨ncidence/incidence, c1est e´galement sur ce me^me registre connectif que Satoru Wono construit sa musique. L1homme appartient a` la communaute´ musicale japonaise oeuvrant sur les logiciels de de´frichage sonore Max/MSP (tout comme sa consoeur de label Yuko Nexus). Ces chercheurs de la fragmentation sonore se plaisent a` isoler les sons les plus microscopiques pour les re´utiliser dans des contextes musicaux diffe´rents. Une mise en situation sous contrainte qui se traduit dans cet album par la mise en perspective de ve´ritables constructions me´lodiques a` partir de deux sources antinomiques, un signal basique, vide d1harmonie et du bruit blanc, le son le plus plein, absorbant toutes les fre´quences. A partir de mate´riaux sonores cliniques, me´caniques, caracte´ristiques des deux premiers morceaux (Overture et Canon), Satoru Wono e´labore tre`s progressivement des strate´gies rythmiques, des combinaisons abstraites mais ne´anmoins fluides et insidieuses (Sonata). A l1e´chelle suivante, sa que^te structurelle commence a` prendre forme, de ve´ritables lignes musicales finissent par se chevaucher, et les e´bauches rythmiques se font presque dansantes (Scherzo), e´voquant parfois les mesures ale´atoires d1un breakbeat futuriste et efficace (Adagio). Une expe´rience intrigante, entre logique expe´rimentale et tentation pop.

By Guillaume Gwardeath, Haut Vol (France, 2003) Imaginez un Japonais, comme il se doit hyper actif et surbooke´. Imaginez le prof de musicologie a` l'universite´ mais aussi DJ dans trois ou quatre clubs techno de Tokyo, et embarque´ dans quantite´ de projets musicaux plus ou moins avant-garde ou expe´rimentaux. C'est bon : vous tenez Satoru Wono. Son album est une "sonate", et la composition est effectivement articule´e en mouvements : scherzo, adagio, divertimento et tutti frutti. Les instruments sont ici l'ordinateur et le studio, puisque Wono-san compose en triturant la matie`re brute telles que fre´quences et ondes. Oui, c'est conceptuel et pour aller vite disons que c'est de la musique qui fait "bip bip". Les premie`res minutes sont tre`s difficiles (disons qu'en comparaison, pianoter au hasard sur les touches alphanume´riques de son te´le´phone c'est faire du ZZ Top) mais un groove insidieux vient se mettre en place et, bingo, ca marche ! Des percussions virtuelles se dessinent, les rythmes se complexifient, la transe froide se re´chauffe degre´ apre`s degre´ et on finit hallucine´ par voir des grappes de 0 et de 1 danser avec une fre´ne´sie toute me´canique autour de soi. Et c'est encore l'agent secret international Franck Stofer du label Sonore qui nous a ramene´ cette curiosite´. Emmanuel Tellier de Te´le´rama l'avait appele´ cet e´te´ le "Tintin producteur", c'e´tait bien vu.

By Francois Couture, All-Music Guide (Canada, 2003) This is a fascinating work that takes us back to the early days of electronic music without sounding nostalgic or retro. Satoru Wono uses two extreme elements: sine waves (pure tones, no harmonics) and white noise (all frequencies, saturation). He shapes and combines them with a computer, which gives the music its contemporary feel. But it retains the excitement of early experiments, both academic and popular (with a nod to Wendy Carlos's famous Moog-ified classics). The "Overture" and "Canon" expose in two short pieces the range of available possibilities, from sickening sine wave drones all the way to driving techno. But the main course in the "Sonata", in four very different movements. Here, Wono's structural talent comes in play. The first movement, "Sonata," is an abstract construction of tones reminiscent of Herbert Bru¨n"s early computer music (but warmer). The "Scherzo" is beat-driven, something like Autechre playing with oscillators. The computer1s role becomes more apparent as Wono shapes tones into interlocking beats and patterns. The "Adagio" takes the form of a delicate drone of white noise and sine waves. The "Divertimento" reminds us that Wono also works as a Techno DJ: it is a playful skeletal techno track, fast paced and relentless. The album is completed by the 18-minute "Variation in A," a slow-escalating composition on a single note. Wono gradually stacks parts and patterns to put together a techno symphony of monophonic electronica -- nice, but not as impressive as the "Sonata." This album provides a surprisingly gentle listen wrapped in a enticing artistic concept.

By Peter Wullen, Urban Mag (Belgium, 2003) De fransman Franck Stofer verhuisde een goed half jaar geleden met zijn label Sonore naar Japan. Stofer had zich met zijn platenhuis al een tijd gespecialiseerd in nieuwe, Japanse muziek en bracht in het verleden werk uit van de in Japan residerende componist Carl Stone en van het veelgeprezen Japanse tapeproject Nexus6. De verhuis naar het land van de rijzende zon verliep niet zonder slag of stoot want de release van nieuw werk liet wat vertraging op. De Japanner Satoru Wono mag de spits afbijten. Hij is zo'n beetje de David Toop van het Verre Oosten. Hij schrijft theoretische boeken over muziek. Hij doceert over muziek aan de universiteit van Tokyo. En hij maakt zelf ook muziekcomposities… Maar daar houdt de vergelijking op. Toop staat immers voor een grotendeels onthaast en organisch gecree¨erd geluid. Het geluid van Wono is een stuk jachtiger en wordt vrijwel uitsluitend voortgebracht door middel van de modernste computerprogramma's. De titels van de tracks van zijn nieuwe album Sonata for Sine Wave and Computer suggereren muziekgenres uit de klassieke muziek. Voor zover wij het met onze beperkte kennis konden uitmaken, hebben deze nummers helemaal niks te maken met de wondere wereld van scherzo's, adagio's of divertimento's. Wel hoorden we in het geluidsbeeld van Wono de tot restgeluiden gecomprimeerde sound van de wereldstad Tokyo. Alsof je je op de hoogste verdieping van een appartementsblok in het Shinjuku-district bevindt, waar geluiden met mondjesmaat doordringen, ware het niet dat Wono deze sound herleidt en herwerkt tot een geheel eigen structuur. Het universum van Sonata for Sine Wave and White Noise heeft daardoor eigenaardig genoeg veel meer gemeen met Sarah Peebles' hyperrealistische en onopgesmukte Walking Through Tokyo At The Turn Of The Century (op Post-Concre`te, pw) dan je op het eerste zicht zou vermoeden. Maar hier wordt het oorverdovende geluid van straatvensters, knetterende neonreclames, irritante pachinko-galerijen, krijsende metrostellen en snerpende treinen door de deeltjesversneller van de computer gejaagd en herleid tot enkele softwaretonen en een bizar mengsel van white noise en hoge en lage sinusfrequenties. 'Sonata for Sine Wave and White Noise' is het geluid dat nazindert in je hersenen wanneer je al lang vertrokken bent uit de wereldstad. Sonata begint vrij statisch met de zwiepende en naar alle kanten uitschietende snerpende tonen van de minimale tracks 'Overture' en 'Canon'. Op 'Sonata' en 'Scherzo' krijgen de tonen iets frivools en uitbundigs en komt Wono aardig in de buurt van de dansbare minimal techno van zijn landgenoot Ryoji Ikeda. Het 17 minuten durende 'Variation in A' spant hier de kroon en is het absolute meesterstuk van het album. Wono bouwt het nummer stelselmatig op tot een climax van naar alle kanten opspattende moleculaire en atomaire maar vooral dansante structuren. Geen wereldplaat en met 'klassiek' heeft dit hoegenaamd niks te maken maar toch een leuk experiment!

By Susanna Bolle,Weekly Dig (USA 2003) Ah, the humble sine wave; the beauty of pure, unalloyed sound, shorn of all ornament or harmonics. It's come a long way, indeed, to become the sine qua non of so much recent electronic experimentation from the ultra-abstracted funk of Berlin's Carsten Nicolai to the "empty" sampler work of that onkyo darling, Sachiko M. On this, his latest release, the prolific Japanese producer, composer and sound artist Satoru Wono turns his attention to the sine wave and adds a healthy dose of another classic building block: white noise. I must admit that, despite his large back catalogue of everything from pop electronics to string quartets, I'm relatively unfamiliar with Wono's work, save a recent remix of fellow Sonore artist Yuko Nexus6. But, based on this release, my interest is definitely piqued. Despite the formal title of both the disc and the tracks therein ("Overture," "Canon," etc.), these are no dry, academic exercises - a strong pop sensibility and structure underpins each of the four pieces here. The fourth movement of the sonata itself is pure sine wave funk. And, while a track like "Variation in A" might begin in a relatively abstract manner, it quickly develops an undeniable groove. Very enjoyable.

By Paul Bijlsma, Phosphor Magazine (Germany, 2003) The Tokyo-based composer/writer Satoru Wono released quite some material since he co-operated with Maywa Denki during the years 1996-1998. His first album on Sonore features only two sounds: sine wave and white noise, being respectively the simplest tone without harmony and the fullest sound that absorbs all frequencies. This Assistant Professor at the Tama University recycles his sound materials in such a way that precise playful melodies occur or abstract acoustic soundsculptures find their way to the listener. Satoru Wono's treatment of microscopic sounds reminds of a laboratory, creating a precise rhythmic impact or futuristic avant-garde soundscapes. Satoru Wono delivers a rich diversity of structured electronic compositions, in which cold tones have been embedded in warm atmospheres. Intelligent experiments reminding of Frank Bretschneiders abstract sound structures go along with more pop oriented songs without ever reaching a certain level of commercialism. Sonata is a rhythmic experience within an intellectual framework with a diversity that makes the listener curious for the next release by this Japanese composer/producer.

By Marc "the Memory Man" Urselli-Scha¨rer, ChainDLK (USA, 2003) Franck Stofer's now Tokyo-based label's 20th release is this interesting experimental avantgarde record by eclectic and prolific pop artist, composer, producer, DJ, writer, book-author, Max/MSP Commu community member, critic and of course noise-music maker Satoru Wono. His obsession with structure and his new concept album is made from only two sources: sine wave (which is one clean tone/frequency with no harmonics) and white noise (which is basically every frequency playing together). It's tempting to file it under glitch-electronics, but considering where the sounds are originating from this is really a much more pure experience and exercise of form, a symphonic sonata for the body and the mind. Check out some intellectual noise experimentation!