YUKO NEXUS6

Nexus6 Song Book (SONORE, SON-23, CD 2005)

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By Christian Eder, NOISY NEIGHBOURS (Germany, 2006) Eine sehr strange CD kommt von Yuko Nesus6. Der Sound auf ?Nexus Song Book“ (Sonore) ist vielleicht noch mit minimalistischer experimenteller Elektronik zu umschreiben. Hier werden ein Lied u¨ber eine Katze namens ?Shima“, ein Kindergartenreim, das Traditional ?He´s a jolly good fellow“ oder aber auch Musik des polnischen Komponisten und Pianisten Chopin vo¨llig zerlegt und wieder neu angeordnet, Hintergrundgera¨usche hinzugefu¨gt. Manchmal klingt es wirklich so, als ob man auf Pause gedru¨ckt, vorgespult und dann wieder eingeschaltet ha¨tte. Ein Album zu dem ich einfach u¨berhaupt keinen Zugang finde.

By Alan Harrison, GROOVES MAGAZINE (UK, 2006) Equally cerebral (though nowhere near as visceral), Yuko Nexus6's "Songbook" is an essay in minimalist, performance-oriented sound art. Opening with a digitally serrated acapella rendition of "The Wind Of Mt. Rokko" (the theme song of Kinshai's major league baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers), Nexus6's revels in fusing the sublime with the aloof, the lofty and the downright goofy... as evidenced on the screwy, somewhat eerily childlike piano-distortion of Chopin's "La Chanson De L'Adieu". There's also the equally random "Mura No Kajiya", wherein a chopped-up choir of children's voices comes to form a repetitious, Reich-like sonic mantra. There's a certain intellectual studiousness at work here, Nexus6's ideas often more conceptually-focused than musical (there are maybe 15 seconds of an old-skool jungle beat on "Nano", over which Nexus6 repeatedly sings "Shima" -- the name of her cat), and yet, as experiments in impenetrable sound-art studiousness go, it's a strangely charming adventure (best of all on the rhythmically crescendoic "Live"). Casually redolent of the sine-wave fiddlage of Sonore labelmate Satoru Wono, or the far-out audio sketchwork of Matmos at their weirdest, "Songbook" is a primarily vocal document and a neat entry-point into the headspace of one of Japan's most queerly fascinating sound-artists.

By Ive Stevenheydens, (Netherlands, 2006) Het muzikale werk van Yuko Nexus Kitamura, als artiest door het leven gaand onder het pseudoniem Yuko Nexus6, zweeft tussen pop en elektronische probeersels met een hoge do-it-yourself factor. Deeltijds docerend aan de universiteit van Nagoya, spendeert de Japanse haar overige tijd volledig aan haar muziek. Goed vijftien jaar geleden kostte die ‘hobby’ haar job: wanneer haar werkgever er achter kwam dat ze tijdens haar uren zich amuseerde met elektronische muziekprogrammaatjes uit te proberen, werd ze prompt de laan uitgestuurd. Vandaag blijft ze haar computer, stem en instrumentarium (het overgrote deel bestaat uit speelgoed) met een fenomenaal grote gepassioneerdheid verkennen: haar humorvolle en vleugellichte werkjes komen recht uit haar hart op plaat terecht. Het verse ‘Nexus6 Song Book’, haar vijfde officie¨le langspeler, is daar wellicht het sterkste voorbeeld van. In de veertien tracks plaatst ze folkinvloeden uit de Japanse, Engelse en Duitse cultuur naast traditionele liederen, ‘standards’ uit jazz en pop en zelfgebrouwde nummertjes. Ook die laatste zijn hartverwarmend doch ongebruikelijk en zelfs een tikje vreemd. In het erg korte ‘Nano’ roept ze bijvoorbeeld meermaals haar kat waarop een wegebbend drum ‘n’ bassfragment volgt. Enig ironisch japonisme is Nexus6 ook niet vreemd: overbekende liedjes als ‘He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ zingt ze opzettelijk met een sterk accent dat bovendien extra verwrongen werd door elektronische manipulatie. Tot slot haalde Nexus6 voor enkele tracks inspiratie uit Japanse kinderlieden die ze terug vond in oude schoolboeken. Zo getuigt ‘Tetsudo Shoka’ over het noeste werk van de arbeiders die rond 1900 de spoorwegen rond Tokio bouwden of verhaalt ‘Mura No Kajiya’ over het verdwijnen van de traditionele dorpssmid in de jaren 1920. Die nostalgie maakt ‘Nexus6 Song Book’ er alleen maar warmer op.

By Nicola Catalano, RUMORE MAGAZINE (Italy, 2005) E` una di quelle che in Giappone chiamano banpaku-kid, figlia della generazione cresciuta con l'Esposizione Universale di Osaka del 1970. E Nexus6 Song Book e` addirittura il suo quinto album, oggetto curioso e strampalato come pochi. Gia` perche´ la nostra bambolina dagli occhi a mandorla ha l'abitudine di strapazzare - tramite sofisticati ritrovati hi-tech o tecniche poverissime - pezzi intramontabili, musiche tradizionali e soprattutto la propria voce avvezza a canto jazz e melopea popolare. Nella sua ruvida fiera delle amenita` appaiono e scompaiono classici martoriati, inni del ministero dell'educazione, citazioni colte, ninna nanne e canzoncine sul sushi fermentato (!), trasformati in spassosi puzzle a meta` tra poesia sonora e plagiarismo crudo.

By Alfio Castorina, KATHODIK (Italy, 2005) E` bene dirlo subito: bisogna avvicinarsi a questo disco con estrema cautela. Il rischio e` quello di uscirne leggermente frastornati, magari ritrovarsi con gli attributi ruotati di 180 gradi. La cosa bella e` che una volta importato l'album sull'iPod (ah, cosa bisogna fare per trovare il tempo da dedicare alla musica di questi tempi) mi viene classificato sotto la voce “easy listening”, anche se nel mondo distorto di Yuko Nexus6 la definizione ha perfettamente senso. Tragicomico l'aneddoto relativo all'ingresso nel mondo musicale di Yuko, tra l'altro assistente universitaria e beneficiaria di una menzione d'onore al prestigioso Pris Ars Electronica, avvenuto grazie agli esperimenti condotti su un Macintosh presente sul posto di lavoro. Esperimenti che le hanno valso il licenziamento. L'album propone una serie di canzoncine stralunate e sfilacciate che mescolano sacro e profano: traditionals giapponesi, Chopin, folk, no sense, jazz, nursery rhymes. A meta` tra spoken word e sound art, la voce si aggira in quasi completa solitudine, manipolata e distorta attraverso quella che definirei tecnologia domestica; del tipo triste Domenica pomeriggio passata utilizzando a random qualche software di audio processing. Il canto skippa, si arresta, va in loop, echeggia se stesso, giocherella con qualche sample, inciampa su un'interferenza di passaggio e via dicendo, in una serie di effetti naif e lo-fi. Il risultato purtroppo convince poco, troppa l'enfasi posta sulla ricerca del bizzarro, su una concettualita` troppo esasperata, anche a costo di infastidire e a completo discapito di qualsiasi forma di musicalita` propriamente intesa. "Witty minimalist electronic music, filled with suspense, love and catastrophe", affermano le note promozionali. Definizione altamente suggestiva, sicuramente piu` della musica, che alla fine suona come un mix tra una versione atomizzata di Agf e mia sorella dieci anni fa che canta davanti allo specchio da bagno con tanto di spazzola per capelli a mo' di microfono. Tutto sbagliato allora? In realta` qualcosina si salva, nello specifico la bella performance Live che percorre una strada disseminata di glitches simili a cocci di vetro, screziata da feedback e chitarra fuzz; l'atmosfera da cabaret di Ringo No Ki No Shita De, con la voce a sfiorare l'isteria nella parte centrale e il canto fantasmatico su intrusioni ambientali di Wenn Ich Mir Was Wu¨nschen Du¨rfte. Totalmente folle il brevissimo frammento drum'n'bass di Nano. Giusto menzionare il bellissimo artwork del cd, con Yuko in versione miniaturizzata a spasso su un tavolo. Dunque onore al merito sia a Yuko che alla Sonore per avere il coraggio di proporre un'opera cosi` ostica e fuori da ogni schema, siano sempre benedetti i diversi, ma onestamente non e` facile essere disposti a sopportare tanto.

By Roberto Michieletto, MUSIC CLUB (Italy, 2005) Se qualcuno, nell’ambito della cosiddetta “Incredibly Strange Music” pensava di aver gia` udito tutto, allora mi sa che dovra` prontamente ricredersi e per farlo gli sara` sufficiente prestare orecchio e anche una buona dose di pazienza (lasciatemelo dire) alla nuova uscita di Yuko Nexus6. La giornalista, docente universitaria part-time, menzionata con merito al Prix Ars Electronica e creatrice di suoni (suonati e/o cantati) giunge qui alla quinta pubblicazione estesa, che, come la precedente, viene pubblicata da Sonore (www.sonore.com). Il punto di partenza e` la voce; e in effetti si tratta di un disco assai prossimo a una sorta di “spoken word cantato” (dove re-interpreta brani jazz, folk e tradizionali) altamente caratterizzato in senso avanguardista e “art concettuale” e dove il tutto viene modificato, alterato e processato con l’utilizzo di software opportuni oppure con tecnologie retro`, ma assolutamente adatte per i fini che si prefigge di raggiungere. Siamo dalle parti di una sorta di lo fi stralunato e tecnologicamente avanzato (pur se potrebbe sembrare un paradosso), con un approccio che ha molto piu` a che fare con la scuola industriale primordiale che non con altre forme espressive contemporanee. Il grosso problema, per l’ascoltatore, e` che si tratta di un lavoro in cui alla voce (pur con le varianti che in essa vogliamo individuare, grazie e soprattutto all’abilita` di Yuko Nexus6) spetta il 99% della scena e per questo credo che possa risultare, a molti, indigesto, anche perche´ spesso i pezzi paiono concepiti con l’obiettivo di spiazzare piu` che per cercare di costruire (qualcosa, fosse anche terribilmente fastidioso) e si sa che, un tale modo di operare, spesso porta esclusivamente all’onanismo.

By Clive Bell, WIRE (UK, 2005) Yuko Nexus6 is another distinctive Japanese female musician to add to a list that includes singers Haco, Phew and Ami Yoshida, queen of the sinewave Sachiko M and shamisen player Yumiko Tanaka. Together with Haco, she is active in the Osaka "sound spotters club" called View Masters, and her interest in performance art is reflected in the wit, ingenuity and perversity of her current album. 2002's Journal De Tokyo won an Ars Electronica award, and the new Nexus6 Song Book applies her minimalist electronic approach to her own voice and a host of songs, employing the highest and the lowest of technology. Yuko's trademark is to aim for the sublime and the ridiculous all at once. This is well illustrated by her one minute version of "He's A Jolly Good Fellow". She seems to have sung the song backwards and then reversed it digitally: we hear both versions. This was a trick famously used by David Lynch in Twin Peaks, and many of Yuko's 14 pieces resemble anxious musical dreams, in which normal life is distorted. Except there's nothing hazy here; her singing may be informal, even casual, but the music is crisp, clean and unhinged. An old Japanese children's song about the village blacksmith is chopped and looped into a cartoon choir - then follows a live version accompanied by frenzied playing of toys by Tomomi Adachi, to the delight of a Tokyo audience. Hoagy Carmichael's "Lazy Bones" is full of holes. At first we hear is Yuko's breath between lines, then gradually the rest of the song arrives from a distance. "Railroad Song" is sucked into a quicksand of Ambient distortion, a childlike tribute to Alvin Lucier. Most tracks are concise explorations of an idea, but "Live" is a powerful, 11 minute chunk of a show at Super Deluxe in Tokyo. While never losing the personal quality that stems from working just with her own voice, Yuko generates a stumbling rhythm and then fires off fierce outbursts of punked out feedback. Song Book is a one-off tour de force, showing no shortage of ideas or attitude.

By Ugo Torresi, NOOZ (Italy, 2005) Il mese scorso ho idolatrato i satanicpornocultshop, questo mese parliamo invece di una nuova release della nipponica Sonore. Tutto inizio` quando quindici anni fa Yuko installo` sul mac del posto di lavoro un software per fare musica. Il semplice divertimento diventa quasi un lavoro e come Satoru Wono si trova ad avere a che fare con l’Universita` di arte, scienza e musica sperimentale di Nagoya. Ventitreesima uscita della sonore e quinto album solista marchiato Nexus6. Cut up minimalisti ed arte sonica incentrati sulle sperimentazioni attorno alla sua voce. Realizza una sperimentazione accuratissima verso i limiti tra la meditazione e l’ironia elettrica, manipolando il suo collage sonoro come preferisce e creando una mistura difficilmente decifrabile… colpa anche del giapponese magari (c’e` da dire che in alcuni brani s’insinuano anche il tedesco e l’inglese, ma questo non sminuisce l’essenza criptica dell’opera). Avrete capito che questo e` un disco d’avanguardia tosta, non per tutti ovviamente. Questi dischi andrebbero scoperti: se amarli o odiarli non si puo` dire a priori, sono complicati, ermetici e nascondono grandi meraviglie… insieme a notevoli frustrazioni magari… Questo e` “il vostro” disco? Io non lo so ne’ lo posso sapere e, probabilmente, nemmeno voi. L’unica maniera per scoprirlo e` avvicinarsi al genere e pescare qua e la`, ne uscirete comunque arricchiti.

By Eric Serva, FRANCE MUSIC (France, 2005) Le label de Franck Stofer (un bordelais expatrie au Japon) est en France insuffisament mis sous les feux de la rampe. Song Book est, après Journal de Tokyo, le deuxieme album de Yuko Nexus6 pour Sonore. Sa facon naive et pertinente d'assembler les mots et les sons, son judicieux melange de spoken word, de culture japonaise et occidentale temoignent d'une volonte de s'echapper avec simplicite des pieges a creativite que sont trop souvent les outils de creation sonores. Song Book, comme Journal de Tokyo, est une oeuvre touchante, inventive, lucide et essentielle dans cette serie de nouveaux compositeurs japonais.

By Marie Lechner, LIBERATION (France, 2005) L'affu^te´ label Sonore, spe´cialiste des musiques japonaises inventives (...) Avec l'artiste sonore japonaise Yuko Nexus6, qui vient de sortir le minimal Nexus6 Song Book, un album vocal, fragile et ludique, ou` elle chantonne des standards japonais, des airs jazzy ou folk, en anglais ou en allemand, qu'elle traficote en les passant dans ses filtres de´structurant, pulve´risant les mots, les hachant, les retournant, les re´duisant en onomatope´es, les e´crasant sous une brusque de´ferlante noise.

By Karsten Zimalla, WESTZEIT (Germany, 2005) Irgendwo zwischen Osaka und Nagoya liegt Hikone und dort lebt eine Frau namens Yuko Nexus6. Sie wird als "banpaku-kid" beschrieben, als (geistiges) Kind der Weltausstellung in Osaka 1970 und ist als Stimm- und Klangku¨nstlerin etabliert (schlag nach bei Toop!). Das "Songbook" ist ihr 5. Album und genau das, was der Titel suggeriert: ein Liederbuch. Da werden Evergreens wie "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" oder "Wenn ich mir was wu¨nschen du¨rfte" genauso seziert wie eigene soundpoetry. Das Ergebnis ist den Arbeiten von AGF nicht una¨hnlich - kunstvoll zerhackte und ebenso gekonnt neu montierte Sprach- oder Gesangsschnipsel zu hochwertiger elektroakustischer Kunst. Grossartig.

By Rigo Dittman, BAD ALCHEMY (Germany, 2005) YUKO NEXUS6 gilt als ein ?banpaku-kid‘, als Teil der Generation, die vom futuristischen Optimismus der Weltausstellung 1970 in Osaka infiziert wurde. Diese hohen Erwartungen an die Utopie des technisch machbaren Zauberstab-Fortschritts sind auch in Japan la¨ngst perdue. Bei Yuko Nexus6 sind sie einem eher nu¨chternen, privaten und minimalistisch-intimen Umgang mit den ?Wundern‘ der Computertechnik gewichen. Die in Hikone, einem zwischen Osaka und Nagoya gelegenen Ort, aktive Ku¨nstlerin la¨sst nun ihrem Journal de Tokyo, fu¨r das sie beim Prix Ars Electronica 2003 das Gu¨tegesiegel erhielt, ihr Nexus6 Song Book (SON-23) folgen. Darauf pra¨sentiert sie mit ungelernter, allerdings elektronisch oft vo¨llig zerlegter Singstimme naive, vo¨llig abgespeckte, allenfalls ganz dezent mit Piano oder Violine unterfu¨tterte Lieder: die Hymne des Baseballteams Hanshin Tigers, ?Lazy Bones‘ von Mercer & Carmichael, das vom Erziehungsministerium lancierte ?Mura No Kajiya‘, das Wiegenlied ?Azuki Tatta‘, das abgedroschene Geburtstagssta¨ndchen ?He‘s a Jolly Good Fellow‘, ?Tetsudoh Shoka‘, eine musikalische Eisenbahnfahrt, mit denen Schulkinder japanische Heimatkunde lernen, Arlens ?Somewhere Over the Rainbow‘ in japanischer Version, ?Nano‘, ein selbstgestricktes Drummachine-Jingle fu¨r ihre Katze, den aktuellen Popsong ?Funa-zushi No Uta‘, der sich um eine Sushispezialita¨t dreht, Friedrich Holla¨nders melancholisches Chanson ?Wenn ich mir was wu¨nschen du¨rfte‘, tatsa¨chlich deutsch geradebrecht, und den alten, vor Nostalgie und Patina knarzenden Lovesong ?Unter dem Apfelbaum‘, wieder auf Japanisch gesungen zu pra¨pariert scheppernder Klavierbegleitung. Dazu gibt es mit Chopins ?La Chanson de l‘adieu‘ in katzenja¨mmerlichem Low-Fi und ?Live‘ zwei ?Instrumentals‘. Die popula¨re, alltagsnahe Auswahl und die Herangehensweise, eine Art Selber-Singen-macht-Freude-Simplicity und Naivita¨t zweiter Ordnung, geben den minimalistisch zwitschernden, ku¨nstlich zerstotterten, am Laptop zerfledderten Liedern einen doppelten Charme. Etwas von Winde verwehtes, eine Kindlichkeit und gleichzeitig Altertu¨mlichkeit durch Techniken wie ?in Kinderschuhen‘. Dass an diesen Songs nichts naiv ist, zeigt nicht nur der diskante Noise von ?Live‘, auch wenn Yuko N. ?Unter dem Apfelbaum“ immer gro¨ber ins Mikro pla¨rrt, bleibt wenig Spielraum fu¨r vermeintliche Herz-Schmerz-Seligkeiten der ?guten alten Zeit‘.

By Paul Bijlsma, PHOSPHOR (Germany, 2005) Two years ago we reviewed Yoko Nexus6's third solo experiment in sound collage. Nexus6' Song book is the fifth solo album by this Japanese sound artist, also known as Yuko Kitamura. This song book features 14 electronic compositions in which a rich variety of subjects is offered. A few tracks feature piano, a children's song has been taken as point of departure, one song is traditional (He's a jolly good fellow) an one piece is dedicated to her cat. The voice plays an important role, even forms the leitmotiv of the album. It has been treated, re-worked and cut-up, nevertheless the general impression is not as extreme as the work of Anne Homler. Yuko Nexus6 uses a lot of repitition, explores the possibilities of digital equipment (cut ’n' paste effects) in which whispery vocal bits and spoken passages take care of an adventurous attitude. A great experiment with enough pop appeal!

RARE FRENQUENCY (USA, 2005) My introduction to the charmingly idiosyncratic soundworld of Yuko Nexus6 came a little over two years ago, when I received an unexpected package in the mail, containing a copy of her first CD on Sonore, entitled� Journal de Tokyo.� Organized loosely around the book of the same name by the Japanese author, Hyakken Uchida, and the form of the cassette tape, Journal de Tokyo contained a wonderful, evocative hodge-podge of field recordings, spoken word, instructional tape excerpts, processed sounds of many varieties, and songs, often sung by Yuko herself.� I was so thoroughly taken with this strange and delightful record (to my mind it's a stone-cold sound art classic) that I zealously sought out everything by her that I could lay my hands on, including two previous solo releases (Neko-san, Kill! Kill! and Bit Diary) and a pair of early CD-r only recordings.� It was a seemingly interminabe wait for her next solo album, however, but thankfully 2005 has been kind, treating the world to a veritable feast of new Nexus6 music.�The first of a pair of new Yuko Nexus6 cds, Nexus6 Song Book features Yuko in Ella Fitzgerald mode, singing a typically unusual selection of songs that includes jazz standards, a toastmaster classic, traditional Japanese folk melodies, a German torch song (made famous by Marlene Dietrich), and a fight song/ode for the Hokkaido Tigers football team. Each of these non-standard standards is given the inimitable Nexus6 treatment, as Yuko manipulates her voice using a computer or more rudimentary, lo-fi gadgets.� Her voice is chopped-up, run backwards, effected and distorted; and yet, the songs are most ineffably surreal when they are sung relatively "straight." In Yuko's capable hands even the most familiar tune is made ever so slightly strange.� �However, in spite of a number of sublime moments ("Rokkoh Oroshi," "Funazushi No Uta," "He's a Jolly Good Fellow"), Nexus6 Song Book doesn't really hold together as an album all that well, with the unifying element, Yuko's voice, eventually working against its forming a compelling and pleasing whole.� Although sounds are endlessly manipulated and threre are many twists and turns, the basic sonic palette here is pretty limited. In the end, as with so many singles collections, you're best off skipping around to your favorite hits.

By Karel Kouba, LITERARNY NOVINY (Czech Republic, 2005) Pa´ta´ so´lova´ deska dr?itelky presti?ni´ ceny Ars Electronica z roku 2003, japonske´ elektronicke´ experimenta´torky YUKO NEXUS6, nazvana´ Nexus6 Song Book (Sonore 2005), navazuje na se´rii jeji´ch manipulovany´ch tere´nni´ch nahra´vek. Album, osciluji´ci´ na pomezi´ minimalisticke´ho sound artu, introvertni´ho hlasove´ho experimentu a kola´?ovite´ho zvukove´ho deni´ku p?edstavuje podstatn? osobn?j?i´ tva´? um?lkyn?, jeji´? p?edchozi´ desky se nesly vi´ce v duchu minimalismu a dispara´tni´ch zvukovy´ch ploch, tvo?eny´ch p?eva´?n? z  konkre´tni´ch zvuk?. Nexus6, pro ni´? je typicke´ kontrastni´ kombinova´ni´ nejmodern?j?i´ elektroniky s low-tech prost?edky jako je oby?ejna´ kazeta (ostatn? zvuk kompaktni´ho disku je zahalen do charakteristicke´ho analogove´ho ?umu), zde vyu?i´va´ smy?ky vytvo?ene´ p?eva´?n? ze za´znamu vlastni´ho hlasu. Setka´me se zde v?ak i s melodicky´mi skladbami (za zmi´nku stoji´ p?vabn? interpretovany´ Chopin, popula´rni´ te´ma ?Lazy Bones“ nebo sve´ra´zn? hybridizovana´ lidova´ skladba ?He´s a Jolly Good Fellow“) a dokonce zde najdeme i zpi´vane´, pouze minima´ln? manipulovane´ skladby doprova´zene´ nap?i´klad pianem. Jedine?ne´ vystoupeni´ Yuko Nexus6 spolu s videoperformerkou Mariko Tajiri se bude konat v ra´mci programu ?Ve?er Lemurie“ 8. za´?i´ od 20 hodin v pra?ske´m experimenta´lni´m prostoru NoD a 10. za´?i´ v ta´borske´m klubu Orion.

By Franq de Waard, VITAL WEEKLY (Netherland, 2005) Quite some time ago, in Vital Weekly 365 I review a strange CD, 'Journal De Tokyo' by one Yuko Nexus6, from Hikone, Japan. It was a kind of manipulated sound picture of daily life in Tokyo. It was a conceptual interesting CD, that at the same time sounded great too. On her new CD 'Nexus6 Song Book', she goes again conceptual: singing jazz, folk and traditional standards in Japanese, English and German, and doing that in her entire own free manner. Cheap recording equipment is used, as well as high brow devices. The voice is the thing that gets manipulation here, but it never stands in the way of recognizing what the voice is about, that is, if you have mastered the Japanese (the other two languages are harder to decipher). Yuko Nexus6 sings songs by Chopin, Friedrich Hollaender, Japanese ones but also 'He's A Jolly Good Fellow' - translated in Japanese and with a slightly different melody and reversed singing. Like her previous album, this is another strange affair. Maybe a bit long too, for what it is, because at a certain point the careful singing gets too 'careful'. But reading a few songs from this book every now and then, wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

By Francois Couture ALL MUSIC GUIDE (Canada, 2005) Yuko Nexus6’s second album for the Sonore label focuses on her voice. Every track features it, treated or cleaned, upfront or as part of a field recording. Thirteen of the fourteen pieces revolve around songs, from Japanese traditional and contemporary songs to Occidental staples such as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” Mischieviously, it is the Occidental titles that feature the most deconstructed voices, so that neither the melody nor the lyrics are recognizable, while some of the Japanese songs are sung very intelligibly. the latter ones might evoke Tujiko Nuriko at times, but Nexus6’s soundworld is much more fragmented, experimental and witty. Hi-tech computers and cheap tape recorders are all equally useful in her hands. Nexus6 Song Book is actually quite similar to Journal de Tokyo; the listener is taken on an electro-acoustic journey that reads like a scrapbook of the artist’s universe. A field recording is followed by a segment of musique concrete, then a sharp cut to abstract electronics or dance beats or honky-tonk piano or harsh noise -- you never know what will come next, but Nexus6’s voice provides a sturdy backbone to this entertaining craziness. Despite the good-humored nature of these “covers” (“reappropriations” would be a better word), the music remains very demanding, absorbing, and obviously complex to assemble. The rather long “Live” piece destabilizes the otherwise solid structure of the album, but that point aside, Nexus6 Song Book offers a captivating, fun and truly unique listen.

By Guillaume Loiret, JIPANGO (France, 2005) Autre sortie sur Sonore : le ‘Nexus 6 Song Book’ par l’impressionnante Yuko Nexus 6. Chanteuse de jazz, de pop, de standards nippons, exploratrice jamais rassasie´e des possibilite´s du laptop (musique sur ordinateur) et de l’enregistrement de sons divers en live, YN6 est une artiste hors norme dans le magma des nouvelles musiques e´lectroniques. Dans son rapport a` la technique tout d’abord : elle utilise avec la me^me curiosite´ le mate´riel le plus high-tech et les gadgets les plus cheap. Dans l’affranchissement des styles ensuite : refrains japonais traditionnels (‘Mura no kajiya’, ‘Azuki Tatta’), reprises me´connaissables (une hilarante version de ‘Unter dem Apfelbaum’), chansons pop ou carre´ment tre`s underground (un morceau live a` Tokyo en 2003, noise et a` la limite du supportable), Yuko Nexus 6 se fout pas mal des genres et donne naissance a` un ‘song book’ authentique et excentrique.

YUKO NEXUS6

Journal de Tokyo (SONORE, SON-18, CD 2002)

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By Michele Anelli, All About Jazz (Italy, 2003) Nell'estremo Oriente esiste una corrente musicale dedita alla sperimentazione elettronica che si compiace del fatto di aver cominciato "per caso". Quasi accidentalmente, negli anni, la passione per la musica diviene un lavoro e tutto cio` grazie alle nuove tecnologie. Le vie seguite sono molteplici e quasi tutte prive di implicazioni concettuali. Nata in Giappone, giornalista, docente alla Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences e musicista sperimentale, Yuko Nexus6 e` una delle maggiori rappresentanti di questa corrente. Una dozzina di anni fa inizio` a comporre musica su Macintosh mentre si trovava sul posto di lavoro. Da li` comincio` quella che la musicista stessa, ironicamente, definisce "Japanese kotatsu-top-music", cioe` una musica eseguita da un comune portatile posto sopra un kotatsu, tipico tavolino rasoterra di forma quadrata con il piano riscaldato. Si tratta, dunque, di una musica casalinga ma non per questo riconducibile a stilemi low-tech. Come sappiamo, in Giappone il contatto con l'alta tecnologia e` quotidiano e un ritorno al "cheap" e al "low" e` difficile e viene vissuto come un vero e proprio esperimento. Con Journal of Tokyo sua terza uscita, abbiamo una compresenza di alta e bassa fedelta`. Da un lato DAT e software, dall'altro libri e cassette audio. Un gran lavoro viene fatto con la voce. I testi sono estrapolati da un racconto di Hyakken Uchida (sua la storia su cui si basa "Madadayo", ultimo film di Akira Kurosawa). Qui la voce umana viene registrata come essa e`, come da un comune registratore. Ridotti al minimo gli effetti di eco delay. Sparsi nel CD i rumori tipici delle vecchie audiocassette inserite nel mangianastri. In Journal in Tokyo, tutto diviene musica: la voce narrante, quasi sempre in giapponese, i concretismi casalinghi, i suoni generati dal suo Macintosh. Non mancano brani suonati come "Avec Hose" ma i suoni di trombone, chitarra e batteria, sono registrati in presa diretta e come "sporcati" da rumori di sottofondo estranei all'esecuzione. L'intero CD e` imbevuto di un gustoso senso ironico e di una intrinseca "nipponicita`". Proprio questa caratteristica tingera` l'insieme di una certa bizzarria difficile da comprendere per la mentalita` occidentale e che ritroviamo in tutte le uscite targate Japan. Ma, laddove molte esperienze peccano di pretenziosita` divenendo eccessivamente intellettuali, qui l'ascolto si fa avvincente e piacevolissimo.

By Francois Couture, All Music Guide (Canada, 2003) Yuko Nexus6's third solo album is a strange but extremely charming experiment in sound collage. At the heart of Journal de Tokyo (Tokyo Diary) are an interest in the voice and a fascination for the cassette underground. Voices (Nexus6 and Mariko Tajiri) read excerpts from short stories by Hyakken Uchida, both in Japanese and French. They are treated, looped or left naked and form the leitmotiv of the work. The album cover depicts a standard two-track stereo cassette. Some of these are used in the album (the opening track features a reading recorded in a cassette player at the same time it was captured on the master tape, the cassette is then rewinded and played back to introduce a second level of 'narration'). But the real innovation of Journal de Tokyo is its structure. Past the first track is a single 48-minute piece ('Voici le Temps de Lecture' which translates to 'here's the duration'), a session between Nexus6 and Tajiri recorded on a digital audio tape. Afterwards, the artist taped over the session 21 short tracks. Of the original session we can only hear short snippets in-between the playful sound collages. Light electronic music, field recordings, an improvisation with the group Hose and the voice-based experiments come together to form a fragmented but very playful narrative. There is something mischievous and childlike in Nexus6's approach, a lightness that makes the album palatable without taking away its demanding nature.

By Suzannah Tartan, Japan Times (Japan, 2003) A beautiful day in the life of sound. The phone line buzzes, the electric heater drones and the pitter-patter of rain can be heard in the background. Not the perfect sonic environment for a phone interview, but for Yuko Kitamura, it is perfect. Yuko Kitamura, aka Yuko Nexus6: "It's beautiful. I wish I could record it!" she says with unfeigned delight from her home in Shiga Prefecture. Kitamura has used stranger raw material for her work. As Yuko Nexus6, she salvages the cacophony of daily life and sculpts it into evocative "sound experiences." "When people take a photo, the framing and trimming are important," she says. "When we shoot the photo, the ordinary thing becomes a framed fact. That is almost like my music. The ordinary sound is framed and trimmed. In my style [of music], people can make very beautiful things from noise. And from this experience, my ear has become open to all sounds. Good, bad, noisy, calm become equal. People think that birds singing are beautiful, but that the exhaust noise of a bosozoku [motorbike gangs] is bad. But to my ear, everything is beautiful." Born in 1964, Kitamura is a member of the so-called Osaka Universal Expo generation. Her parents took her to the 1970 exposition of technological wonders and futuristic design five times. But the perfect tomorrow never materialized. Kitamura, like other artists of this generation, has grappled with an ambivalence toward technology. Sure, she can use the latest digital gadgets, but she's often going for the roughest of results. Call it "high-tech lo-fi." "I want things to sound simple, amateur," she says. Her third album, "Journal de Tokyo," on France's Sonore label, uses the text of early 20th century author Hyakken Uchida's novel "Tokyo Nikki (Tokyo Diary)." "I wanted to make a piece about reading, reading texts and then cutting up my reading voice by machine," she says. "When I cut up other books [using this method], they became only sound fragments, but with Uchida, it was still beautiful." On the record, her recitations (in French and Japanese) from the book are looped, recorded then recorded again, and edited with a variety of sounds. In one cut, she uses the voice of the Japanese announcer from the 1936 Olympics urging a Japanese athlete on to gold. In another, one can hear the squeal of a cassette recorder rewinding. Backing up the entire CD is a playful 45-minute recording that ebbs in and out of the other tracks, like the traces of sound on a cassette tape that has been recorded over. The result is what she calls "a time machine" melding Berlin of 1936, early 20th-century Tokyo, and Tokyo in 2002. It is a technique that she had already experimented with live. During her European tour last year, she began her performances with readings, simultaneously recording herself with a hand-held cassette player, then using a sampler to manipulate the sounds. "Ordinary speaking is just ordinary speaking," she says, "but when I put it into a computer and cut it up, it becomes beautiful." Cassette players and books would seem strangely analog for an artist who teaches university classes in digital sound processing and has been nominated for the Prix Ars Electronica, one of world's most prestigious awards in cyberarts. However, Kitamura admits she doesn't actually like technology so much. "As technological development sped up, I couldn't keep up, so I looked back to old technology. Now the cassette recorder is my buddy. Though I've tried to use a lot of gear -- a PowerBook, samplers and synthesizers -- the cassette tape really suits me. It is low-quality, very handy and easy to use." She has dubbed her work "kotatsu music," referring to the low heated tables found in many Japanese homes. "Most computer musicians have nice studios, with many computers, and fancy speakers, but in my house. . . . I just put my computer on the kotatsu," she says. "I want my music to reflect my daily life. Sometimes I compose my music with kitchen noise -- washing dishes, washing rice. They make such nice sounds." Her democratic music-making philosophy has been amplified in her writing. "Cyber Kitchen Music" (1995) was a guide to digitally remixing old LPs in the comfort of one's own home. She has also commented on how the younger generation is choosing the laptop over the guitar as a conduit for their musical rebellion. It is unlikely, however, that an amped-up teenager would come up with a work like "Journal de Tokyo." Though Kitamura poses as an amateur, the record reflects a distinctly intellectual sensibility. For most people, it will be a novel, if not challenging, listening experience. Yuko has one important piece of advice: "Don't listen to it as a CD, but think of it as a book. In a book there are many events -- love, catastrophes . . . Many situations pop up, so please read it rather than listen to it."

By Jason Ferguson, Orlando Weekly (USA, 2003) Yuko Nexus6 (hopefully, that's not her real name) is a Japanese electronic experimentalist engaged in what she terms "kotatsu-top music." A kotatsu is a low-to-the-ground table, much like a coffee table but shorter and perfect for a laptop. Yuko's brand of experimentalism doesn't require a kotatsu, but it does require a computer, as her compositions are built upon digital reconstructions of analog sounds, combined with the sounds of computers themselves. The results defy expectations of contemporary Japanese experimentalism, as Yuko seldom lets her short pieces (most of the tracks are two minutes or less) collapse into noise. Instead, the pieces are nearly meditative in their repetition, humming along in digital bliss, while whispery vocal bits (based on text from the novel "Tokyo Nikki") ease in and out of earshot. Delicate and oddly organic, "Journal de Tokyo" points the way for a new direction in the genre.

By Ed Howard, Stylus (USA, 2003) About a week ago, I reached an epiphany with Yuko Nexus6's Journal de Tokyo. I was listening to the album on headphones in my parent's car, sitting in the backseat, when my dad turned the radio on and proceeded to restlessly channel-surf. As the contemporary country that is ubiquitous in upstate New York shifted into Christian talk radio, then doo-wop, then some static-ridden Spanish dance, my first impulse was to turn up the volume on my headphones so I could hear my own music better. But by the time I got to "Mes voisins jouent de la musique" -- 52 seconds of distant violins playing through static -- I realized how futile this all was. For an album like this, a sound collage of music, noise, vocal samples, and musique concrete, extra layers can only add depth to the chaos. So I turned down the headphones and let my father's 50s rock and opera mingle into the noise in my ears, and it was a surprisingly fluid mix. Journal de Tokyo is an inclusive album because of the nature of its construction. Based loosely around fragments of writing by the Japanese author Hyakken Uchida -- whose works are read at intervals in Japanese and French by Nexus6 and her compatriot Mariko Tajiri -- this album is best heard, as Yuko herself describes it in the liner notes, as "not only a CD but a cassette tape." Like taping directly from the radio, disparate fragments coalesce and sit uneasily next to each other, creating often jarring transitions and moments where everything, against all odds, comes together. Nexus6 constructed this entire album on tape, and it shows -- the sounds of rewinding, stopping, and tape unfurling are all over this record.The underlying ethos of the recording is mostly clearly outlined in "Voici le temps de lecture," a 48-minute improvisatory session between Nexus6 and her friend, trumpeter Masafumi Ezaki. The music is heard just briefly on the second track, and then continues for the remainder of the album; however, Nexus6 recorded the remaining 21 songs over the improvisation, so fragments of it are heard only in the pauses between tracks. Thankfully, though, the actual audible music on this record is much more interesting than any conceptual framework. Nexus6 is clearly obsessed with the voice in its many forms, and she takes every opportunity to explore its possibilities. In addition to the many readings in various languages, there are samples from what sound like old foreign language instructional tapes placed over bleeping test tones and noisy synth patterns. But the pinnacle of the album's vocal experimentation comes on the two-part "Un imbecile voyage en train," based on Uchida's piece of the same name. On the first song, Nexus6 reads the piece accompanied by the atmospheric sounds of a train station, with conductors announcing and trains steaming to a halt in the background. Towards the end, she and a friend laughingly break out into a song, sung in Japanese to a tune very similarly to an Irish folk song. The second piece is even better, starting with a reading punctuated by bursts of song, before Nexus6 cuts up vocal segments and pastes them back together into a towering locomotive, joyfully yelling out "choo choo!" over the rumbling rhythms of sliced voices. What separates these pieces from every other album of academic noise collage is the sense of pleasure and fun that Nexus6 clearly derives from her recording. In the liner notes she describes how this method of making music evolved from her childhood experiments with primitive tape recorders, and the aesthetic at work here very obviously originated with a childlike impulse. There is a playful hand on the pause and rewind buttons, and a similar playfulness ingrained in the numerous unexpected juxtapositions that form the meat of this music. Grating rhythmic noise sits up against clearly enunciated readings and abstract instrumental improvisations (including a moody piece with the Japanese jazz trio HOSE), and it all flows like a rough-hewn mix tape made personally for you by a very strange friend.

By Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly (The Netherlands, 2003) This CD has been playing the house a couple of times already, and it's a hard one to just review. Yuko Nexus6 is a female sound artist from Japan who has a couple of works already available. Like the title of the CD already says, this is a sort of diary of life in Tokyo. We hear whispering, street sounds, singing, sometimes poetry like reading. The work was originally recorded in 45 minutes on a DAT tape and then recorded over it. Just like the old days when you could re-record a cassette but still could hear the original sound that was previously on the tape. This CD works in the same way. It's a continous work, but it changes and was layered with additional sounds. This is very a very intimate production, like you are almost listening to a private diary of somebody. Then it's still remotely far away, since the language used (Japanese) is of course a barrier. It's a puzzling release. But it has beauty in it, which one can always re-discover when playing it again. New things seem to pop then and again and again. Strange music.

By Jerome Maunsell, The Wire (UK, 2003) "This is not a CD but a cassette tape. You can hear some noise that are typical of cassette tapes from old good days", say the note to this playfully experimental album from Japan's Yuko Nexus6 on the French Sonore label. To the uninitiated, it looks to all intents like a CD, but the album was apparently made by overlaying music onto tape recordings. Yuko began by recording a 45 minute session onto DAT tape with a friend, taking and using the machine as a kind of scrapbook. This formed a canvas over which she then imposed all sorts of other odds and ends: electronic tunes, loops, spoken words, and other found fragments. In the gaps between them, you can hear short fragments of the original material peering out. Journal de Tokyo utilises some texts by Hyakken Uchida, a Japanese writer little known abroad, even though he was commemorated by Akira Kurosawa in his last film, Madadayo. That said, it's hard to pick out what's what in the inspired tumbe of Yuko's sonic collage. This journal de Tokyo is a free-ranging audio diary, seeming much more intimate and light-hearted than most digital cut'n'paste efforts. Yuko recommends that it should be listened to in random order, but it's also well worth playing these pieces through sequentially. Even though the spoken passage are mostly in French and Japanese, with tiny bits of stilted phrasebook English thrown in, a scatterbrained cut-up narrative takes shape, giving the album a softly filmic atmosphere. Whispered voices, linguaphone samples, archaic test tones, mellifluous strings floating across from next door, rain in the street and motorcycle noise are all glued in and framed around several 'composed' tracks, which have a melodic illogic all their own.Trumpet, guitar, trombone and 'Irish drum' are all credited too, though these are harder to identify in the buried strata of the mix. The whole totters a little at points, but for the most part holds together somehow in a natural way without any obvious lulls - perhaps because of Yuko's instinctively restless modus operandi. It all ends far too soon with a few spirited refrains sung in Japanese, a babble of voices, the heavy ticking of a clock and an alarm going off.

By Lucas Schleicher, The Brain (USA, 2003) The various field recordings, found sounds, and narratives that compose this album somehow add up to a satisfying listen despite their seemingly random order. The liner notes suggest listening to the CD in random order and also relate the fact that much of the material was originally recorded on a cassette tape. There are some points where this is clear but for the most part the fact that this was originally recorded to cassette tape is unimportant. The sounds are a mishmash of strange tones, almost danceable beats, non-English narrations, and short blurs of speech and machine sounds. Yuko Nexus6 captures many of the every day sounds that I find fascinating and runs them along not so common sounds that might be discovered while manipulating stretches of tape or a turntable. Many of the tracks are under one minute in length and are simply short sound portraits. Other tracks are just over two minutes and a rare few run over five minutes long. The longer tracks are sound collages that run the gamut from exciting to boring and drawn out. However, they have moments spread out within themselves that somehow revive my interest in them despite the rather bland interruptions. I often get the impression that I'm listening to a radio that is being tuned to several different frequencies at irregular intervals and enjoy the disparity. There are elements of early electronic composition on Journal De Tokyo. There's not an air of academia, but instead an air of adventure and curiousity that keeps me listening.

By Paul Bijlsma, Phosphor Magazine (Germany, 2003) The French label Sonore Records, now situated in Japan, has released the third album by Yuko Nexus6, a Japanese composer of electronic music, one of the representatives of minimal electronic music. Her musical started sort of with the publication of Cyber Kitchen Music, a book in which she explains like in a cookbook, how to use the program Max/MSP to recycle old LPs. As of 1997 she was featured on many compilations, released several CDRs and two albums. On her third album Yuko Nexus6 uses excerpts of the novel Tokyo Nikki (written by Hyakken Uchisa, 1889 - 1971) and electronic sounds from a cassette recorder. The end result can be devided in several parts. The album heads of with French texts and sounds of a tape-recorder. During the fourth track the language used is Japanese. It reminds of sound art that has been created by means of cut-up technique. Next is an amazing combination of a voice sample and electronics that remind of clocks getting crazy. After this a sort of radioplay follows, in which some reading can be heard with on top of it digital sounds. The last part of the album is instrumental featuring environmental sounds. Every song seems to have a different theme, another atmosphere and a different approach. It is amazing what this Japanese musician comes up with. One keeps discovering new aspects and musical territories never heard before. In general the music is quite abstract, which might make it rather difficult for people to keep concentrated.

By Jerome Schmidt, Peace Warrior (France, 2003) Apre`s l'autofiction litte´raire, le journal de bord musical. Pre´curseur en son temps des premiers balbutiements du courant laptop, la jeune Yuko Nexus6 a abandonne´ les tentatives uniquement e´lectroniques de ses premiers albums et participations a` diffe´rentes compilations tokyoi¨tes pour se concentrer sur un pan plus intime de sa culture musicale. Entie`rement autodidacte, elle apparai^t a` cette ge´ne´ration nippone qui de´couvre la musique via le prisme du MAO (musique assiste´e par ordinateur), un bien grand mot pour de´signer les quelques freewares disponibles en te´le´chargement sur un internet en plein de´veloppement a` la fin des anne´es 80. Salarywoman, elle passe son temps libre au bureau a` expe´rimenter divers sons et de´bute dans l'agencement rythmique et me´lodique. Volontiers the´oricienne a` ses heures, elle invente le terme kotatsutop music, terme ge´ne´rique de´signant ces jeunes japonais qui s'installent en concert sur la table en bois nippone traditionnelle (kotatsu) et y posent leur ordinateur portable (laptop). Pour Journal de Tokyo, elle ne pose sur ces genoux qu'un petit baladeur nume´rique enregistreur et enregistre de facon discontinue les bruits du train et des passagers de ce convoi qui l'emme`ne a` Tokyo. Yuko Nexus6 s'approche alors d'une de´marche proche des milieux artistiques vide´os des anne´es 90, sondant l'abi^me de l'anecdotique et l'intime a` la manie`re d'une vide´aste comme Sophie Calle, sans pour autant tomber dans le pie`ge de la narrativite´. Car ce support est uniquement musical et se doit d'articuler, au-dela` des spoken-words sample´s (elle lit dans le train des textes d'un auteur d'avant-guerre, Uchida Hyakken) au hasard des conversations, un journal virtuel et sonore. Sa de´marche se fait alors tre`s proche de ces journaux de´cale´s et explose´s que l'on retrouve en ligne, et regroupe´s sous le terme de blog (ou weblog). Soit une mise en exposition soudaine de morceaux de´coupe´s, colle´s, casse´s, re´agence´s ou de´tourne´s. Tout sauf formaliste.

By Ive Stevenheydens, Tijd Cultuur (Belgium, 2003) De dertigster Yuko Nexus6 realiseert conceptuele ideee¨n in vleugellichte, poppy eindproducten. In Europa maakte de autodidacte voor het eerst ophef in 1995 met het boek 'Cyber Kitchen Music'. Daarin omschrijft de Japanse in een ironische stijl gee¨nt op die van recepten/kookboeken verschillende manieren om met oude elpees, de computer en het inmiddels razend populaire softwareprogramma Max/ MSP tot nieuwe composities te komen. Vandaag werkt Yuko Nexus6 als journaliste en als docente beeldende kunsten aan de universiteit van Nagoya. Tussendoor steekt ze pretentieloze lo-fi geluidswerken ineen. Op de hoes van haar nieuwe langspeler 'Journal de Tokyo' staat een cassette afgebeeld. Binnenin benadrukt de Japanse geluidskunstenares dat haar werk ? hoewel het op cd is uitgegeven ? als een tape-experiment tot stand kwam en als dusdanig beluisterd moet worden. De rode draad op 'Journal de Tokyo' is de stem. Afwisselend in het Japans en het Frans leest Yuko Nexus6 op een zachte, warme en haast moederlijke manier fragmenten voor notities over Tokyo. Daarnaast declameert ze tekstfragmenten van Uchida Hyakken, een Japanse schrijver uit de jaren 1930, en voegt ze vocale flarden uit de ether toe. Yuko Nexus6 construeert 'Journal de Tokyo' door middel van DAT-manipulatie wat de stem verre van ongemoeid laat: in 24 nummers is ze verdraaid, een palet dat reikt van nerveuze beats tot gerekte droombeelden. In een rasechte cut-upstijl last Yuko Nexus6 plukken veldopnames in haar composities: terloops duiken ondermeer motorfietsen, knisperende insecten, belletjes en een zoemende mug op. Yuko Nexus6 kiest andermaal voor een repetitief kader hetgeen haar werk erg toegankelijk maakt. 'Journal de Tokyo' is een zorgvuldig geconstrueerd en afwisselend intimistisch, aaibaar en vaak grappig experiment. Een charmeoffensief zonder kapsones.