Rare it is to see a compilation of music dedicated to a director of this cultural and historic significance.
Even more rare that the work on said compilation would not only involve artists with a degree of genuine
familiarity to the directors work, but who understand the aesthetic character and cultural, political and
historical value of the filmmakers oeuvre as well. And possibly most importantly, how to translate those
qualities to corresponding sonic and compositional values (meaning in this case, yes, there is much
delicacy of touch and 'silence' to be had throughout).... So here is a rare thing indeed!:
Link to and/OAR 'Hitokomakura' Site
On "Hitokomakura" and/OAR not only bring together a quality roster of minimalist composers and sound-artists
(mostly working in the electronic field, along with some subtle electro-acoustic work and field recordings)
but also presents the collection with an understanding of Ozu's significance in the canon of cinema in a
manner that compliments his elegance, refined subtlety and deftness of visual touch. Further reaffirmed
by the involvement of Criterion Collection supplying the accompanying visual element, both in the sleeve-art
as well as the corresponding downloadable PDF documents - giving this whole project an even greater stamp
of authenticity.
Man, am I ever surprised and appreciative when these kind of things are 'done right'. Case in point being
this beautifully conceived and executed sonic tribute to Ozu's art . Exceptional in many senses of the word.
From the and/OAR site:
"This release turns its focus upon Yasujiro Ozu's use of "pillow shots" (i.e. short poetic pauses that appear
between the acting segments of his films. The term "pillow shot" was not coined by Ozu himself, but
several years after his passing in the early 1960s by a Japanese journalist who was trying to draw a
comparison of the intermediate scenes to "pillow words" found in traditional Japanese poetry.
This is a double CD release with both CDs featuring audio plus a cross-platform compatible
PDF booklet containing pillow shots (courtesy of Criterion Collection) and liner notes.
Each artist who appears on this release was asked to choose one or more "pillow shots" to use as inspiration
for their pieces. A link to web pages containing a large assortment of pillow shots" was provided, and
accordingly, the pillow shots were reserved on a first come, first served basis. The artists also watched
the films from which the pillow shots came from in order to get a sense of how their chosen pillow shots
were employed by Ozu.
The sound work featured represents a wide range of artistic approaches, but as always with these projects,
the artists were chosen specifically, based on their previous work and on how it might contribute to the
collective whole of each project."
Featured artists include:
ALEJANDRA & AERON
AONO JIKKEN ENSEMBLE
ASUNA
MARC BEHRENS
KEITH BERRY
LAWRENCE ENGLISH
HERIBERT FRIEDL
BERNHARD GUNTER
HACO
JOHN HUDAK
JASON KAHN
HITOSHI KOJO
KOURA
DALE LLOYD
YOSHIO MACHIDA
ROEL MEELKOP
KIYOSHI MIZUTANI
DEAN MOORE (with Michael Shannon)
STEVE RODEN
SAWAKO
MICHAEL SHANNON
STEINBRUCHEL
TAKU SUGIMOTO
SUKORA
TOSHIYA TSUNODA
Text by Doug Cummings (Masters Of Cinema and Filmjourney.org)
and Dale Lloyd (and/OAR).
