Composed and Produced by Koji Asano
(C)2012 Koji Asano / (P) 2012 ASANO Production

Cover Photos : Koji Asano
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Though not as active as in his top years, 2001 (ten CDs), 2002 (four CDs) and 2003 (five CDs), Koji Asano is back, and since 2010 this is his fourth CD. Like with some of the other recent releases, there is no indication as to what he is doing on this release. Asano’s work can range from computerized noise to baroque pieces of classical music. ‘Travel Coupons’ seems to me some a work that is somewhere in between computer and classical instruments. Those are at the foundation of the piece (again: so it seems) and the computer does a bit of processing, but not a lot. So we still hear instruments from an orchestra (or small ensemble at least) and those sounds being stretched out a bit, with some delay here and there, over layered, out of tune it sometimes. Its kind of hard to tell whether this is all stuff that Asano wrote himself, recorded with musicians, or perhaps used already existing work of instrumental playing, which he plays around with. That is a bit of a difficulty I think. Also at close to sixty minutes the work seems a bit long to me. There are two parts here, one of eleven minutes and one of forty eight. I’d say skip the first one, and the second one is fine at forty minutes. Strangely abstract music, in which beauty, as far as I can see, doesn’t play an all important role. But the whole thing has something captivating, especially since its so strange and abstract. Would I play this again, easily? That’s a different question to which I am inclined to say: not easily, indeed and probably not as quick. (FdW)

Play Demo 1

Play Demo 2

Vital Weekly 835

MP3

MP4 – Master Quality Audio File

http://www.kojiasano.com

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