{"id":26435,"date":"2016-11-03T16:32:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T07:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/archives\/26435"},"modified":"2016-11-03T16:32:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T07:32:47","slug":"jainterview-with-visible-cloaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/archives\/26435","title":{"rendered":"[:ja]Interview with Visible Cloaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1723280161\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/transparent=true\/\" seamless><a href=\"http:\/\/visiblecloaks.bandcamp.com\/album\/valve-valve-revisited\">Valve \/ Valve (Revisited) by Visible Cloaks<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>How did Visible Cloaks organize? Did you made music as different name than before?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt used to just be \u201cCloaks\u201d and was my own solo project at first &#8211; it was also called \u201cNeon Cloaks\u201d at one point and then eventually \u201cVisible Cloaks\u201d. In the Cloaks\/Neon Cloaks era I actually released a bunch of albums that only came out in Japan (they are around if you look for them!). At some point Ryan joined as the second member.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cValve\u201d is collaborated with Japanese duo, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musicfrommemory.com\/product\/dip-in-the-pool-on-retinae-12\" target=\"_blank\">Dip In the Pool<\/a> whose 12\u201d was released from Music from memory and got attention worldwide, and I want to know how this project started with them.<\/strong><br \/>\nWell, it\u2019s somewhat complicated! It began with us sampling Miyako Koda\u2019s voice initially (from her solo album \u201cJupiter\u201d). Matt (Werth) from RVNG had already been in touch with Tatsuji Kimura about a different project (one that never materialized), so getting permission from them about the sample was no problem. Matt also had the idea to ask them to rework the song, which Tatsuji and I ended up working on together, sending files back and forth via email, with Miyako writing new lyrics and doing a new vocal overdub.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I grasped the unique harmony between ambient and the philosophy of Japanese &#8216; beauty&#8217; from \u201cValve\u201d. what kind of the idea do you have in this work?<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cValve\u201d was part of a series of experiments where I took speech in various languages and translated into MIDI information, in an effort to mimic the act of linguistic translation. The melody of the whole piece &#8211; including it\u2019s pacing and use of space &#8211; is derived from the cadence of Miyako\u2019s voice. Also, like a lot of our works, the original version uses the pentatonic scale which has it\u2019s own complex cultural associations. The sound palate is certainly very influenced by Japanese music, especially the sonic quality of recordings mixed by Seigen Ono (who mixed artists like Yasuaki Shimizu, Hiroshi Yoshimura and also dip in the pool!) &#8211; I was aiming for a similar direct crispness and use of depth\/dimension that his recordings have.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I want to say that the coloration or design of valve\u2019s cover is so cool and think somehow matchs music. You told any concept or images about artwork to Brenna?<\/strong><br \/>\nBrenna just listened to the piece as inspiration and created the work &#8211; there wasn&#8217;t a lot of implicit direction. We&#8217;ve been collaborating together for years so there&#8217;s much that goes unsaid.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ValveCover.jpg\" alt=\"valvecover\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ValveCover.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ValveCover-800x800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ValveCover-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ValveCover-480x480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ValveCover-650x650.jpg 650w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/ValveCover-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>You seem to love Japanese music so much, especially New age music like Yasuaki Shimizu, Hiroshi Yoshimura, or Haruomi Hosono. Does these actually have influence on your music as great inspiration?<\/strong><br \/>\nYes, I would say all three of those musicians are huge influences for me. People are only just now starting to realize their brilliance here in the US &#8211; it\u2019s always been surprising to me that it didn\u2019t happen sooner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I think that lately Japanese New age is getting popular with Vinyl diggers in US and Europe. Do you think so?<\/strong><br \/>\nBesides including Japanese how do you feel about New Age revival movements in recent years which happened from the label Rvng, Leaving, Aguirre, or Music from memory?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, I suppose lots of Japanese records are fashionable here right now, and not just ambient\/new-age. Hopefully it\u2019s not just a fad because it\u2019s music that is well deserving of praise.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding renewed interest in new age music &#8211; record dealers like Anthony Pearson and Douglas Mcgowan and musicians like Greg Davis were some of the first people I remember being especially vocal about it in record circles. Growing up in California &#8211; which was kind of the epicenter of the whole thing during it\u2019s heyday &#8211; a lot of these records were around, just with a lot of cultural baggage around them. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Which place do you guys usually do performance in Portland? I seems like that you are familiar with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xhurch.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Xhurch<\/a> neighborhood.<\/strong><br \/>\nYeah, we have been playing at Xhurch since it started &#8211; it\u2019s a great venue! Also they do a VR meet up there that Ryan and Brenna are involved in. As for other venues, we play at Holocene pretty frequently. S1 Gallery is great too.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/valve2.jpg\" alt=\"valve2\" width=\"1500\" height=\"844\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5765\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/valve2.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/valve2-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/valve2-1000x563.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/valve2-650x366.jpg 650w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/valve2-600x338.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In Portland there are many great experimental artists doing their own creative music  like MSHR, Golden Retriever, Grouper, Pulse Emitter, and of course you guys. What do you think of electronic music scene in Portland and you think that the environment or surroundings are suitable for music or PDX independent culture?<\/strong><br \/>\nYeah, all of those people you mentioned are friends. Sadly Birch and Brenna (MSHR) moved to New York, and Liz from Grouper lives on the coast and is pretty rarely in town. The electronic music scene is limited here (the infrastructure that exists is centered around rock music, mostly) &#8211; it\u2019s not a large enough city to support or sustain a fringe subculture, artistic success is often external.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What kind of instruments do you use for composing your music?<\/strong><br \/>\nMostly just the computer, a few synths and a vibraphone. Ryan uses Yamaha WX11 to control virtual instruments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your first LP has released from the the record shop Musique Plastique, which has been opened last year. <\/strong><br \/>\nI know that the shop has really great tastes although sadly I never been there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You had been friend with the owner before the shop has opened?<\/strong><br \/>\nYeah, Tony and Luke are good friends. I actually used to work as a part time record dealer, so I know a lot of folks who run shops here in town. Little Axe Records and Clinton Street are also really great\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please tell albums or music that you love to listen to recently and give some local artists that you recommend!<\/strong><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s 10 I&#8217;ve been playing at home recently&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Hamlet Gonashvili &#8211; Georgian Folks Songs<br \/>\nPepe Maina \u200e\u2013 Scerizza<br \/>\nYou&#8217;re Me &#8211; Plant Cell Division<br \/>\nStudio der fr\u00fchen Musik &#8211; Vox Humana<br \/>\nInstrumental Music of the Kalahari San<br \/>\nJohn McGuire \u200e\u2013 48 Variations For Two Pianos<br \/>\nGabriele Emde \u200e\u2013 Die Natur Der Kl\u00e4nge &#8211; Neue Musik F\u00fcr Harfe<br \/>\nLes Halles &#8211; Transient<br \/>\nMayumi Miyata and Midori Takada &#8211; Nebula<br \/>\nLuis Cilia \u200e\u2013 A Regra Do Fogo<\/p>\n<p class=\"profile\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.visiblecloaks.com\/valve.html\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.visiblecloaks.com\/valve.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/visiblecloaks2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"visiblecloaks2\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/visiblecloaks2-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/visiblecloaks2-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/visiblecloaks2-650x488.jpg 650w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/visiblecloaks2-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/visiblecloaks2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Valve \/ Valve (Revisited) by Visible Cloaks How did Visible Cloaks organize? Did you made music as different name than before? It used to just be \u201cCloaks\u201d and was my own solo project at first &#8211; it was also called \u201cNeon Cloaks\u201d at one point and then eventually \u201cVisible Cloaks\u201d. In the Cloaks\/Neon Cloaks era I actually released a bunch of albums that only came out in Japan (they are around if you look for them!). At some point Ryan joined as the second member. \u201cValve\u201d is collaborated with Japanese duo, Dip In the Pool whose 12\u201d was released from Music from memory and got attention worldwide, and I want to know how this project started with them. Well, it\u2019s somewhat complicated! It began with us sampling Miyako Koda\u2019s voice initially (from her solo album \u201cJupiter\u201d). Matt (Werth) from RVNG had already been in touch with Tatsuji Kimura about a different project (one that never materialized), so getting permission from them about the sample was no problem. Matt also had the idea to ask them to rework the song, which Tatsuji and I ended up working on together, sending files back and forth via email, with Miyako writing new lyrics&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/wwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ValveCover.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themassage.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}