Since 1993, Susumu Yokota has built an impressive catalogue of more than 30 albums, and numerous EP’s and 12″-es.
On Kaleidoscope he presents 16 new tracks, over 1 hour of music.
Yokota can’t be accused of making it easy for himself. But, even better: his musical ideas are still as fresh as if this was his debut release.
Susumu Yokota’s music is often catalogued under ‘ambient’ music, but it hardly ever is – there is simply too much going on.
“Kaleidoscope” is a very appropriate title for these electronic sound sculptures.
I can almost imaging Susuma recording almost every single sound of everyday life and then finding a spot for it to use in a composition, in strange conjunction with other sounds he has recorded or created.
Vocal samples of a soulful background choir, people singing in a church service , street sounds, weird screams, vocoder samples, all embedded in electronically created and unpredictably sculpted backgrounds.
These are never just plain simple ‘environmental‘ recordings, because all fragments are presented far out of their original context. Like the album title suggests it is a kaleidoscopic, unrealistic view of the surrounding world.
Susumu Yokota once again proves he is a master master of Sound Art.
Without the heavy pretentiousness that sometimes goes with the genre, Kaleidoscope offers a refreshingly enhanced and unrealistic view on the sounds of our surrounding world.