In November 2017, something extraordinary happened in Shibuya. As Shuta Hasunuma began conjuring otherworldly sounds from a single Buchla Music Easel modular synthesizer, Keiji Haino—one of Japan's most uncompromising experimental voices—responded by singing "Kimigayo," the Japanese national anthem. What started as an unplanned encounter between two visionary musicians has now crystallized into U TA, an album that brilliantly captures the haunting and complex interplay of Haino's resonant vocals with Hasunuma's lyrical soundscapes. The simplicity of their collaboration is deceptive. Haino sings and Hasunuma plays the instruments—electric guitar, piano, field recordings, and an assortment of synthesizers ranging from vintage analog to the latest digital consoles. Yet from this apparent minimalism emerges something profound: a musical dialogue that operates beyond conventional structures, where instinct and intuition become the primary compositional tools. The album's title, with its extended spacing, suggests the vast territories these two artists explore between sound and silence, between voice and instrument, between the known and the unknowable.
Their artistic relationship has deepened through years of shared stages and collaborative exploration. In 2018, Haino appeared at Hasunuma's "MUSIC TODAY IN KYOTO" at Rohm Theater, alongside Nobukazu Takemura, Manami Kakudo, Elena Tutatchikova, and Kukangendai. The duo's formal debut of "U TA" came in September 2021 at WWW in Shibuya during the pandemic, a performance that sparked the album's conception. Their subsequent collaborations have taken them to increasingly unique venues—from a sound performance at the Tadanori Yokoo Museum of Contemporary Art in Kobe in 2023 to a haunting 2024 performance inside the Tunnel of Love on the uninhabited island of Sarushima in Yokosuka. The recording process itself embodies the spirit of their partnership. Haino entered the studio with only lyrics in hand, completely unaware of what sounds Hasunuma would produce. Responding to Hasunuma's music in real time, Haino composed melodies and layered his voice spontaneously, creating an album that captures the electricity of pure musical instinct. Additional sessions at Hasunuma's private studio and Haino's preferred recording space allowed the work to reach its full realization, completed through the mutual trust developed from years of performing together. The result is an album that defies easy categorization, existing somewhere between ambient exploration and vocal experimentation, between electronic composition and organic expression. Each track unfolds as a sonic ecosystem where Hasunuma's instrumental textures provide both foundation and counterpoint to Haino's vocal explorations, creating music that feels both ancient and futuristic, both deeply personal and universally resonant.
