Microcanonical Ensemble is an album woven with subtle paradoxes, balancing stasis and movement, resonance and decay, improvisation and composition, precision and raw performance. While the echoes of Morton Feldman, Jürg Frey, and the Wandelweiser scene whisper through their music, the group's contrasting approaches, coupled with an openness and fragility, create a sound that is rustic and fallibly human.

With purely acoustic instrumentation, the quartet of Takashi Masubuchi, Wakana Ikeda, Tom Soloveitzik, and Yoko Ikeda conjure vivid images of a slowly changing landscape across the album's three long-form tracks, each one gradually transforming like the seasons. Often employing the simplicity of a single note, each performer's contribution melds into an evolving mass of sound with the measured delicacy of a falling leaf, blossoming into the stereo field like ripples on a lakebed. Despite the pristine clarity of the melodic content, there is a raw immediacy simmering within the music’s very construction. You can hear the creak of chairs, the repositioning of instruments, and the rustle of loose clothing. These diegetic sounds make the music more humane, rooted in the vibrations of the four individuals playing. Their inclusion is also a clear statement of intent from the quartet: the space they are ushering their sound into is just as important as the music they are playing. 

It's fitting, then, that the music was partially captured in the legendary Tokyo record shop and venue Ftarri. Each of the four musicians have deep associations with the label. As well as performing in a variety of different combinations with each other (many of these different iterations released by Ftarri), each member of the quartet has worked in differing scenarios with Taku Sugimoto, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama – three musicians who were key in redefining what experimental music was in Japan in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Additionally, all four members of the ensemble have themselves become crucial components in the Tokyo scene, continuing to create ground-breaking work with the succeeding generation of Japanese musicians, including guitarist Riuichi Daijo, singer Ayami Suzuki, pianist Fumi Endo, bassist Masatake Abe, and cellist Yasumune Morishige. Their recordings have been issued by Zoomin' Nights, An'Archives, Confront Recordings, and now, proudly, Tombed Visions. 

Microcanonical Ensemble stands as a testament to the beauty found in the delicate interplay between sound and silence, capturing the essence of human imperfection played with patience, grace and restraint.