Aube
Tapes 1992-1994 (7CD Box)
Format7CD BoxLabelSlowdown RecordsGenreExperimental
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Tip! A super limited reissue of the seven cassettes that Akifumi Nakajima, working as Aube, released on his own G.R.O.S.S. label in Kyoto between 1992 and 1994. Here they are on seven CDs in a white box, one disc per tape, with each sleeve carrying the artwork of the original cassette: Spindrift, Drip, Luminous, Flash-Point, Submerged Tension Remix, Frequency For Collapse and E-Power.
Nakajima was born in Kyoto in 1959 and had been making small-scale sounds with synthesizers since the 1980s. In 1990 he wrote the music for the installation "Water 1990" by Soichi Arichi and Takashi Sasaoka, and in 1991 he began releasing music as Aube, starting with the cassette Hydrophobia on Vanilla Records. In 1992 he founded G.R.O.S.S. as an independent label and design project, putting out noise from Japan and abroad, his own included, in cassette packages that drew on his work as an industrial designer. His method was strict: each work uses sounds taken from a single material, then bent through a chain of effects into a noise that is hard and, at the same time, elegant. The sleeves in this box say as much. Spindrift and Submerged Tension Remix are made only from water sounds, E-Power from one voltage controlled oscillator, and Frequency For Collapse from field recordings of a building in Okayama that was due to be dismantled in the winter of 1994. Aube slowed down around 2005 for health reasons and died on September 25, 2013. This set was first put together by shrine.jp to shed light on his early steps.
Super limited reissue by SLOWDOWN records (SDRSW-149). 7CD box, one CD per original cassette.
Format
1) "Spindrift" - A work based on the sound of water.
2) "Drip" - A work created by processing a recording of a live performance given at the solo exhibition of artist Takashi Sasaoka.
3) Luninous - A work created from the installation "Luminous" by artist Soichi Arichi and Takashi Sasaoka, who were close friends in
the early stages of AUBE's activities. The subject matter of this work is the blinking sound of fluorescent lamps and light tubes that
have been transformed and intentionally left in a state of almost being cut off.
4) Flash-Point" is a live performance at the Osaka Zoukei Center as a development of the sound production participation in
"Luminous," an installation featuring flickering fluorescent lights by artists Soichi Arichi and Takashi Sasaoka, who were close friends
in the early days of AUBE.
5) "Submerged Tension Remix" - A remix version of "Submerged Tension" released on Toyohiro Okazaki's (Dislocation) Steeple &
Globe label in 1993.
6) "Frequency for Collapse" - A work related to the installation "Frequency for Collapse" by artist Yuri Shibata, which was installed in
the art space "Jiyu Factory" in an abandoned building in Okayama from 1993 until the building was demolished at the end of 1994.
7) E-Power - A work using a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO); AUBE insisted on using a single VCO for performance and
production, taking the stance of "using a single material" when using an oscillator (or synth) in his own work.
