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4CD BOX
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USHI 018CD
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Conceived as a vehicle to explore electronic synthesis around the turn of the new millennium, Space Machine is Takushi "Maso" Yamazaki's "analog electronic cosmic sound project". Combining elements of psychedelia, drone, and experimental music, Space Machine crafts a sonic tapestry that defies categorization. Yamazaki's sonic palette encompasses layers of space ring, hypnotic rhythms, and ethereal synthesizers, creating a rich and textured soundscape. His mastery lies in the ability to blend these disparate elements seamlessly, resulting in a cohesive and transcendent musical journey. Space Machine draws on the artists deep and long-standing love of early electronic music from the '50s and '60s, his collecting of analog synthesizers and vintage electronic equipment over the years that he was primarily active as Masonna, and a desire to find a new creative pathway for his work, which was facilitated by being forced, in 2000, to temporarily cease Masonna activities due to ill health, allowed him to concentrate more fully on that project that would emerge later that year. In rapid succession between 2001 and 2005, Yamazaki released three full lengths and four EPs, all the products of his daily, tripped out inner explorations of music at his Space Machine Systems Studio. Complete Space Tuning Box gathers all these works, the project's debut -- Cosmos from Diode Ladder Filter -- the beautiful album 2 and 3 and the entirety of those EPs. Space Machine is the perfect counterpoint to Masonna. Rather than screaming noise and physical action, here Yamazaki veers toward the territory of non-rhythmic, pure electronics that resonate heavily with post-war avant-garde synthesis, channeling a similar territory of sonority that emerged from studios like Princeton, Columbia, EMS, GRM, conjoined with more contemporary temperaments of electronica and Onkyo free improvisation as well as the krautrock of Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze's early solo works via analog echo machines and synthesizers (EMS VSC3, Roland System 100 & 100M, PAIA 4700 Modular, Doepfer Modular, among many others). The music of Space Machine has an otherworldly quality, evoking visions of distant galaxies and cosmic landscapes. Deluxe wooden box with digital printing on the lid; contains the first album Cosmos from Diode Ladder Filter released on CD on Alchemy Records, 2 released on Midi Creative, 3 released on double-LP on Tiliqua Records and the four CD EPs released on P-Tapes, California based label run by Damion Romero, reissued for the first in a complete box; accompanied by a square pin and a series of photos of the impressive equipment used; extensive notes in Japanese by Satoru Higashiseto, translated into English by Alan Cummings; edition of 300.
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3LP BOX
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UMA 166LP
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"From around 1998, Yamazaki Maso started to incorporate trippy, spacey electronic elements into Masonna performances. In order to better pursue these elements alone, in 2000 he started Space Machine, his self-labeled 'analog electronic cosmic sound project'. For as long as he had been performing under the Masonna moniker, Yamazaki had been ardent fan of early electronic music from the '50s and '60s, and in order to research the impact that electronic sounds had upon the spiritual lineage audible in sixties US and British psychedelic music and seventies krautrock, Yamazaki began collecting analog synthesizers and vintage electronic equipment. He continuously experimented with these instruments in his home studio, and while groping towards an understanding he discovered a new direction for his own music, a direction different from his work as Masonna. The violent extremity of Masonna live performances made no allowances for avoiding inevitable and direct physical damage to the body. In 2000 Yamazaki was forced to temporarily cease Masonna activities due to ill health, and this allowed him to concentrate more fully on Space Machine. Space Machine -- the end result of Yamazaki's daily inner trip explorations of music at his Space Machine Systems Studio -- and Masonna are like two sides of the same coin. Space Machine's concept exists at the opposite pole to Masonna's screaming noise action and extreme one-man rock band style. In Space Machine, all vocals, physical action and rock elements have been comprehensively excluded in favor of a non-rhythmic, pure electronic sound that cannot even be considered as part of the noise genre. The sounds are created using only analog echo machines and analog synthesizers (including the EMS VSC3, Roland System 100 & 100M, PAIA 4700 Modular, Doepfer Modular, etc.) There is no use whatsoever of the fuzz and distortion effects so characteristic of noise and rock's musical palette and which were heavily featured in Masonna. While the sound does have points in common with what is generally known as electronica or onkyo, what sets it firmly apart is the music's tenaciously psychedelic viewpoint. The absence of a beat signals its difference to the hedonistic physicality of trance dance music. And of course, there is no connection to old synthesizer music with its whiff of religion and its leanings towards new age naturalism. However, in the fervent and endless cosmic spaces of Space Machine, in the infinite floating weave of its future retro electronic tapestry, in its mixture of the organic and inorganic we can perceive an uncanny vibration..." --Satoru Higashiseto (from box set liner notes)
This incredible box, released in a deluxe wooden edition with digital printing on the lid, contains the first album Cosmos From Diode Ladder Filter released on CD on Alchemy Records and the four mini CDs released on P-Tapes, California based label run by Damion Romero, reissued for the first time on vinyl on three records. The box is accompanied by a series of photos of the impressive equipment used by Maso Yamazaki taken by Masahiko Ohno and extensive notes in Japanese by Satoru Higashiseto, translated into English by Alan Cummings. Edition of 199.
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