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2LP
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RTNE 001LP
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Japanese sound artist and producer Kosei Fukuda's presents a collaborated vision of the first edition of ENSō, a two-day audio-visual event collated around the REITEN label. The ENSō Festival invites its artists and audiences alike to appreciate the merging of the improvisational, with the contemplation of rhythmic cycles, based around the conception of ensō -- meaning a hand-drawn circle created by one uninterrupted stroke. Now, with an elongated stretch of time ahead before the next edition of the festival, the compilation stands to provide a sustained glimpse into the world imagined by Fukuda. Blending spontaneity and gravity alike, the record features an array of idiosyncratic artists set to play ENSō, all purveyors of their own shaped sound-worlds. Features Kosei Fukuda, Uchi, YPY, Recent Arts, Renick Bell, MA + Kosei Fukuda, Yves De Mey, Tobias., Katsunori Sawa, Yuji Kondo, Rabih Beaini, ENA, and Lemna.
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LP
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RTN 016LP
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Hypertext is the third album by Recent Arts, the A/V duo formed by media artist Valentina Berthelon and multi-disciplinary artist Tobias Freund. Out via Japan's Reiten, its nine tracks mirror Recent Arts new, forthcoming A/V show, following their previous debuts also at Atonal and Berghain's Säule of the recent years. Hypertext video projections and experimental electronic music synergize ideas of non-linear data and information processing, drawing parallels to computational thinking with the way our human brains biologically process information. Visuals are the catalysts for the music, inspired by the overwhelming amount of information and the speed at which we consume different media, featuring a cacophony of hundreds of different media, poetry, images of surveillance and clips of artificial intelligence and machine learning. For the visuals, Valentina uses jarring and intense visual juxtaposition to create moments of both connection and displacement. References mix and intermingle, creating new meanings. Symbols become charged, inviting the audience deeper into the vortex. Computers similarly digest information, but unlike the human brain, their ability to generate information is not exceeded by their capacity to understand. For the sound, Tobias and Valentina made together droning, moody soundscapes, almost as though the internal voice of the computer world was captured and recorded. Inspired by the visual aesthetic of hyperlinks collaged and non-linear nature, the album reflects this in the ambience, where samples float in and out of contact with the listener, catching and holding attention before floating away awash by more elements and compositions. There is a definite blurring of the digital and the biological, voices sound distant and robotic, but droning soundscapes feel natural and textured with an organic tone. In the first track "Just Be There" spoken word samples mix with ethereal chiming, reminiscent of the start-up modems from Web 1.0. "Pull The Emergency Breaks" similarly mixes poetry with uncanny atmospheres popping in and out until it finally climaxes in a collage of sounds. On the B-side "Invisible Waves" finishes off the record with a volatile dervish of digital strings and deep breathing.
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2LP
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RTN 013LP
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After two series of conceptual EPs and the intricate experimental "Enso" Festival compilation, Kosei Fukuda returns with a full-length solo project, and his debut album. This marks his thirteenth release on the Reiten label, a platform he created to showcase his techno music and a more general, experimental aesthetic agenda. As a producer and sound artist, Fukuda has shared his time between Tokyo and Berlin. The artist's energy has now been channeled toward making one coherent authorial statement capable of bringing all the strands of his musical and theoretical outlook together, while also distilling a new vision that transcends the confines of the dancefloor. It comes in the form of the generous double album entitled Ruten -- a Japanese concept whose closest Western counterpart is the ancient Greek notion of "panta rhei". Referencing Heraclitus' famous adage that "everything flows" is not just the philosophical inspiration behind the album but also the succinct aesthetic manifesto of sorts. The full-length perfectly facilitates the task of expressing this insight and reinterpreting it for a new generation of listeners. In principle, the two albums called Ruten- and Ruten+ are meant to represent the principle of ying and yang, the two elemental forces and the eternal cycle of energy. As a whole, they signify a journey from the nascent being to the eventual dissolution of everything into nothing. Yet there's still a deeper message at play: the omnipresence of patterns. Even the incessant flow of changes is patterned. In this work, Fukuda hints at an idea that a pattern is both an abstract structural quality and a concrete aesthetic value. The music contained here is a complex sonic story about the interlocking meanings of pattern and flow, and it is a meditative exploration of the human experience of this entwinement. The first volume starts appropriately with the unassuming intro "dawn" and proceeds from the investigative look at the evanescent yet tangible droplets of "mist" and on to the contemplative gaze at the most distant, unreachable constellation of "nebula". Regardless of metaphorical intent though, the music moves within one universe of downtempo, ambient, and drone, combining the palpable beats (rhythmic pattern) with the atmospheric backgrounds (harmonic flow). As is the case with all Reiten label releases, the carefully designed sonic textures and moods take precedence over traditional melodic lines. But make no mistake -- this is not a self-indulgent "free" experimentalism. Rather, it's a progression of loose but recognizable sonic shapes or figures.
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2LP
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RTN 012LP
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After two series of conceptual EPs and the intricate experimental "Enso" Festival compilation, Kosei Fukuda returns with a full-length solo project, and his debut album. This marks his thirteenth release on the Reiten label, a platform he created to showcase his techno music and a more general, experimental aesthetic agenda. As a producer and sound artist, Fukuda has shared his time between Tokyo and Berlin. The artist's energy has now been channeled toward making one coherent authorial statement capable of bringing all the strands of his musical and theoretical outlook together, while also distilling a new vision that transcends the confines of the dancefloor. It comes in the form of the generous double album entitled Ruten -- a Japanese concept whose closest Western counterpart is the ancient Greek notion of "panta rhei". Referencing Heraclitus' famous adage that "everything flows" is not just the philosophical inspiration behind the album but also the succinct aesthetic manifesto of sorts. The full-length perfectly facilitates the task of expressing this insight and reinterpreting it for a new generation of listeners. In principle, the two albums called Ruten- and Ruten+ are meant to represent the principle of ying and yang, the two elemental forces and the eternal cycle of energy. As a whole, they signify a journey from the nascent being to the eventual dissolution of everything into nothing. Yet there's still a deeper message at play: the omnipresence of patterns. Even the incessant flow of changes is patterned. In this work, Fukuda hints at an idea that a pattern is both an abstract structural quality and a concrete aesthetic value. The music contained here is a complex sonic story about the interlocking meanings of pattern and flow, and it is a meditative exploration of the human experience of this entwinement. The first volume starts appropriately with the unassuming intro "dawn" and proceeds from the investigative look at the evanescent yet tangible droplets of "mist" and on to the contemplative gaze at the most distant, unreachable constellation of "nebula". Regardless of metaphorical intent though, the music moves within one universe of downtempo, ambient, and drone, combining the palpable beats (rhythmic pattern) with the atmospheric backgrounds (harmonic flow). As is the case with all Reiten label releases, the carefully designed sonic textures and moods take precedence over traditional melodic lines. But make no mistake -- this is not a self-indulgent "free" experimentalism. Rather, it's a progression of loose but recognizable sonic shapes or figures.
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