Catch-Wave cover

Catch-Wave

Released

One reason this album is so hard to categorize is that half of the music here qualifies as synth drone—an oscillator and a filter and an envelope all doing their things—but the other part of this music is an improvisor using violin and voice and other electronic means to unleash unpredictable ribbons of varying pitch and timbre. Each of the two pieces takes up as much vinyl as you could occupy in 1975, which is about 24 minutes. This music isn’t so much prayer or lament, even though it feels initially like it might be. On the second side, Kosugi starts saying “wave” and “code” (in English) and works around what seems like the same synth drone from side one. Kosugi bends the words as sound and lets sense dissolve.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Recommended by

Suggestions
The Cherry Thing Remixes cover

The Cherry Thing Remixes

The Thing, Neneh Cherry
New Neighborhoods cover

New Neighborhoods

Various Artists
13 cover

13

Norman Westberg
Aerial cover

Aerial

Anna Thorvaldsdóttir
My Pharaoh, My King cover

My Pharaoh, My King

John Moloney, Anthony Pasquarosa
Instrumentals 2015 cover

Instrumentals 2015

Flying Saucer Attack
D’agala cover

D’agala

Sylvie Courvoisier
Femenine cover

Femenine

Julius Eastman
After the Heat cover

After the Heat

Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius