KAKUSENJO NO ONGAKU

A diverse soundscape which bounces between atmospheric nature noises, tribal chanting and outright chaos, the ensemble-style Base of Fiction is one of those obscure albums that I only managed to get to via a YouTube video (filed under Jyoji Sawada) with just 812 views. Two of which were me.

Its somewhat disjointed - I found it very difficult to work out where a track ended and another started as the instrumental styles change suddenly mid-track - given there are almost 20 musicians (mostly strings and percussion) there's a lot of people to give their time to shine. As well as some jarring passages there are moments of real beauty though, and it is worth listening to twice. Such is the variety, I don't feel like I can pick out anything specifically as everyone's listen would be different. That does mean I'd never be willing to listen to the album in its entirety. It's certainly not poor, but definitely only one for collectors.