Tatsuya Nakatani - Green Report 12 (H&H Production, 2004)

----------
Artist
Label
Discogs
last.fm
RYM

I was going to ask the readers to skip what follows and download Green Report 12 immediately, since I think it can be most effective without any prior knowledge of Nakatani. However, this premise will not work for two reasons: (i) an album in which Nakatani collaborated on was posted back in November (with Michel Doneda and Jack Wright) and (ii) plastered right on the cover is "solo percussion." So then I must presume some familiarity on the part of our readers with Nakatani, if only due to the connotations of a solo percussive album.

Before I proceed, I must mention that Tatsuya is currently on tour in the US and will be doing so for the next few months. I highly suggest everyone check him out if he's coming into your town. Through the artist link above you can find his complete schedule. If you happen to take a gander at his schedule, you will notice that there are some gaps in it, both in terms of where and with whom he will be playing. If you happen to reside in one of these areas and would like to see him and/or play with him, it is worth your time to contact Nakatani. When he came through where I live I was only able to stick around for his solo set, so I cannot speak of his improvisational interaction with others; however, what I saw was "rad as fuck."

That aside, some description of what Tatsuya actually does. In his set and, from what I can tell, on this album Nakatani employs a multitude of peculiar extended techniques -- scrapping "prepared" drums with cymbals, abusing singing bowls, and most prominently, bowing gongs -- all together producing sounds you would believe were not percussive unless you were told otherwise. Although all of his set was flabbergasting, the gong work was the truly mind mending tool in his repertoire. The technique works as such: Nakatani bows against the side of various large gongs, primarily toward the top (for better control, as far as I can tell), alternating both the speed and duration of his stroke in order to generate massive overtones, somewhat reminiscent of Robert Rutman's Steel Ensemble. Then, once one gong's reverberations blanket the room, he juxtaposes its sound with another's, whose tones are just enough dissimilar from the first's so that all the right kinds of dissonances challenge your ears. Time suspends and you begin to no longer just hear sound, you actually feel it.

So check this album out, and if it tickles your fancy, support this "master percussionist" (who has also played with nmperign and Nate Wooley, to name a few others) by attending a show of his in your hometown.

Download