hamaYôko
Triptyque de l’oeil
CD (E99)
This album, Yôko Higashi’s fifth as hamaYôko, features
a triptych of pipe organ improvisations recorded at St
Augustin’s Church in Croix Rousse, Lyon. Higashi likens
these tracks to a “an old painting of a foggy landscape”.
They are augmented by two silent passages and a
fourth track, Panthere d’Erebos.
See also hamaYôko and Outposts
First edition of 300 copies
Yôko Higashi, Higashi-Nakano, Tokyo 2011
Photograph by Martin Holtkamp
Its so hard to be able to judge this album in any way.
What is it to be measured against? I don’t know any-
thing else quite like it. It isn’t something that i would
generally speaking go out in search of (who would?
I can’t imagine this CD having any kind of target
audience) but its absolutely a disc that kept me comp-
letely engaged throughout the few times I played it,
even if only out of constant curiosity and even a degree
of incredulity. Certainly highly original, Triptyque de
l’oeil is a bit of a one-off. I’m sure that Yôko Higashi
probably has a strong following, and has the potential
to find a considerable audience out there, but right
now I don’t quite know who to recommend this disc
to, other than those that have been waiting for either
a musique concrète/electro pop mix or perhaps just
those that enjoy something different.
More
Richard Pinnell at The Watchful Ear
—
Triptyque... is a suite which appears to play on trompe
l’oeil and the notion of the third eye. It’s dominated
by three pipe organ improvisations, the first of which,
Oeil Centre, is a terrific, potent 18 minute amalgam
of pealing tones and rich, throbbing drones. It opens
the album, making what follows sound a little anti-
climatic. The shorter Oeil Gauche and Oeil Droit map
similar territory, the former distorting the vocals of
Chico Antonio, introduced on Panthere D’Erebos.
Nick Cain in The Wire