New Release September 2020: Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson and Balázs Pándi present Cuts Open
“We had boxes of percussion laying around, and as we just go with whatever feels right, we just felt like we should try something with the instruments in the boxes. It led us into a totally unknown territory. People who are not familiar with the gentle side of Masami’s music, are surprised when I say that we made a silent Merzbow record, but this is pretty much the case”
Balázs Pándi
On the all-too-rare occasions when Japanese noise legend Masami Akita (aka Merzbow), Swedish saxophone aggressor Mats Gustafsson and blistering Hungarian drummer Balázs Pándi converge, listeners know to brace themselves for a brain-rattling sonic assault. Each of these men alone had long been established as among the most ferocious of artists long before they came together to record their savage 2013 debut, Cuts; the onslaught was only intensified with the addition of Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore for a pair of overpowering follow-ups (Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper and Cuts Up, Cuts Out).
The anticipation of such musical violence is what makes this most recent outing, Cuts Open, so entrancingly unsettling. Reconvened as a trio once again, Gustafsson, Pándi and Akita found themselves exploring far more spacious and airy soundscapes than is typical for their explosive meetings. The results are no less sanguinary for being unusually quiet (relatively speaking, of course; this trio’s “serene” is the equivalent of most musicians’ wildest extremes).
Instead, the use of agitated percussion and hair-raising breathiness makes for a decidedly ominous atmosphere. When the occasional bursts of brutality arrive – and they do arrive, in all their eviscerating glory – they’re almost cathartic in their relief from the teeth-gnashing tension of the album’s more subdued moments, where menace hangs in the air like a thinly veiled threat.
“This is a very, very special record for the trio. There’s so much air in it. It turned into something completely different, and I love when that happens.”
Mats Gustafsson
Release Date: September 25th, 2020
Masami Akita : noise electronics, percussion
Mats Gustafsson : flute, fluteophone, baritone saxophone, live electronics and percussion
Balázs Pándi : drums, percussion
Cuts Open
CD 1/LP 1:
1 – I went down to Brother 23:25
2 – And we went Home 23:23
CD 2 / LP 2:
3 – We went up with Mother 21:11
4 – He locked the Door 17:51
All compositions by Masami Akita, Mats Gustafsson, Balazs Pandi
Published by RareNoisePublishing (PRS)
Recorded at Studio Gok, June 18, 2018
Edited and mixed by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Tokyo, June 2018
Mastered by James Plotkin @plotkinworks, June 2020
Titles inspired by Karin Smirnoff
Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords: Giacomo Bruzzo
Artwork and Design by @rokhond
© + ℗ RareNoiseRecords 2020
Cat. No.: RNR122 (CD) / RNR122LP (VINYL)
