Soyokaze (cassette)

*Two Japanese acts team up with Arnold de Boer (Zea, The Ex) and create half an hour of minimal off-the-grid instant compositions*

In the last week of September 2022 two Japanese acts OLOLOLOP and Arakawa Atsushi flew into Amsterdam to take part of the OCCII 30YEARS Festival, a three-day festival to celebrate the 30th birthday of Amsterdam’s most adventurous underground venue OCCII. For all four Japanese musicians this was the first time to visit and play in The Netherlands and they took a few extra days to explore the country and it’s capital. This gave me the idea to take them to the Dutch flower fields where, in an old bulb barn, the Katzwijm Studio is located. We decided to bring all instruments, set up and play and have it recorded, without any arrangements or preparation. It was the first time we met, we hardly knew each other’s music, strengths nor weaknesses, but curiosity led the way. After a quick soundcheck we just started to play, to improvise, to listen and respond. After a short break we discussed the idea of using vocals. A couple of days earlier I had run across the poetry of 20th century Dutch poet Sybren Polet. The minimal approach and playful way of Olololop’s Masaru controlling the ‘drum robot’ and the sample wizardry of Arakawa Atsushi made me think of Polet’s Machine Poems. I looked them up and found a wonderful translation into English by André Lefevere. I took one of the poems, we started playing and all of a sudden, we were creating a song. It was a hot sunny day and all what happened musically felt like a fresh wind, a breeze; Soyokaze in Japanese. Listening back to the recordings a week later, after the big OCCII celebration, we decided to release this completely new music on both our labels in Europe and Japan and put it out on cassette. Enjoy!

Arnold de Boer / Zea
Amsterdam, Jan. 2023