Haruyuki Suzuki - Experimental Music of Japan: Electronic Works 2 (Special Edition) (2023)

"I’m going to talk about the works in this CD. It includes CIRCUIT I and CIRCUIT III, they belong to the CIRCUIT series”. CIRCUIT II was included in my "Electronic Works vol.1. I’m going to explain for those people who don’t know the "Works vol.1”. In the series of electronic music entitled CIRCUIT, the next work is created using the material from the previous one. At first I burn the precious CD into two CDRs, next I cross them and make new CIRCUIT music by using two CD-J players. Since this operation can be continued forever, CIRCUIT IV will be created by multiplying CIRCUIT III in the future. This series can be listened to on its own, but it would be interesting to compare it with the previous one or the next one. Since the material is the same, you will hear the same kind of sound, but in some cases, it may be completely transformed, and in other cases, it may remain the same. If you listen to this CD alone, you may feel that the change between CIRCUIT I and CIRCUIT III is significant, because CIRCUIT II is missing. In addition, there are many improvisational elements that intervene in the multiplication of this CIRCUIT series, and although it can be performed live, the result will be different each time it is performed.

Therefore, the only identifiability of the work lies in the fact that it was created from the same material. For example, if CIRCUIT III were to be performed somewhere in the future based on CIRCUIT II, it would be different (but roughly similar) to CIRCUIT III on this CD. In other words, unlike fixed electronic music, there is no definitive version of a work, and multiple versions of a work are created from time to time. Thus, the CIRCUIT series on CD is also not a definitive version, but a version from time to time.

Creeps and Fil were composed in 2001 and 2005, respectively, and have never been released publicly. I don't remember the details of Creeps because I composed it so long time ago, but I remember I made it using a Roland VS-1680 digital MTR, which I often used at that time. This piece belongs to an unusual trend in my electronic music: music that people observes its minimal repetition and gradual changes in noise.

Fil is not at all similar to Creeps, it’s partly because they have originally different direction, but also because I started to use CD-J during this period. The change in equipment used has a profound effect on the concept. This CD-J line has continued to this day, and in that respect, Fil is broadly similar to the way the CIRCUIT series was created.

Only Transmitted Light is not electronic music, but an electrone* piece. This piece was commissioned and premiered by Yukino Ichikawa in 2017. If this piece sounds so peculiar in this CD, it is not because it is instrumental music, but because it is a different line from the other pieces. I won't bore you with the details, but I have recently been referring to this line as "elastic series”. It is completely different music from Creeps, but they were both influenced by Steve Reich. Come to think of it, I've never composed ‘elastic’ electronic music yet, so I will try to make it some next time." - Haruyuki Suzuki

Special edition is added a CDR. It consists of all tracks of “Electronic Works 1”, released in 2008 and out of print, and unreleased a piece Telescopic for ondes martenot as bonus track. limited to 80 copies.

"This CD includes four of my electronic works. The oldest piece Concret II composed in 1985, points toward noise sound. The triptych, Go And Back series composed in 1996 are as if the same print in different colors, because the MIDI data are quite the same, but the sound materials are different. Since around 2005, I often use CD-J players to compose electronic music, it was the influence from Luc Ferrari to me. Circuit II was composed in 2006, used 2 CD-J players. The most important point of advantage of CD-J player for me, was previously I can prepare sound materials to make CD-R which is to be processed by CD-J, which is difficult by turntable for LP records. Bustling for Luc was composed in 2007 and dedicated for my souvenir with Luc Ferrari. The material is only the environmental sound of busy quarters in Tokyo. On the other hand its systematic transformation is under the influence of American experimental music, particularly James Tenney. - from liner note of “Electronic Works 1” - from liner note of “Electronic Works 1”.

Telescopic was commissioned and premiered by Motoko Oya in 2014. In terms of direction of this piece, it belongs to my "Punctuation" series. Since it is a piece for ondes martenot, it is an instrumental piece, not electronic music. Although I had been interested in ondes martenot for a long time, this was the first time I actually worked on it, and I remember that I struggled a lot with it. In particular, ondes martenot requires many switchings between various operations to change tones, etc., and it was difficult to grasp the degree of difficulty of these operations. In "Punctuation" series, sound events are treated extremely symbolically. It is, so to speak, a perceptual game of expectation and its betrayal, and may seem static compared to my electronic music, which tends to be created by the expressive power of sound." - Haruyuki Suzuki

Tracklist
CD1
01 - Curcuit I
02 - Creeps
03 - Fil
04 - Transmitted Light (透過光)
05 - Circuit III (version 2023)

CD2
01 - Concret Ⅱ
02 - Go And Back -a
03 - Go And Back -b
04 - Go And Back -c
05 - Circuit Ⅱ
06 - Bustling For Luc
07 - Telescopic