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Last Concert

Last Concert

a review by simon hopkins of
release format Last Concert by Ground-Zero (CD Album)

text

This CD, claims its own sleevenotes "will have a place of great importance... for musicologists." It'd be nice to think so; in the meantime it's a remarkable document of the closing moments in the career of one of the 90s' most important musical projects. The album presents almost the entire concert given by Otomo Yoshihide's Ground-Zero at On Air West in Shibuya, Tokyo, in March 1998 - indeed, their last ever live performance. As an epitaph, a bookend, endpiece, whatever... it's remarkable,

As I write, there's no question that Otomo is one of the half-dozen most important musicians on the planet. By the time he founded Ground-Zero at the beginning of the decade, he was already a renowned improvisor. But it was during the G-Z that his talents really emerged - as an improvising turntablist rivalled by no-ne, as a guitarist, as a composer and, increasingly, as an electronics manipulator. Since he disbanded the group, he's concentrated on this last aspect of his musical persona. What's intriguing about this live album is how that style is integrated into 'played' or 'instrumental' improvisation.

By 1998, Ground-Zero had grown into a massive group: two drummers (Uemura Masahiro and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro), three saxophonists (Hirose Junji, Kikuchi Naruyoshi and Okura Masahiko), Sachiko M (Otomo's current colleague in Filament) on sampler, synth players Chino Shuichi, Masuko Tatsuki and Nagata Kazunao, koto player Tanaka Yumiko and bassist Nasuno Mitsuru. Kondo Yoshigaki was resposible for live mixing and Otomo, of course, abused guitar and turntables alike.

For a group of this size - and instrumental diversity - to turn in an hour of group improvisation could lead to chaos. Instead, there's a keen sense of structure here, as the piece builds and builds and builds. Along the way, we encounter Free Rock jamming, warped 'ethnic' settings, ambient abstraction, nods to film soundtracks and explosive jazz. By the end, the music self-combusts and we're left with minute after minute of sine-wave minimalism: Otomo's future direction plainly stated. The results are, above all else, exhilarating. If you listen closely to Last Concert you'll have the sense of having to hold on to something very fast - very tightly. Ground-Zero RIP. Or not. Posted by simon hopkins at 00:00, 17 Aug 2000