Japanese prolific, experimental musician Pain Jerk (aka Kohei Gomi, 五味浩平) was associated with the Japanese «dynamic» noise music scene of the 1980s and 1990s, alongside Merzbow, and at that time he released home recordings with his label AMP. Today Pain Jerk focuses on «exploration and practice of kinematics of electro-acoustics using unorthodox methodologies, mainly using live-electronics, synths and computers». He has collaborated with like-minded Norwegian musicians like Lasse Marhaug and MoE.
The chamber work Dots Kinematics For Electronics & Chamber Orchestra Version II was commissioned in 2017 by the 11-musicians The Touchables ensemble (including Pain Herk on computer and synth), led by bassist Guro Skumsnes Moe (who plays the octobass on this album, released the album on her label, ConradSound, and is the founder of the cultural center Børsen Kulturhus), and performed and recorded at Atelier Nord ANX in Oslo in December 2017.
The 33-minute composition focuses on low-frequency instruments such as the octobass, bass trombone (played by Ole-Henrik Moe), bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet, bassoon, cello (played by Katrine Schiøtt), double bass (played by Magnus Nergaard) and two percussionists. This intriguing and genre-defying composition captures faithfully the experimental spirit of Pain Jerk that drew inspiration from seminal influences of idiosyncratic, avant-garde composers like John Cage and David Tudor or electronic musician Mika Vaino, and at the same time still flirts and refines the fragmented, raw and unpredictable sonic palette and syntax of noise and electronic music and its otherworldly sonorities.
Eyal Hareuveni
Painjerk (computer, synthesizer), Guro Skumsnes Moe (octobass). Ole-Henrik Moe (violin, piccoletto violin, bass trombone, cello), Kari Rønnekleiv (violin, viola, French horn), Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen (percussion), Laura Marie Rueslåtten (handbells), Gjertrud Pedersen (bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet), Hanne Rekdal (bassoon), Magnus Nergaard (double bass), Katrine Schiøtt (cello), Joakim Heibø (percussion)
