Space in the Sun was one of Akio Suzuki’s major sound projects, a unique construction completed in 1988 and located on the merdian line, which took around 18 months to build. Its purpose was to allow Suzuki to spend one day, on the autumnal equinox, purifying his sense of hearing in nature. This release comprises a 44 page book containing plans and materials from the time alongside texts, and two CDs of environmental recordings created on site at Space in the Sun. To date only tiny fragments of the recordings made between those massive clay brick walls have been used in performances and no environmental recordings of the objective of the project, i.e. the space itself, have been released. The first disk consists of the first release of “person-less” field recordings made at the same spot that Akio sat at during the event (recorded in 1993, 60 minutes). The second disk consists of a performance that took place in the space. Space in the Sun’s earthen walls have since been demolished, so these recordings represent a return to life of their soft echo, an experience accessible nowhere else.
CD1: A record of the space (60:00)
An unedited one hour cut, taken from one of the three different recordings of Space in the Sun. Recorded by Yoshihiro Kawasaki.
CD2: Playing in the space: Throwing and Following (41:30)
A record of a performance by Suzuki at Space in the Sun using tree branches and small pebbles.
Referring to "Study Time", Zeitstudie presents two works each for two instruments developed by sound artist Akio Suzuki and recorded in Germany in 1984: the ANALAPOS, an echo instrument used to project the performer's voice across a coil spring; and the "De Koolmees" glass harmonica, 5 glass tubes in a metal frame that are struck or rubbed to create unique sounds.
In 1979, Akio Suzuki recorded a performance, ’New Sense Of Hearing’, at the Nagoya American Centre. During the performance, Suzuki used voice, turntables, glass harmonica and his self-designed instrument the Analapos to create a series of improvised pieces that effectively charted out his sonic investigations for the proceeding decades.
In 1980 these recordings were issued by ALM records as Analapos, the first work made publicly available by Akio Suzuki.
For going on six decades now, Akio Suzuki has been responsible for creating amongst the most otherworldly, yet deeply affective sound works of his generation. As a musician, sculptor and sound artist, Suzuki’s work threads an important linkage between Eastern and Western sound art practices. His approaches, that focus primarily on intense states of listening, ’throwing and following’ and a relentless sense of open curiosity, have allowed him to continuously deepen his work.
Originally published in an edition of just 200 copies in 1980, Analapos has been out of print literally since its release. Clocking in an over an hour, the original pressing of the recordings to a single LP, presented some technical limitations.
This 40th anniversary edition of Analapos is entirely remastered and is published with a booklet that includes a long form interview with Akio Suzuki conducted by sound artist and collaborator Aki Onda, plus extensive photographic documentation of the development of the Analapos. The publication of this edition is announced in conjunction with the Sense Of Ekō retrospective exhibition which opens at The Substation in Melbourne late January.
Needless to say, Akio Suzuki is one of the representative sound artists in Japan. Many of his previous releases are sometimes interpreted as the work of a hermit or wizard creating beautiful sounds with his self-made musical instrument called “Analapos,” glass harmonica (De Koolmees), and stone flute, but the title of Suzuki's first sound piece, aidan ni Mono wo Nageru (Throwing Things at the Stairs) at Nagoya Station in 1963, reflects his perspective on the noises in his work. This LP consists of two 2009 performances created with the use of radio. “Howling Objects,” with reverberation of a large museum space, and “a i sha,” in which the radio moves throughout the museum, can be noise itself, but they exist in accordance with the method of “Oto-date” and “Tadori” for which Suzuki has been continuously searching. Here, an approach to Suzuki’s hardcore sound in his nature is surely concentrated. “It was at a solo exhibition in the Minamigaro gallery in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 1976 when I held the premiere showing of “Howling Objects”. When I inserted the microphone into the cylinder of the stand type Analapos, and played echo sound, I was surprised to cause a howling. From that incident, I arranged iron “wappa” boxes (cylindrical containers formed by bending a thin plate), inserted two wireless microphones with echoes in the boxes and moved the position of the boxes to search for a sound. ... In the performance I did at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, I used roll papers, microphones and radios to revisit “Howling Objects”. These radios and microphones used from the 1970s have been increasingly degraded in recent years, so this performance has become the last one. “a i sha” is a performance in which the two radios used in “Howling Objects” are loaded onto a small dolly and moved around the museum. After setting the radios to AM, selecting the noise wavelengths and tuning the two radios to be able to hear an interesting rhythm, I adjust the volume to an appropriate level and start. As the sound landscape changes by the directionality of radio by moving over to a corridor, wide space and a window, I share the sound field with the people who happen to be there by chance and the people chasing the dolly”. Akio Suzuki Full-color cover photo on sleeve. New liner notes in Japanese and English by Suzuki. Limited edition of 250.
Composition and performance: Akio Suzuki. Production: Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken. Performance 17.10.97 & Performance 20.10.97. Composition and Performance: Akio Suzuki. “A CD of minimalist environmental sounds by this Japanese sound-artist, previously known for his fabulous Soundsphere CD on the Dutch Het Apollohuis label. "This music was recorded in Takano, Tango-cho, the northern-most coast of Kyoto, where I live. The bay surrounded by volcanic rock caves is the place where the mighty sounds of waves of the open sea have their muffled echo. Seawater flows into the hollows in the rock again and again like breathing in and breathing out. Spring water constantly drips in the cave, and now and then the wind from the meadow above the chasm brings the sounds of the crickets...the sound spaces of the coast of Takano. A site of a new encounter with the rhythm of the sounds of the sea."
Recorded at Yokosuka Museum of Art on 9-10 January 2007. Sound artist Akio Suzuki’s brand new CD is released just now ! This CD is consisting of 9 tracks mainly his self-made sound object “Analapos” and “De Koolmees”, and 2 tracks of them are recorded for announce sound of opening and closing of Yokosuka Museum of Art. They are so clear and spacy. Booklet is written by himself, David Toop and others. Text in Japanese and English. ALM Records is well known label that has released many avant-garde LP titles in 70-80’s. Especially about Akio Suzuki, two LPs has been released - obscure
solo LP (limited 100 copies) and "New Sence of Hearing" with Kosugi.