Recorded over the course of three days, in live and studio locations around Oakland, California, After School Activity captures kotoist Brett Larner and no-input mixing board wizard Toshimaru Nakamura on a get-together following Larner's relocation to the U.S. West Coast. The three pieces are somewhat quite different from one another, something possibly to be credited to the change of venue. Your Naif could be described as busy when compared to the other two pieces. Larner is not talkative, but he plucks loud notes that reverberate through Nakamura's near-imperceptible tones and occasional clouds of feedback squiggles. Silence is the third player -- and in this studio setting, it is made palpable. Credited only to Nakamura but featuring both players, Knuckle is probably composed, at least to some extent. It sounds somewhat more majestic and choreographed, the isolated strummed chords from the koto and the faint shrouds of feedback describing movements that are more felt than seen or heard. In After School Activity, Larner plays a prepared koto (possibly with the gyroscopes he used for Telemetry Transmission) before opting for a delicate repetitive-yet-unstable motif. Here, musical gestures are self-effaced and the dialogue between the improvisers seems to be extremely fragile -- an impression enhanced by the fact that this 20-minute piece is an ambient capture of a performance on the Artship, where the sounds of the harbor and passersby become an integral part of the music. And the second half of the piece feels as if the players had decided to blend in with the crowd, so that the listener is left guessing what the musicians are doing (or if they could hear each other at all). A very demanding listen, but at times rewarding and meditative. ~ François Couture, Rovi

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