{"title":"June Chikuma","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"june-chikuma-les-archives","title":"June Chikuma - Les Archives","description":"\u003ch3\u003eCAT: FTS010\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelease Date: March 22, 2019 \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eis composed, arranged, and produced by the elusive Japanese artist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eJune Chikuma\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. While \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eFreedom To Spend’s\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e reinvented edition bares little visual evidence of its origins in the composer’s name, title, or sleeve design, the album, a whooping gonzo of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and a mysterious string quartet, remains \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eas vibrant now as it did when released on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eToru Hatano’s\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Picture Label as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDivertimento\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e in 1986. In fact, the music of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e now glows with a different purpose; one that revises the past while maintaining, and finally elevating, its hidden influence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA woman of multiple disciplines and identities, June Chikuma (竹間 淳, Chikuma Jun) has composed for TV, film, and video games over the past thirty plus years. Her proto-techno and drum and bass soundtracks for Nintendo’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBomberman\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e franchise in the 80s and 90s is an oeuvre unto itself. In more recent years her musical focus has turned toward classic Arabic and Egyptian music. Chikuma studies Arabic nay, playing and performing with \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eLe Club Bachraf \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eensemble. In a melding of June’s contrasting, colorful worlds, Le Club Bachraf composed part of the original score for the 2007 video game \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSonic and The Secret Rings\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eFor \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, Chikuma constructed a sonic stage to animate her imaginings as a one-person show. The primary props, a KORG SDD-3000 digital delay, an audible, overt display of unclassified drum machines and samplers, and a litany of literary references. Following the original album’s sequence, “Broadcast Profanity Delay” bursts onto \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e first scene full of buoyant energy and fluttering atmospheric pressure. The composition was conceived by Chikuma for a make-believe marimba ensemble, and in this shapeshifting form, takes on its own mutant life. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“Pataphysique” is a term for the study of an imaginary realm additional to metaphysics, and the track on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emost conducive to dancing (even if those movements might conjure the herkiest, jerkiest imagery). “Divertimento,” the heretofore title track of the album, brandishes a tough electro exoskeleton with a molten 18th century orchestral interlude nine minutes into the nearly thirteen minute piece. Chikuma dedicates “Divertimento” to composers \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eWolfgang Amadeus Mozart\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul Hindemith\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e for his alignment with the New Objectivity movement. By the composition’s conclusion the object’s particles have been completely obliterated and assembled again. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe cacophony of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e parts to reveal a clearing with “Climb-Down,” Chikuma’s tribute to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eErik Satie’s\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Furniture music (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emusique d’ameublement\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e). The \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichiyo Toda String Quartet’s \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003esomber string interpretation of June’s composition offers a grace unlike the Rube Goldberg of punchy programming and found sound on the surrounding electronic machination. After this acoustic respite the electricity is switched on again. “Dual Use” repurposes the constitution of “Divertimento” as a slight samba, complete with Godzilla samples.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eRecorded during the original \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDivertimento\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e sessions at Hugh Studio in Tokyo but excluded from the original album release, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003epresents two unheard pieces. “Mujo to Ifukoto” works as interspecies smalltalk between synthetic instruments and environmental samples. Lush strings interrupt synth sweeps, said sweeps giving way to a concrète concert of crickets and church bells. Countering the title’s claim of dispassionate decision-making in the midst of crisis, “Oddman Hypothesis” is deliberately restrained, aside from the shatter marking the start, and resembles the City Pop and fusion movements that defined Japan’s musical landscape in the 80s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eChiikuma’s neon-vibrant aesthetic would be at home soundtracking films like \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAfter Hours\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e or \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTeknolust\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. However, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is the score for a movie of mistaken identity – clones redressed in a guise of the artist’s re-coding. The legitimate artifact deceives history. There is no original, but this copy is singular and complete.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eJune Chikuma’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLes Archives\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is available now as an LP with limited edition 7” and digital formats via Freedom To Spend.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1fepd1R6DHY\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8W36HrXtdu0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ObeJihkCJks\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"FTS010","offers":[{"title":"DIGITAL - $10","offer_id":19039516360773,"sku":"FTS010DIGI","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP + 7\" - $25","offer_id":19039516295237,"sku":"FTS010LP","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0026\/6993\/6709\/products\/FTS010_-_Digital_Cover_-_1500px.png?v=1599774108"}],"url":"https:\/\/igetrvng.com\/collections\/june-chikuma.oembed","provider":"RVNG Intl.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}