ここ [Here], 灰野敬二 [Keiji Haino] (2003)
Keiji Haino’s music does something to me which I can’t explain. He seems to render me boyishly glassy-eyed and dormant throughout most of his releases, in awe at the ingenuity of every fresh stylistic leap he’s ever made. He reduces me to silly phrases like “absolutely bloody gorgeous”, from which I go on to develop nothing. I rarely go beyond nonspecific commentary interrupted by nervous humour that never truly grasps his music or contribution to contemporary experimentalism.
Here is another of those releases, a live album that throws off any and all of one’s expectations of a Haino work. An ambient record that is so rich and singular in its own style that one can hardly believe it isn’t celebrated more widely, Here is alone as a precursor to the likes of Tim Hecker, Ben Frost and the Caretaker. It’s an outstanding moment in Haino’s discography, a piece of music that seems to transcend what an individual can do in a live solo performance because, put simply, it is absolutely bloody gorgeous.
