an unlettered concordance
of the music of keiji haino

nijiumu recordings

index of nijiumu recordings

• introduction to nijiumu recordings
  
  
• era of sad wings
• driftworks
• nijiumu la musica cdrom #1
• nijiumu la musica cdrom #2
  
  
• closing to nijiumu recordings

introduction to nijiumu recordings
Many of the named ensembles of Haino that originated around Haino seem to represent concepts more than ensembles. This applies to Nijiumu, Fushitsusha and Aihiyo. Nijiumu is the "soundtrack group", Fushitsusha the "rock group" and Aihiyo the "cover band". Each of these ensembles has been a proper band and each has at least one instance of being a solo project as well. For Nijiumu, a history can be traced back as far as 1990 when a unit comprised of Keiji Haino (vocals, percussion, ethnic instruments), Asahito Nanjo (vocals, bass, percussion), Takashi Matsuoka (piano, vocals) and Uchida (bass) performed live and in the studio in January and February, 1990. In the same year, Haino released a solo album titled Nijiumu, which contains music in a similar vein to that of the ensemble, Nijiumu. The subsequent Nijiumu recordings do not provide the names of any of the participating musicians, including Haino, so the line-up is anyone's guess. The vintage of the Nijium discs released by Asahito Nanjo is unknown.

Nijiumu was Haino’s soundtrack band, meaning the music is intended to create an atmosphere. In the case of Nijiumu, the atmosphere is dark and spooky. Is there anything out there like this? This could be called a gentle version of the low frequency recordings by Lustmord, like Heresy, The Monstrous Soul, and The Place Where the Black Stars Hang. The comparison is not exact; Nijiumu is more musical, but the atmosphere and the effect of the atmosphere on the listener share similarities.

As I did for the solo Nijiumu record, I can provide a factual description of the non-existent film for which this soundtrack is intended.

The protagonist, known to the audience only as Milkshake, is walking through the land of the dead. It is night as it always is in the land of the dead; the moon is shattered, the starlight is weak and sick. The shadowed landscape is barren and parched. The trees are skeletal, devoid of leaves. There are a variety of metal gates set in isolated spots, leading from nowhere to nowhere, connected by nothing; there are no fences. The iron of the gates has been wrought into grotesquely distortions of tortured and weeping faces. From time to time there is a sour wind that picks up and rustles through branches and causes the gates to creak eerily. In all directions, the horizon is devoid of features. The land of dead is infinite.

Milkshake himself is not dead himself and how he came to be in the land of the dead is not explained. My bet is that he fell in a deep dark hole, but that’s only a guess. He is looking for someone in the land of the dead. I think it is his wife, but it may very well be his daughter. There is a grief etched on his face matched only by the hopelessness of his mission. He sees no sign of activity in the land of the dead. He has no map, no clue, no guidance as to what to do, which direction to take.

There are small burrows in the dirt. From these burrows, glinting yellow eyes appear. They are not the eyes of the dead. They are the eyes of otherwise colorless demons who will tear our protagonist to shreds should he venture into their dens. But they do not move of their own accord, content to wait patiently for Milkshake to lose all hope and throw himself into a burrow in a final statement of despair.

What happens in this movie? Does Milkshake find who he is looking for? Of course not. The movie is not about finding and resolving anything. The movie is about an unchanging feeling and a place that never ends.

Could a brilliant white angel descend into the picture and warn our hero of the bleak prospects before him? Of course, this may have actually happened in the movie; I forget whether it did or I am just remembering it that way. Regardless, it doesn’t make any difference. Milkshake doesn’t know how to get back. He fell from the sky. He can no more return there than can a meteorite buried in the earth. Milkshake drives the angel away with half-hearted ways of his arms, like the wind shifting a scarecrow to startle a bird.

There is a beauty and serenity in this movie that come not so much from the desolate landscape as from the warmth in the soundtrack.

Driftworks was a four cd boxed set that contained the following records

• disc one - Thomas Koner - "Nuuk"
• disc two - Nijiumu - "Live"
• disc three - Pauline Oliveros & Randy Raine-Reusch - "In the Shadow of the Phoenix"
• disc four - Paul Schutze - "stateless"

Text forthcoming.

La Musica is a cassette and cdr label run by Asahito Nanjo of High Rise (among other things). As with the cassette releases on La Musica in the collaborations and compilations sections, there is some dispute over whether this is a bootleg or an official release. I include it because this cd-rom was sold at the merchandise table at High Rise shows during their U.S. tour in 1999. If the musician is selling the recording, it's official enough for me. The cdr does not list any musicians. My guess at the musicianship of this recording is based on known Nijiumu line-ups from studio and live performances in 1990.

Text Forthcoming.

See the notes for the first nijiumu cdrom on La Musica for comments on the officiality of this release.

Text forthcoming.

closing to nijiumu recordings
text

proceed to vajra recordings

all text copyright david keffer. distribution without consent is prohibited. contact the author.