by Maria Bungau

“Merzbow is erotic like a car crash can be related to genital intercourse.” (from an interview with Masami Akita)

Merzbow emerged from a lack of conventional instruments and refusal of dependable viewpoints.

Somewhere in between dadaism and surrealism, Merzbow’s work is a sum of all his influences and also a sublimation of his life experiences, all which pervade the different layers of his tracks. Improvisation and composition lose their meaning, as Masami’s work goes beyond and finds its meaning in accidents, disruptions and experimentation. His music gives freedom to the listener and to a certain extent, invites to meditation.

Whenever I think of Merzbow’s catalogue, I see it as this complex collage of singular moments across time when he got influenced by a particular object or person or idea, and transposed those into noise. And Torus EP is that particular instance, the encounter between Japan and Serbia, between Masami Akita and Jezgro, with the result being 4 sinister and unsettling tracks, visceral and at the same time heart-rending.

This release makes your wandering mind stop in a rather brutal and yet efficient way. Thus, instead of veering aimlessly throughout a mass of scraping sounds and static, you get sucked in between the different layers of street noises, all while spiraling down into Merzbow’s own version of reality.

Torus 2 is just a piece of a bigger dadaist puzzle that’s ever evolving, whose completion doesn’t depend on finding that last piece, but rather on discovering new approaches and opportunities to experiment. And while I feel that this release is not as harsh as some of his previous ones, this is by no means a less noisy and merzbowian EP.

Torus EP is out on Jezgro on June 12th.

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