Miya Masaoka / Joan Jeanrenaud – For Birds, Planes And Cello

Miya Masaoka

CD – Solitary B
Joan Jeanrenaud, the irreproachable cellist of the Kronos Quartet (who can boast of collaborations with Astor Piazzolla, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, but also with David Byrne and Joan Armatrading) gives instrumental support to this 54-minutes-long continuum of field recordings and ambient textures; a delicate and measured construction by Miya Masaoka, a sound artist with a solid classical background. This marriage proves truly fruitful, with poetic combinations of natural and artificial frequencies (the auditive relation between birds and airplanes is strongly effective, even if not new), employing subdued sounds with a sensitivity close to certain electroacoustic improvisations. Fascinating atmospheres, with mysterious iterations which are sometimes insistent but never overloaded with cuts and manipulation, that bring out the union of heterogeneous and well-integrated elements.