*Edition of 200* Ftarri’s release of TO(R)RI Infranta marks a compelling entry in the continuum of Japanese experimental improvisation, uniting Mitsuhisa Sakaguchi and Yoshiki Ichihara for a collaboration that dissolves the distinction between human gesture and electronic resonance. Over the course of two long-form pieces, the duo builds an architecture of sound where every tone feels suspended between construction and collapse. Sakaguchi’s fluid manipulation of synthesizers and processing systems merges with Ichihara’s percussive interventions—alternately subtle and eruptive—to produce an atmosphere that defies stable interpretation. The opening track evolves like an unstable sculpture: drones and metallic friction gradually assert themselves, revealing a dialogue built on micro-adjustments, abrupt silences, and sudden surges of density. Sound in this context becomes material—ductile and unrelenting—stretching the listener’s sense of spatial orientation. The artists weave feedback and acoustic fragments into an untraceable continuum, neither purely improvised nor overtly composed, but instead driven by instinct and the pressure of the present moment.
In the second track, the sound field turns colder and more tactile. Ichihara extends his percussion palette into digital and concrete objects, creating throbs and residues that resonate beneath Sakaguchi’s spectral electronics. The duo’s interplay is not about complementarity but about tension: interference replaces harmony, and coexistence emerges only through shared endurance. It is a music of resistance—against smoothness, against predictability, and perhaps against the very notion of “completion.” TO(R)RI Infranta thrives in instability, refusing closure in favor of suggestion. That refusal grants the album its peculiar calm. Beneath its austere surface lies a profound intimacy: the sound of two artists listening more than playing, carving transitory moments of connection out of uncertain air. For Sakaguchi, whose past collaborations with Uchihashi Kazuhisa and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto already framed a disciplined yet volatile approach to improvisation, this project feels like a sharpening of his aural vocabulary. Ichihara’s role, by contrast, introduces a corporeal pragmatism—a reminder that each vibration has a weight and consequence in space. Together, they make TO(R)RI Infranta an act of alert contemplation, one where the space of the studio becomes indistinguishable from the sound of thought itself.
