How about some Ambient...Death Ambient, that is!

Death Ambient teams three of the world's most exciting improvisers in a fascinating album that blurs styles & smashes genres in a dark world of unusual sounds & unorthodox techniques.

Japanese bass player Kato Hideki, founding member of Ground Zero & Bass Army, moved to New York City in 1992 where he began working with a number of musicians, including John Zorn, Marc Ribot, & Christian Marclay. In 1995 he met & began collaborating with Japanese drummer & composer Ikue Mori.

Mori herself had moved to New York City in 1977 where she joined the NoWave band DNA (along with Arto Lindsay & Robin Critchfield) as their drummer although she had never previously played drums. After DNA disbanded, Mori took to experimenting with drum machines which she modified to play samples. After DNA Mori recorded with Death Praxis (with Tenko), Vibraslaps (with Catherine Jauniaux), Ursa's Door (with Zeena Parkins) & many others. 1995 was a busy year for Mori. Beside teaming up with Hideki, she played on Painted Desert (with Marc Ribot & Robert Quine) & Hex Kitchen (with Hideki, Jauniaux, Zeena Parkins, David Watson, Hahn Rowe, & John Zorn).

After Hideki & Mori teamed up, they asked experimental guitarist Fred Frith to join the group. Frith is probably best known as a founding member of Henry Cow & the Art Bears. Frith had been living in New York City for 14 years & had also collaborated with many of the experimental musicians there. He is one of the most important & influential guitarists in improvisational music of the past three decades. He has played in: Skeleton Crew; Curlew; Cassiber; Aksak Maboul; Massacre; Material; the Golden Palominos; French, Frith, Kaiser. & Thompson; & Naked City. He has recorded with: the Residents; collaborated with Henry Kaiser; John Zorn; Rene Lussier; Derek Bailey; Ferdinand Richard; & Chris Cutler. He recorded numerous solo albums on ESD, SST, Ralph, Rift, Incus, Recommended, Rec Rec, Victo, Crammed Discs, & Sub Rosa.

As Death Ambient, the trio recorded their first album, the self-tutled Death Ambient at Green Point Studio in Brooklyn, New York City in 1995. The Death Ambient music is a collection of improvised pieces that included Mori's drum machine generated sound samples, released the same year in the New Japan series on John Zorn's Tzadik record label.

Death Ambient – Death Ambient, Tzadik TZ 7207, 1995.

decryption code in comments

Tracklist –

Prophecy

Imperial Thorn

Hedgetrimmer

Alchemy

Heart Set 1

Rain

Broken Blue

Loquat Tree

White Eye

Coyote Got Away

A Dead Staphylococcus Looks like a Skull

Heart Set 2

Loading & Running

Flash

Ways Out

The inner label lists the songs as track 5 – “Rain” & track 6 – “Heart Set 1” while the disc is listed as above. The above listing is correct, as “Heart Set 1 & 2” are tracks 5 & 12 respectively.

Enjoy,

NØ