Merzbow/John Wiese – Akashaplexia 4xCD

Name: Merzbow/John Wiese – Akashaplexia 4xCD
Brand: Helicopter
SKU: 115524381
Price: 37.5 USD
Availability: InStock

$37.50

Merzbow/John Wiese
Akashaplexia
4×CD Box Set in Casewrap Slipcase with Ribon
Helicopter, HEL 81011

Akashaplexia is the debut full-length studio collaboration between Merzbow and John Wiese, recorded together in December 2024 at Sound Studio Noah, Tokyo, Japan, and is one of the most extensively detailed releases of either artist in recent years, both in ambition and presentation, packing over three hours of remarkable new material spread over four digestible album-length CDs, and housed in a gorgeous casewrap slipcase box set designed by Wiese.

Merzbow (Masami Akita) and John Wiese have a long history in both live performances and mail collaborations dating back 25 years which have resulted in a number of releases such as Multiplication CD (Misanthropic Agenda, 2005), Free Piano 7-inch picture disc (Helicopter/Misanthropic Agenda, 2005), and EKA Varna CD (Helicopter/Troniks, 2024). Besides collaborations under his own name, Wiese also collaborated with Merzbow as a member of Smegma on their XCIII CD (Helicopter/Troniks, 2023) and with his highly varied group Sissy Spacek, which with its rotating cast of contributors always brings forth unpredictable and inspired results. Spacek’s collaboration with Merzbow resulted in Coronado, released both as a limited 2×CD release (Helicopter/Troniks, 2023) and a CS+7-inch box set (Helicopter, 2023). Both artists are well established in the fields of experimental sound and improvisation, with Merzbow’s style varying from his early acoustic based tapes bordering on free improv and noise to his notoriously extreme 90s releases, a period of computer based work, and arriving at his current phase of layered mixed approaches, blending in a nod to his early improv days with crude metal junk scraping and psychedelic intensity. Wiese’s approach is a mixture of calculated perfectionist compositions and fiery concrète mayhem, with both his solo and group works wildly varying from electronic blasts to tasteful tape collage and manipulations through a hybrid of chopped textures and performances, pushing the thresholds of sound into wild and dramatic territory.

Disc 1: Garden Path Sentence
Starting off with a barrage of widely panned shrapnel mixed with layers of percussive loops, Merzbow and Wiese are blasting off straight away on Garden Path Sentence. Mayhem enters quickly, piercing through the atmospheric loops with a relentless stream of electronic screeching, warped tones, and absolutely destroyed sound. A thrilling start. A blizzard follows, mixing musique concrète-styled broken glass with hazy, biting sonic snow. An interesting aspect of this piece is the immersive manner Merzbow and Wiese are letting the piece move from phase to phase, bringing us into new situations in a smooth manner. It’s like an ever-developing narrative that never meanders into random abstraction. The low end is nicely treated through humming and rumbling sub-frequency layers that thicken the mechanical, at times incomprehensible, textures. Sheets of sheer white electronics are utilized nicely too, but what is surprising is that the piece even features rhythmic elements, adding a bass line after some time, shaping the piece up into some of both artists’ most musical moments. The piece has a great sense of space in its mix, allowing you to carefully distinguish all layers out of the stream of sound. There’s no haziness of layers in here, but instead, there’s a captivating sense of sonic surrealism with recognizably human sound recordings whispering to us like voices in a cloud of nightmarish dreams backed by wasteland destruction. At times, tape loops in the piece are rhythmic and technical, building a great contrast with the wildly varying fuzz flying on top of them. Different shades add depth to the various layers in a stacked sonic experience. The less distorted, squelchy psychedelic elements that pop in at times add a nice quirkiness to the piece, which gives the composition a very personal touch of both artists.

Disc 2: Bleskam (Action Sphere/Maya)
Bleskam (Action Sphere/Maya) begins with a darker, more foreboding ambiance with bass and warbled sounds creating a certain sense of mysterious dread. Screeching noise soon enters but is temporarily overtaken by jumbled drum recordings, segwaying into a sparseness of the density of the layers, with recording hiss accentuating some lovely pumping low end. Contrasting the first, this second disc from Akashaplexia finds Merzbow and Wiese in a relatively more laid-back mode, though not without some excellently executed fiery textures consisting of electric shocks and demented tape/electronic manipulations. Rhythmic repetition can be heard in this piece as well as some great use of reverb, which transforms it into a very futuristic kind of cinematic sound. This piece features some great new sonic manipulations, such as a glassy, widely panned cloud floating over the violence, as well as some warbling of what seems like musical recordings, causing a quite drunken feel at some point, which is only made more bizarre by it being combined with electronics suddenly blasting through. It’s noticeable how in this piece there’s more space to let the repeating tape loops slowly develop into new shapes, letting some more quiet moments seep in compared to Garden Path Sentence. Another noticeable progression in approach on disc 2 is the usage of an irregular but still recognizable kind of beat consisting of a kick drum but sounding like a rhythm backing the sounds. It keeps the piece new and sets the scene for yet another exciting phase. Crumbling electronics late into the piece also gives it a unique contemporary sound, one that doesn’t sound cold and calculated but fragile and unpredictable, a moment of calmness and introspection in a different way. Disc 2 lays bare both Merzbow and Wiese’s layers in some moments, creating some nice solos that add a nice sense of variation to the composition. A remarkable quality of Akashaplexia is the way Merzbow and Wiese found a way to mix earsplitting layers with calculated, introspective, and abstract sound design, and how they composed the pieces in such unpredictable ways that they always stay engaging. The inclusion of manipulated drum recordings into a tumbling and creaky cloud barrage of sound near the end of the piece is some very inspired work. In fact, it only seems like the piece is evolving further into an even more futuristic cinematic soundtrack afterwards, with more squelchy effects and very open sound manipulations that create an eerie atmosphere.

Disc 3: Glass Has Vanished
Glass Has Vanished starts off in a dark heavy sound with a bass drone adding a lot of atmosphere to the piece as it begins. Soon, lovely rhythmic and very catchy percussive loops enter. In fact, the rhythm of this piece, while not constant all the time, creates some very engaging work within the set. As I mentioned, a personal touch. This piece has got some particularly great violent and extreme noise action. The hollow booms and metallic clattering fading into reverb add some really great industrial touches to this piece. The distorted layers in the foreground eventually grow more organic, squelchy like tiny birds and full of syrupy movements. Metallic sounds backed with organic effects remains a theme of this third disc of Akashaplexia as the piece moves forward. Warbling sounds feature in the piece but are strongly mixed with the metallic screeches. Gradual developments of the piece move it forward rather than faster change-ups, a piece you can swim into in terms of its textural flow. Late into the piece, you can even hear what sounds like a recording of an organ becoming totally electrocuted by diffuse manipulations; this section also features, for a short time, one of the few uses of continuous feedback on the album. The droning tones that follow in the last few minutes are a great touch, creative an atmosphere that is almost meditative.

Disc 4: Higashiikebukuro Bouquet Divisions
With a frantically wild start, filled with shock-infused squeals, hiss, mechanical sounds, and other sonic mayhem, the piece is bound for an explosive finale to this album. You can’t help but crank this up and immerse yourself, the richness of the piece is just too good. Many layers of thick frequencies are blended together to create the sense of blasting forwards. Examining the mix of the piece, you can also notice how the center of the stereo image houses the most extreme sounds, while the sides change into lovely stereo-panned crunching tape loop shrapnel. Some of the sounds are like heavily distorted drum loops, but this only highlights the absolute skill and inventiveness of these artists in sculpting sounds to their own imagination. Changing up the piece with a section of old-school noise works really well and is followed by some exciting choppy electronics that feel like a reference back to the cinematic nature of Bleskam (Action Sphere/Maya). Mangled sounds and voice soon turn the piece into a nightmarish drunken dream. The imagery conjured up by this album is at times very surreal. It sounds more violent in its intensity, but also varies more from low to high frequency usage, creating intensely varying sonic streams that blast, buzz, and are as earsplitting as noiseheads love, while mixing in an avant-garde sensibility with tape manipulations, the piece finds itself jumping out from multiple dimensions. In fact, the duo is so well playing into each other’s sounds that the album is very cohesive, a sum of parts much greater than combining their two approaches. Merzbow and John Wiese become a solid unit that keeps moving forward both in performance and in approach.