"+1P EP" - To achieve harmony of each in series -
Glitch music emerged in the mid-90s and became popular in the electronic music scene through the 2000s, but has recently seen a resurgence. It dates back to the era when personal music production on PCs began, and incorporates accidental (or intentional) errors in electronic circuits, such as random skips and noise, into music. With glitch music now being looked back on, the spotlight is once again on the talented Japanese musicians of that time, and Shuta Hasunuma is another musician who deserves renewed attention.
His 2006 debut album, "Shuta Hasunuma," features a "tridimensional approach" that intertwines acoustic performances and digital glitch noise against a backdrop of ambient sounds with a touch of ambient connotations, and sounds fresh even today. It also offers a glimpse of his pop sensibility, which remains relevant today, and his enormous talent as a composer. One of the defining features of recent glitch music is the combination of two uncontrollable materials: ambient sounds and glitches, and at the tender age of 23, he was already experimenting with this.
While 2005 was undoubtedly the final peak of glitch music as a genre, he continued his explorations even in those in-between years. In 2007, he released the polar opposites of the avant-garde "HOORAY" and the melodic "OK Bamboo," and in 2009, he explored glitch music on multiple fronts, tackling pop music incorporating his own vocals on "POP OOGA." Since then, in addition to working with the Shuta Hasunuma Philharmonic Orchestra, he has continued to update his early style on solo compilation albums. In another collaboration with U-zhaan, he seamlessly combined the tabla, a primitive percussion instrument with a scale, with glitch, clicks, and ambient-like digital sounds, revealing new and previously unexplored territory.
"unpeople," Hasunuma's first electronica-focused original album in 15 years, bears a title that could be seen as ironic—"without humans"—a nod to the collaborations he experienced with others in the 2010s. However, its production during the COVID-19 pandemic also had a major influence, and it carries profound significance as an existentialist interrogation of technological advances that allow us to easily collaborate with artists on the other side of the world through data transmission, and of AI technology, which is rapidly spreading throughout the music world. Hasunuma's signature melodies take a back seat, and the album may even seem moody or cold. But following the various sketches of his musical style woven together by musicians from his diverse network, one is confronted with the beauty of seeking out and complementing the presence of others.
Following on from "unpeople," he organized a solo live performance series called "unpeople + 1 people," his first in roughly 10 years since his "Melodies" concert in 2015. With a strong awareness of "injecting sound into the space," this project, crafted by repeatedly changing the venue and performing for one person, in other words, one community (audience), likely brought about both a great deal of input and output.
This new input led to his latest work, "+1P EP." Set against a backdrop of botanical electronics, the album opens with "Heaven," featuring Jatinder Singh Durhailay, Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, and their pet bird, Lemon, reciting a poem by Osaki Sayaka. This "loveliness" mediated by others seems both a response to "unpeople" and a question to itself. Maintaining the mood of the backing track, the album transitions to the dance-ready "Pragma," featuring glitch beats and a deeply interpersonal intent. The instrumental version of "one window" unfolds from there, evoking a physical sense of "emptiness," before concluding with "Pluralist," a soundscape reminiscent of an infinite void, creating a feeling that's difficult to describe as either despair or hope.
I had the feeling that the musician Shuta Hasunuma was something of a Pluralist, and it seems I was probably right. From his early works onwards, he excelled at harmonizing the sounds of completely different materials. What you liken his ambient, acoustic, glitch/noise sounds to is up to the listener, but to sound them in parallel and achieve harmony is no easy feat. However, in his most recent projects, he seems to be aiming to achieve this in series. Perhaps this was achieved through the experience of playing his music for others.
Text by hiwatt
