Japanese noise king Merzbow has done plenty of collaborations in recent years with ultra-progressive Hungarian drummer Balazs Pandi and up to now, I’ve documented merely three of them. But many of their collaborations have also involved Swedish firebrand saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. The three previously made Cuts in 2013 and then added Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore for a couple more sonic assaults (2015’s Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper was explored here).
The Merzbow/Gustafsson/Pandi lineup returns in 2020 for the true follow-up to Cuts, called Cuts Open. While the former relied on unrelenting thrash to get its points across, the spontaneity that gave birth to Cuts Open produced a much more parched soundscape, for the most part. This wasn’t planned, as nothing really is among these musicians devoted to the free form. Gustafsson reveals: “[I]n the studio, suddenly everything started opening up. We didn’t talk about it, we just played and things happened. It was a big surprise for all of us, because we’d never gone in that direction before.” Over four, long improvisations, Merzbow, Gustafsson and Pandi are continuously presented with a limitless choice of paths to go down, and they always opt for the path least taken without much regard for how loud or soft that path might be.
Pandi’s percussion colorations on “I went down to Brother” goes beyond supplementing the sound from elsewhere; it is the primary sound. Merzbow innately pulls out intonations from his laptop that snaps together with Pandi’s exotic, hand-made array of percussive effects. Meanwhile, Gustafsson’s flute floats about, making communion with Merzbow’s infinite drones.
Merzbow saturates the high tonal ranges on “And we went Home” with buzzes and static while Pandi responds to the increasing thickness with rolling toms. Later on, a murmur turns into a rumble, creating the sort of bedlam we were expecting throughout the whole album.
Gustafsson was barely heard on “Home” but takes on a more prominent role for “We went up with Mother,” which begins with puffs into his saxophone that don’t all make it out. In this way, he’s complementing Pandi’s percussion, creating otherworldly sounds that’s made the old-fashioned way. Cymbals are abundant here, but hardly anything like they are normally played; they push back against the silence but don’t overwhelm it. Merzbow creates aeronautical sound effects, moving from low hums to ear-splitting tweets. But when that all subsides, Gustafsson is back, getting notes out of his horn laboriously.
“He locked the Door” is a cascade of cacophony, wasting little time obliterating all the open air between the trio. Merzbow spews forth a full sonic assault, uncorking intimidating approximations of squealing overdriven guitars as Pandi is locking into heavy metal mode. Just as we’re led to believe that the whole, ferocious formula for this song has been revealed, Gustafsson comes roaring in with a saxophone that can only be described as guttural to the point of sounding extremely painful. Merzbow responds with a heaping helping of anguish of his own.
Sometimes the things left unsaid (unplayed) speaks louder than what is played. A lot of people understand that, but it might surprise you that not only Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson + Balazs Pandi do too, but they know how to manipulate that calm to make it as impactful as ceaseless noise that they also create.
Cuts Open is going to drop on September 25, 2020 from Rare Noise Records.
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