Andrew Chalk & Daisuke Suzuki ‘Drifting’ CD ICR DISTRIBUTION

A collaboration does not mean you have to share everything or to do each and every activity together as a team. If your words or sounds inspire someone to open a challenge to something new, or open the door of possibilities-you can call it collaboration.
Your personally recorded sounds never fail to reveal your true face and the sounds always speak more than words can.
‘Drifting’ is the very first collaboration between Andrew Chalk and Daisuke Suzuki, which has remained unsurfaced since then-their private recording in 1996. In early 1996 Daisuke sent Andrew a DAT tape which included some unedited pieces that he recorded with found objects in his garden. Those fragments of recordings inspired Andrew to make a spontaneous recording and he made a live mix directly to cassette recorder with his instinct and archaic vision. ‘Drifting’ is a kind of archaic low-fi recording, but it has great atmosphere and perfect unison in texture. ‘Drifting’ was also a prelude to their long-term collaborations and the beginning of the change of direction in Andrew’s approach to music.
Remastered by Denis Blackham in 2023, and CD comes with glossy card sleeve in edition 300

Review by Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly : In 1996, Suzuki worked with Andrew Chalk for the first time. He mailed him a DAT of “unedited pieces, recorded with found objects in his garden”, which inspired Chalk to make some spontaneous recordings and a live cassette mix: quite a Lofi recording but forecasting much of their later work. Denis Blackham recently remastered the work, and is now available. Exactly twenty-seven minutes long, this is a relatively loosely organised piece of music. The acoustic sounds are blissfully obscured; for all we know, Suzuki is shuffling through the garden with a rake. There are plants and pots, grass and dirt, and whatever Chalk does remains a mystery. Something electronic is very likely, but that’s about it. Maybe he, too, shuffled about and added to the music. I have no idea. The acoustic component is a firm fixture for this piece, and the electronics remain in the background. It’s as carefully played as it is mysterious. I think this is one hell of a piece of music. Short, maybe even too short, but I had it on repeat a few times, and every time I discovered something new.