(Prog/Psychedelic/Kraut/Experimental/Improvisation) Ghost - Overture: Live in Nippon Yusen Soko 2006 Bonus CD - 2007, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Nippon Yusen (NYK) Soko is a former warehouse for Japan's mailboats, established in 1885 and located on Yokohama Bay. The building has been renovated and now is called Bank Art Studio NYK, and is used as a gallery or for other artistic purposes.

One night, Ghost used this huge, old, and mossy space, resembling Potala Palace in Lhasa, to hold a ceremony - as an ark for the atmosphere to be filled with ether.

At sunset on 9th October 2006, the players started the performance, standing radially towards the audience in the center of the venue. Kurihara (gt), Batoh (voice, sound effects) and Takizawa (flute, saxophone, recorders and etc) were standing by the left wall towards the entrance of the warehouse; Moriya (contrabass), Tateiwa (percussion) and Ogino (lute, piano, kaval) were standing on the right.

Improvisation has been an important expressive mediuim for Ghost from the earliest stages. Although improvisation often occupies a considerable part of their live performances, there have been no albums that contain only improvisation.

You will come to see how important improvisation is for Ghost by listening to this album. This is nothing but a spiritual conversation among the members, which passes through the senses of the audience, thereby filling the space (the audience is an important "medium").

The space was hung with a huge lace curtain as a screen, separating the band from the audience and even blocking sight between the players.

The intention of this arrangement, positioning the players in parallel at a distance from one another, is to connect every member's sound image spiritually, as eye contact with one another is prevented. This is a meditative task.

The primary acoustic feature of this space is the length of reverberation. Its tremendous reverberation of 13-15 seconds is the same as that of limestone cave.

Each feels the echo, or remaining spirit of the sound we might say, sensually and spiritually, and each overlaps his individual echo upon it.

No monitor speakers are provided, but a small amplifier set individually spins each member's sound as a silkworm spins a cocoon.

I rejoice to be able to share with you the recording of this experimental Ghost concert held in an odd corner of Yokohama.

The concert begins in the dark, so dark you can't see even your own feet. The sound of an iron door closing, heard at the beginning of the disc, was enough to horrify grown men. An announcement was made: "Once the door is closed, you cannot enter or exit the space until the performance is ended." We were confined in the deep darkness.

It begins with no sound and no light, like an ark setting sail for the underworld. We experience life and death, heaven and purgatory, the illusory and the surreal as we experience the "tainaimeguri" of Buddhism, or figuratively entering the womb.

Liquid lighting team, Overheads, did an outstanding job by using the lace curtain and the whole warehouse to improvise and synchronize their incredible, beautiful and scary visual images and the sound. We must pay them a heartfelt compliment too.

(c)Yuko Collins

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 14. April 2010, 9:17

Ghost / Overture Live In Nippon Yusen Soko 2006

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