ドローン・ミュージック界の世界的ムーヴメントを日本から!
コンピュータやサンプラーによる音楽作りが一般普及した90年代後半以降、サウンドの多様化も一段と進んだが、そうした状況の中で今改めて活性化しているのがドローン・ミュージック、つまりノン・ビートの持続音をベースにしたサウンドである。そして、その世界的ムーヴメントを日本から強力に推進している気鋭の音楽家が畠山地平だ。
元々はロック・バンドのギタリストとしてヘヴィ・メタルなどを弾いていたという畠山（78年生まれ）が自分で音楽を作り始めたのは、コンピュータやシークェンサー、サンプラーなどを手に入れた大学時代のこと。最初は打ち込みビートを使ったデジ・ロック的なものを作っていたが飽き足らず、ある日ビートを抜いてみたら途端に面白くなり、自分の目指すべき方向が明確に見えていったという。同じ頃、大友良英や中村としまるなどによる実験的な電子音響作品に感銘を受け、ジョン・ケージ、ラ・モンテ・ヤング、ブライアン・イーノといった先駆者たちによる現代音楽やアンビエント作品などを広く聴き漁るようになったことも、彼の新たな船出を後押ししたはずだ。
畠山は、前衛音楽専門レーベルとして定評のあるシカゴの〈Kranky〉から06年にソロ・デビュー・アルバム『Minima Moralia』をリリース。ギターやヴァイオリン、ヴィブラフォンなども用いたこの傑作はにわかに注目を集め、〈Chihei Hatakeyama〉の名は世界へと広まっていった。以後、英国の〈Rural Colours〉〈hibernate〉〈Under The Spire〉、豪〈Room40〉、ノルウェイ〈Soundscaping〉、そして日本の〈Home Normal〉〈Whereabouts〉〈AIRPLANE〉等々、内外のインディペンディント・レーベルからたくさんの作品を発表し続けており、海外でのライヴ・ツアーもおこなっている。また昨年は、自らアンビエント専門レーベル〈White Paddy Mountain〉を立ち上げて、ASUNAやシェリング、あるいは『Alone By The Sea』など自身のソロ作品をリリースしている。「アンビエントの歴史はまだ初期段階で、これからもっと発展してゆくんじゃないか」という彼の発言には、自分自身に向けたある種の使命感すら感じさせる。
現在彼は、伊達伯欣とのエレクトロ・アコースティック・デュオ、オピトープ（Opitope）や、ヴォーカリスト佐立努とのルイス・ナヌーク（Luis Nanook）も並行して稼動させており、更に今後は、自分で歌うポップなプロジェクトもやりたいと考えているそうだが、畠山ならきっと、多層化されたサウンド・ループや倍音、残響などを上手く用いた新しいポップ・ソングを生みだせるはずだ。期待したい。
[English Translation]
Chihei Hatakeyama’s Sacrifice for Pleasure
Written by Shinya Matsuyama
Stirring up a worldwide movement of drone music from Japan!
As music created by computers or samplers started to gain ground and became more common since the late 90s, so did sounds become more diversified consequently, and amongst such circumstances, drone music, put simply the non-beat sounds based on sustained heavy tones, is the one field firing up lately. Chihei Hatakeyama is the one budding artist aggressively driving forward the global movement of this genre from Japan.
Hatakeyama, born 1978, originally started out as a guitarist in a rock band, mainly playing heavy metal music, but once he entered university and got himself a computer, sequencer and sampler, he became involved in creating music himself. Unsatisfied with simply creating digi-rock tunes with them at the time, one day he decided to ‘take the beats out’, which suddenly changed the music into something really exciting. This turned out to be the command of what direction of music he should really be pursuing. In the meantime, he was deeply inspired by the experimental electroacoustic works by Japanese noise / experimental music artist, Yoshihide Otomo, or free improvisationist, Toshimaru Nakamura, and began intensely and extensively fishing around contemporary or ambient music works by the pioneers such as John Cage, La Monte Young or Brian Eno, which only served as a great booster for him to explore the new territory.
In 2006, Hatakeyama released his solo debut album Minima Moralia from Chicago’s Kranky, the well-reputed avant-garde music label. This masterpiece that employs the guitar, violin or the vibraphone, gradually gained worldwide attention with ‘Chihei Hatakeyama’ becoming a globally known new name spreading along with the reputation. Since then, he has built up his listing with numerous releases from independent labels home and abroad, such as Rural Colours, hibernate and Under the Spire of the UK, Australian Room40, and Norwegean Soundscaping, as well as Japanese labels, Home Normal, Whereabouts or Airplane etc., alongside actively performing at his live tours overseas. He has also launched his own ambient music label White Paddy Mountain, and has been releasing works of ambient artists, ASUNA and Shelling, as well as releasing his own solo piece, Alone by the Sea. “The history of ambient music is still at its primary stage, and I think it will develop much more in the future” says Hatakeyama of which the comment sounds as if he is inciting his own self to fulfill his mission.
Hatakeyama currently has several projects on his hands, the electronic acoustic duo Opitope, formed with electronic musician Tomoyoshi Date, as well as duo Luis Nanook, formed with the whispering singer songwriter and vocalist, Tsutomu Satachi, Added to this, he is also aspired to broaden his field into a pop project where he can unveil his singing talents. It is not very difficult to imagine his pop songs to be skillfully complemented with multi-layered sound loops or harmonic overtones and sound reverberation.
