Disquiet

So, there’s one other twist. Koji Asano, the hyperproductive electronic musician whose output suggests that the Japanese word for “prolific” is a tad more forceful than the English one, started uploading free downloads to his website, at kojiasano.com/freetunes, last week. The initiative had some unique touches. For one thing, the first file, a remix of his Spring Estuary album (see the December 15 Disquiet Downstream entry), was large enough to be considered “lossless” (that is, large enough for its signal-to-data ratio to rival if not surpass the quality of a CD). For another, Asano announced he planned to do these weekly. The new twist is that when you log on this week to get entry number two, a live performance in 2001 at the radio station KFJC (89.7FM, Los Altos, California), you discover that last week’s entry is no longer downloadable. So that’s how it’ll be: free music, but just one track at a time. (Judging by his schedule thus far, the next piece should pop up on December 28.) The KFJC piece is a piercing, 15-minute drill’n'drone ride, sounding like the anguished cry of some android pachyderm, until, late in the game, a solemn melody rises from within. Is it real, or is it just your ear’s wishful thinking?

By Marc Weidenbaum