Search - Susumu Yokota :: Symbol

Postmodern Pastiche reaches State of Grace

Andy | Brooklyn, NY | 05/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Symbol is a sublime listening experience from the first track. Yokota is one of the most consistently original and interesting voices in electronic music, and this ranks as one of his finest releases, and my personal favorite. So, what does it sound like?



Each track on this album creates an atmospheric, beautiful, and extremely nuanced sound-world, drawing heavily on Yokota's Classical CD collection. Symbol will inspire you laptop composers to put your samplers to more creative uses. Each track is a creative collage of some familiar and some not so familiar classical motifs, cleverly (often brilliantly) cut up, rearranged, and stitched together on Yokota's computer. For example, track 12 alone uses samples from works by mahler, saint-saens, prokofiev, handel, bach, beethoven, and schumann. Sound like a mess? It's not--it's really a testament to the ability of such a creative composer (Yokota) to use such disparate elements and recombine them into a cohesive, accessible, and immediately distinctive composition. This is music that will appeal both to music snobs and those who just want a chill record. The music is extemely detailed, and essential headphones listening.



If there's a criticism of the album, maybe it's that the mood of the 13 tracks doesn't vary much--but I don't mind an album that never deviates from sublime, so I say 5 stars.

"