湯浅譲二 [Joji Yuasa] - Obscure Tape Music of Japan Vol. 4: Music for Theatrical Drama (2006)

Not all of Joji Yuasa's tape music (or simply tape music in general) works for me, but this collection of two pieces composed in 1959 and 1963 strays far more into the assemblage of an unsettling, murky atmosphere (though crucially aided by the inclusion of some orchestral writing in the second piece, "Mittsu No Sekai [Three Worlds]", my favourite), than the pile-on of more or less random sound effects I usually (however unjustly) expect from the 'genre' or, more specifically, methodology (though the two things can partially but significantly coincide, as certain techniques can by their sound properties and possibilities elicit certain aesthetic strategies, and the subsequent sedimentation of those strategies can narrow the imagination of other potential uses for those tools). 

Yuasa's Obscure Tape Music of Japan Vol. 1: Aoi no Ue is kind of testament to my ambivalence, as "Aoi no Ue" offers another disturbingly satisfying 30 minutes of something (this time, crucially relying on processed voices, which sound like they are up to no good), while the other piece consists of 15 minutes of what seemed to me like a relatively indifferent succession of electronic tones and bleeps (which is obviously not to (dis)qualify it as non-music; we're past that; I'm just not obligated to enjoy it either). 

As far as this release goes, though, and even contrary to the usual soundtrack fare, not only does it not require being heard in the context of any theatrical drama to give it meaning or feel complete, but it would in itself be a fine reason to go watch something that tried to visually match its dreary aural imagery. It would probably be a more promising starting point than figuring out what totally fresh spin to take on a new production of Hamlet (maybe everyone is a ghost but the King, whose psyche is giving an exculpating dramatic form to the paranoia that had driven him to murder everyone as potential conspirators for his demise; wait, no, that's good, who do I pitch this to? I don't know, I'm too lazy, someone figure it out and get me my percentage), and it's right here waiting. Stage directors everywhere, do your worse.