KK Null

The author of the mix is Kazuyuki Kishino (b. 1961), publicly known as KK Null, a Japanese composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound sculptor and singer, who lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Active since the early 1980’s, Kishino has progressively become a synonymous with so-called Japanese noise scene and an influential experimental music figure in a much wider global context as well. Kishino primarily works in the field of noise music but frequently he is drifting into another musical terrains such as experimental, rock, electro-acoustic and post-hardcore. He is exploring outer boundaries of electronica, creating intensely clashing waves of noise, inventing electro-acoustic ambience and analysing broken down rhythmics and scattered pitch sculptures. Kishino has collaborated with music innovators such as Merzbow, Chris Watson, Z’ev, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Jon Rose and others. He has participated as a performer and composer in over 100 releases (CD, vinyl and cassette) that were published on longevous and respectable labels such as Neurot Recordings, Korm Plastics, Important Records, Touch, Blossoming Noise and many others, including his own imprint Nux Organization. Kishino is also a mastermind behind the cult bands such as Zeni Geva and Absolut Null Punkt. Zeni Geva has recorded twice for John Peel Session on BBC and immensely toured throughout Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, playing hundreds of concerts. Actually Kazuyuki Kishino has a kaleidoscopic biography which requires deep studies so that is why Secret Thirteen is inviting all music lovers to learn more about his prolific career on his webpage.

STM 076 is a compositional and thrilling audio collage mirroring Kishino’s early influences that had a significant impact on his later music activities. The mix includes 24 timeless works released between 1953 and 2012 by honorable composers and musicians such as Iannis Xenakis, Bernard Parmegiani, Miles Davis, Alan Lamb, This Heat, Z’ev, David Tudor and Slayer. There is also a strong impression of KK Null’s musical individuality as well as the mix hides 4 of his powerful and authentic compositions. One of them titled “Eternal Implosion” had not been published elsewhere before. In a perspective of music styles this mix varies among musique concrète, noise, experimental, contemporary, fusion, avangarde, abstract and even thrash.

Records and connections

The emotional, dimensional and conceptual development of the mix is deliberate, fluid and suggestive. The mixing is magnetic, accurate and imperceptible as it sounds as a sustained and gradually expanding composition. There is a lot of sound layering and masking so every work enriches each other with their uniqueness thus generating exclusively new formations and harmonies. The completely saturated formless wholeness surface is full of diverse ambiance, improvisational and unexpected percussions, mathematical arrangement and rich micro-activity. Constantly varying sound tension, pressure and intensity creates a dramaturgical type narrative that leads to the only word – chef-d’oeuvre.

STM 076 is like a strangely expressive and organically complex Jean Degottex‘s abstract painting “Suite Rouge IX”. The painting was influenced by Art Informel movement whose gestural techniques and ideology of radical break between traditional notions of order and composition usually produces formless bizarre structures. As well as Degottex’s painting, KK Null’s asymmetric selection reflects versatility, poetic eloquence, looseness of form and pursuit of natural spontaneity. KK Null’s mix requires musical sophistication, listening concentration and high-fidelity speakers or headphones to fully absorb its smoothly colliding compositions and the whole dynamic tension.