Disc 10: Solonoise
I like the reference to Bataille, and I like the noise as well. Strong overall, but some parts are definitely more to my liking than others. In the Merzbook there is a comment that can sort of be taken to imply that Akita supplied the noise while Mizutani worked in a more "free improv" direction. I'm wondering if they might have gotten into some tension over this? From the little of Mizutani's later work that I have heard (just the disc on Pure), he seems to have taken a different direction from Akita.
Also, the most interesting (though perhaps not my favorite, aesthetically speaking) was the portion of track three where one or both of them were clearly rubbing pieces of styrofoam together. Very physical. It got me thinking that as Merzbow became more "harsh noise" as time went on, the physicality seemed to disappear as well? Then to computer noise, and AI art being embraced over the trash-collages of yesteryear. Has Akita's implicit post-humanism extended to an erasure of himself as an artist under the sheer weight of his output?