Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages, by Archeus

Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages

by Archeus

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€8 EUR or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
12″LP black vinyl, comes in a 2 colors silkscreened heavy jacket with obi (black or kraft), inserts and a postcard by Vincent Guilbert. Edition of 350

Printed by Alan Sherry & liner notes by Jon Dale

Includes unlimited streaming of Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

edition of 350 30 remaining

Purchasable with gift card

€24 EUR or more
Full Digital Discography

35

releases

Get all 35 An'archives releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of 水鏡 Suikyō, 昼花火（Sun and Fireworks）, 血と雫 je prie pour que la goutte ne tombe pas, The wind is spring - there is a rainbow in the sky - love is hiding in the waves, Outside of the world, Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages, Tsilla, You don' t need magic, and 27 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

€127 EUR or more (50% OFF)

1.	脹相 chō sō 04:10	buy track
2.	壊相 e sō 03:42	buy track
3.	血塗相　kechi zu sō 03:02	buy track
4.	膿爛相 nō ran sō 03:34	buy track
5.	青瘀相　shō o sō 03:43	buy track
6.	噉相 tan sō 02:29	buy track
7.	散相 san sō 03:38	buy track
8.	骨相 kotsu sō 02:58	buy track
9.	焼相 shō sō 05:46	buy track

about

Kusōzu : Death Nine Stages is the second album by the Tokyo trio Archeus, which consists of Keiko Higuchi (voice, percussion, trombone, shamisen), Shizuo Uchida (bass strings), and TOMO (hurdy gurdy, voice). It follows their debut, self-titled and self-released CD and cassette from 2021 and is further proof – if any were needed – that these musicians, who’ve known each other for some time, but only started playing together relatively recently, share a telepathic communication, improvising together, fully in the moment, and as one. Where their debut album featured four extended improvisations, Kusōzu is an object lesson in economy and clarity – nine tracks, thirty-three minutes, everything that needs be said and nothing more.

All three musicians are incredibly active in the Japanese underground. Higuchi currently plays with Sachiko in Albedo Fantastica, adding Uchida for Albedo Gravitas; Uchida and Higuchi team up with Masami Kawaguchi (guitar) in vDBG. She’s also recorded with improvisers such as Naoto Yamagishi, Yasumune Morishige, and Shin-Ichiro Kanda. Uchida is also a member of MAI MAO, Kito-Mizukumi Rouber, Hasegawa-Shizuo, UH, and TERROR SHIT, and he’s recently recorded with improvising guitarist Takashi Masubuchi; TOMO has previously been a member of Tetragrammaton and Pouring High Water, and has recently performed live with Mick of Kousokuya, Mitsuru Tabata, Keiji Haino, and Daisuke Takaoka.

While Higuchi and Uchida have been making music together for some time now, they appear careful not to impose their previously articulated lexicon to bear on Archeus. There are trace elements of their playerly voices still present – the stretchy, plastic scrabbling on bass strings from Uchida; Higuchi’s murmurations of tone, and sudden plunges back down to earth, vertiginous and woozy – but there are other things going on here, particularly with TOMO joining in the action. His hurdy gurdy is a wild card in a group of wild cards, here cranking out burred, purring drones, there fidgeting through floods of notes, cranked up really high, ducking and weaving between Higuchi and Uchida as the three pursue the eternal now that is core to the best improvised music.

Archeus seem to work alchemically, transmuting their base matter into gold. Named after the Buddhist art practice of kusōzu, the graphic painting of nine stages of a decaying corpse in the open air, “to demonstrate the effects of impermanence,” as scholar Gail Chin once wrote,
Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages is Archeus at their most rigorously attentive to each other’s playing, and by the end, the music is itself thinking and feeling.

credits

released May 12, 2023

Keiko Higuchi : voice, percussion, trombone & shamisen
Shizuo Uchida : bass strings
TOMO : voice and hurdy gurdy

Recorded on Tokyo, July 2022
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Takeshi Yoshida

license

about

An'archives France

anarchives.com

contact / help

Contact An'archives

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages, you may also like:

III
by Shizuka

supported by 17 fans who also own “Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages”

Is this what heaven sounds like? Layla Vladi
go to album
Heavenly Persona
by Shizuka

supported by 17 fans who also own “Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages”

Just plain beautiful. tweeked
go to album
Watashi Dake?
by Keiji Haino

supported by 16 fans who also own “Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages”

Definitely different from his more recent collaboratively ethereal and leisurely LP's, this is a crepitating, sparsely textured album that sounds like a peregrine mixture of Whitehouse eeriness, Diamanda Galas, and the first Sonic Youth LP if it was played by Jandek. A fascinating LP that is best played at very loud volumes lying on the sofa after a few Fernet Branca's. brantly
go to album
Tour De Tokyo
by Hazy Sour Cherry

A fun new sound from the Tokyo underground, Hazy Cherry's debut is a mix of 60s bubblegum and 80s jangle pop. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 19, 2019
go to album
Hairline Ego Trip
by Dez Dare

Riff-heavy, blown-out garage-punk from the UK's Dez Dare with lyrics aimed at the political forces of division and isolation. Bandcamp New & Notable May 18, 2021
go to album
So Removed
by WIVES

Post-punk in the Sonic Youth mold—melody covered by creeping fuzz, anchored by architectural rhythms, with lyrics both abstract and direct. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 5, 2019
go to album
The OZ Tapes
by Les Rallizes Dénudés

supported by 14 fans who also own “Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages”

This song is a nice version that only exists on this album. It feels good with lively performances of drums and bass. mishamaeda
go to album