“Mythologies” is a collaboration between sound and photography, between myself, composer Kaito Nakahori, and French photographer Erwan Morère.
The idea was to present the photo book and vinyl together, to have the audience listen to the music while looking at the photos. I initially received the photographer’s portfolio (100 pictures, divided by 8 sections). The idea of the collaboration was to have the music respond to photographs, each piece directly responding to a group of related photos. I did not know the photographer’s idea behind these pictures. Ideas and inspirations only came from what I saw in the pictures. not from the photographer’s opinion. I wrote eight pieces for eight photo sections. His photographs were taken around the world, so they were completely different in each section. They were analog black and white pictures of landscapes, people, things, and places taken in various places around the world, mostly Europe and Asia. I was inspired by the essence of the subjects portrayed as well as by the distortion in the photo, the effects of the analog black and white camera, as well as the formats of the photo.
Object/Subject —> Subjectivity of photographer—> Analog Camera —> Photograph —>Subjectivity of composer (Music) —-> Subject (viewer/listener)
The apparent direction of the process: first, the object/subject, independent of the photographer or anyone else; second, the photographer that finds that object/subject interesting and how they choose to portray it; third, the camera device, and other factors that provide a chance, such as the light, and the time of the day, the season, the location of the photographer, etc; fourth, the resulting photograph itself; fifth, the accompanying music and the composer’s perspective; sixth and last, the viewer/listener and their experience. There are so many different layers between the original object/subject and the viewer/listener. I was inspired by all the different possibilities, the accidental nature, and misunderstandings that were born in many gradations through the process, and made me think of what authenticity means and the importance of circumstances.
Selected reviews on Mythologies
“What for me most succeeds as a sensible strategy of “Mythologies” is its drinking from the liquid of life to lubricate – for want of a better word – the foundations of the most primitive impulses in life; the seeking of enjoyment. Mission – or mythology – accomplished.”
http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2018/01/mythologies/
Mick Buckingham, Fluid Radio
“Masaya Ozaki & Kaito Nakahori liberate sound with the soothing exploration of “Mythologies”. Tactile tiny sounds are amplified to give them a heavenly sheen. Rather beautiful the duo engages with thought-provoking arrangements that give it a mysterious aura. Over the course of the album various instruments interact in shadowy ways, representing a little of the sounds that so often are overlooked. Classical, electro-acoustic, electronics, these come together over the magnificent trip that takes place.”
http://www.beachsloth.com/masaya-ozaki-kaito-nakahori-mythologies.html
Beach Sloth
"Imaginative visions of a fleeting universe made of bright contrasts and material grain."
https://sowhatmusica.wordpress.com/2017/11/22/masaya-ozaki-kaito-nakahori-mythologies/
So What
"Everything is still muffled in the combination of sound cards of the two Japanese artists, whose minute impulses of heterogeneous nature fill a sound space at the very moment in which they define its size, in a play of resonances and refractions not unlike that of the nuances of light that define the shape and substance of objects. “ (translated from Italian)
https://musicwontsaveyou.com/2017/11/21/masaya-ozaki-kaito-nakahori-mythologies/
Music Won’t Save you