“Abandoned Audio and Toyko based Frantic Gallery join forces to present Metamachine, a series of audio/visual works and their research into the collaborative possibilities between electronic music and contemporary art. International musicians working with a vast range of techniques from field recordings to algorithmically programmed sound textures meet Japanese artists active in the field of oil painting and digital art. The results of this cooperation are 6 video works that will be presented online as well as showcased in art exhibitions taking place in Singapore, Berlin and Tokyo during 2014. The aim and triggering point of this project derives from the urge to understand the possibilities of the collaboration between fine arts and (contemporary / electronic) music. The idea behind Metamachine is not only to create audio/visual pieces, but also research different ways of combining sound and images influenced by two different artistic fields and cultures.

So what exactly is Metamachine? The metaphor comes from the artistic path of Atsushi Koyama, one of the participating visual artists. While emphasising the aesthetic qualities of machines and mechanical drawings in oil paintings, Koyama merges the human body with mechanisms, creating a man-machine. As if to incorporate the beauty of the human body, Koyama’s mechanisms break away from their earthly nature. They take us to another reality, beyond utilitarian usage or function itself. Koyama’s machines act more like ‘mechanical’ (‘mecha-aesthetical’) keys to another dimension, existing outside of the physical reality and its laws. At the same time, Macoto Murayama combines his knowledge of architecture, computer graphics and botany to reveal the mechanical structures of organic forms in his digital gardens of inorganic flora. For instance flowers, the sexual organ of a plant and object of admiration across all cultures and epochs, presented as a machine! His images appear like ‘blueprints’, seemingly stolen from the sketches that Mother Nature uses to create the organic beauty of a flower. Ultimately, Murayama’s Metamachines provide us with an imaginary link to something beyond organic substance or mechanical structure.”

Release page
Direct download (MP3)

Format: 6 x File, Album, MP3/320 kbps
Released: 22 Dec 2014
Style: Downtempo, Ambient, Deep House, Experimental