"I just released a new album as my solo project, Agencement. This is a follow-up album to 'Six Juxtaposed Works', which was released in 2017 on the Copenhagen label Tochnit Aleph. It's been about 35 years since I produced 'vinyl' by myself, so it's very emotional, although since the 1990s, it has become difficult to manufacture vinyl LPs in Japan and there were no channels to outsource overseas because I was disappointed in the situation. Musically, I think it's a further step in the direction of 'October Variations', released under my birth name in January 2022 on Glasgow label scatterArchive, but you may listen to it differently. The work began in Autumn 2022 with the recording in the studio, and the final mix was completed about one year later in August 2023. Listen. December 2023" - Hideaki Shimada.
All instruments played by Hideaki Shimada : violins, viola, cello, contrabass, piano, electronics, and magnetic tape. Recorded at Kubo Studio, Kanazawa in Autumn 2022 - August 2023, except piano recorded at Space Taki, Hakui in October 2022.
"Hideaki Shimada was born 1962, in Kanazawa, Japan. He was involved in violin improvisation since 1980. In 1985 he started solo project Agencement where he creates multi-layered violin improvisation and record them on magnetic tape. In his live performances he use amplified violin and electronic equipment."
"Hideaki Shimada is a Japanese poly-instrumentalist violinist and single-handedly the designer – experimental composer of the Agencement project. At the time, I reviewed an Agencement CD that was as intriguing as it was radical. Another album by Hideaki Shimada consisted of two duets with Evan Parker and with Roger Turner. But nothing led me to suppose the emblematic quality of these Binomial Cascades of which he is the only instrumentalist recorded on several remarkably well-produced tracks arranged. It is in fact a true masterpiece of experimental contemporary music. Hideaki Shimada plays all the instruments: violins, viola, cello, double bass, electronics and magnetic tape. Recording took place in several phases in fall 2022 and August 2023 at Kubo studio in Kanazawa. The piano in October 2022 at Space Taki in Hakui. The first side (A) of Binomial Cascades is entitled Nyx and Thanatos. In Greek mythology, Nyx (in ancient Greek Νύξ / Núx, in Latin Nox) is a Greek goddess of the Night, daughter of Chaos and personification of Night. According to Hesiod's Theogony, she and her brother Erebus (the Darkness) are among the first deities to emerge from the primordial Chaos. Thanatos means Death. In Greek mythology, Thanatos (in ancient Greek Θάνατος / Thánatos) is the personification of Death. He is a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing as an individual. The quality of the dynamics and the execution on the different instruments successively arranged and assembled over time are of a very high level and the conception of the work is very coherent. The predominant voice is that of the violin with the multiplicity of playing modes. Frequently, we only distinguish a single instrument or two or their combinatorial – meticulous sound aggregation. The piano comes in at one point. A real listening pleasure for these sounds suspended in the space of silence and the unfolding of time..." - Orynx-improvandsounds.blogspot.com.
