Detect

One of two three-inch mini-discs issued by Sachiko M. (nee Matsubara) in 2000, Detect consists of a single 20-minute piece for sine waves generated from her "empty" sampler. Strikingly minimal, the work deploys high-frequency hums, clicks, and burbles in a sparse array, adhering to no obvious framework. It tends toward the extremely quiet, virtually disappearing at some moments, but eventually coalesces into a sustained tone made up of two components, a louder high-pitched near-whistle and a softer, lower drone, building to a small crescendo that is abruptly snipped off at its culmination. Sachiko's ability to construct fascinating, difficult sonic images out of a severely limited palette is consistently impressive. Detect is slightly less fully realized, perhaps, than the previously recorded Debris, but shows this artist refusing to stand pat on conquered ground and insisting on wringing more and more music out of a source that almost everyone else would have thought barren.