Adachi Tomomi

I find the work of Adachi Tomomi very exciting. His work involving speech manipulated by various homemade instruments and computer software is especially fascinating. His compositions and improvisations all carry a quirky element, and often push speech and the sounds they are reduced to, beyond what appear to be their limits. Take ‘Ktrp’ for example. I personally find this piece disgusting to listen to due to the sounds resembling those of someone regurgitating. However, it is a good example of how Tomomi develops a certain sound. ‘Gamp’ and ‘Tsh’ were two of my favourite pieces to listen to. ‘Gamp’ is a brilliantly violent piece that extracts, modulates, and grinds speech up to the point that when it is spit out, it resembles nothing speech-like. It really ends up being an explosion of sounds. ‘Tsh’ begins with the entry of a repeated squeaking sound that is sped up and layered on top of itself. The repetition gave me the feeling that I was slowly backing away from the piece just as you would do with a painting, only with my ears so that I ended up listening to it as a whole. All in all, Adachi Tomomi is just a fascinating composer and performer who, in my opinion, deserves more recognition than he already has.