Jellybeans
In the 1980s, the finance professor Jack Treynor conducted an experiment where he asked students to guess the number of jellybeans inside a jar. The result was that the average guess of the group was superior to the vast majority of the individual guesses. Since then, the idea of collective wisdom has been widely recognized and is now applied to everything from Wikipedia to vaccine development. But is there a way to make use of collective wisdom in creating music?
According to James Surowiecki, author of "The Wisdom of Crowds", for a crowd to be wise, it must meet four conditions, namely: diversity of opinion, independence, decentralization, and an aggregation mechanism. For this album, I gathered 60 different sets from a wide variety of sample libraries all over the world, and from these, I selected a total of 500 pieces of audio data. My goal was to use only these samples, editing them to turn them into musical compositions.
First, I took several samples at random and put them together. The more samples I combined, the more muddled the sound became, so I had to edit them to make sure all the parts functioned together suitably. Like clockwork, each individual sound had to be an indispensable part of the whole. Through repeated addition and reduction, the unwanted ego and bias got leveled out, and the parts that survived the selection process became the main motifs of each composition.
After making use of all the samples and working on them for about a year, the songs were finally taking shape. From an aggregation of phrases with diverse roots, musical compositions with novel and original styles were being born. At long last, after borrowing the wisdom of countless people I don't know and shutting myself at home, not meeting anyone or thinking of any specific melody, I was able to finish an album that I was happy with.
Tracklisting:
- Wherever
- Digress
- Pedestrian
- Eventually
- Abandon
- Opportunity
- Struggle
- Intention
- Gratification
Nonturn
Nozom Yoneda is a talented composer based in Tokyo who has honed his skills in a variety of musical styles, including traditional jazz theory and contemporary music such as club music and drone music. With this diverse range of skills, Nozom has become a composer capable of crafting modern pieces that seamlessly blend these various styles.
Under the artist name Nonturn, Nozom embraces a spirit of experimentation, abandoning traditional composing methods and exploring new techniques to push the boundaries of what is possible in music. His first album "Territory" is a testament to this approach, as it was constructed entirely from field sampling materials and does not include any traditional instruments. Additionally, Nozom is also an accomplished photographer, capturing abstract art-like images on walls.
Reviews
Silence and Sound
Working on 500 samples from all over the world, which he has worked on to give birth to a coherent album, Nozom Yoneda aka Nonturn delivers a succession of deliciously beautiful tracks.
On Jellybeans, melodies weave their way through hazy layers of delicate experimentation, embellished with pointillist rhythms.
The Japanese artist invites us to dive into a world nourished by colorful dreams, loaded with caressing sensations, wrapped in benevolent softness and enveloping warmth, a quilted blanket with a fluffy lightness.
We let ourselves be carried away by this work of ambient pop instrumental with sweet scents, images of a humanity more in osmosis than it seems, despite its cultural differences. Magic.
Roland Torres
Original review > Here
Metia In his 1st album "Territory", Nozom Yoneda employed a highly personal concept, using only field recordings gathered by his own footwork. However, in contrast, his 2nd album "Jellybeans" adopts a common style that uses a variety of pre-existing sound sources and deals with as many other people as possible. Despite being ambient music like its predecessor, the sound has indeed changed significantly. While the previous work featured a sound reminiscent of gray concrete in a urban and dub techno style, this work is more open, familiar, and radiant like colorful, light-shining jellybeans.
Faced with a huge amount of data, one could easily drown in the wave of sampling libraries and become homogenized and devoid of personality. However, after a long period of facing these, they have definitely emerged with a unique character.
Nozom Yoneda said, "After a year-long working period, when all the materials were used, the structure of the songs gradually became clear and specific music emerged. From the collection of phrases with different roots, a group of songs with an unknown original style began to be generated. Collective intelligence worked like an individual with musicality, and in the end, these group of songs were outputted as this music album."
The fact that he is able to work with such an avant-garde concept with such freedom of imagination may be due to the depth of the long-established label Audiobulb Records, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. This label, which releases many works centered on experimental music, is committed to providing a platform for artists to expand the range of their creative expressions and explore new musical possibilities. This open environment may have been one of the factors that released Nonturn from the shackles of existing music and enabled him to create the work "Jellybeans".
Now, it is unclear whether this work was formed by his own intention or whether the sound took shape while looking at these collective intelligences from an overhead perspective. However, its sound, which is a collection of others' ideas, suppressing his own musical thoughts and excluding ego, resonates with a certain nostalgia. The music that is evoked through this work, reminiscent of the Electronica of 20 years ago, the 2000s, is itself lyrical and nostalgic. The works of Brooklyn composer Rachika Nayar and Philadelphia Ambient artist Ulla, both highly acclaimed last year, were exactly resonating with that sound of the 2000s. It is a longing for an invisible past and may lead to a rediscovery of the 2000s, which could be the beginning of a continuous movement. I feel that this work of Nonturn will also be incorporated into the flow of nostalgic music.
Just as Vaporwave, a genre that sounded and disappeared like steam 10 years ago, rediscovered 1980s city pop and constructed a fictitious past that should not exist, the rediscovery of Post-Rock and Electronica through this work could shed new nostalgia and light on the upcoming music movement. Roko Yuzuki
Original review > Here
Luminous Dash
Elektronisch snoepgoed uit het verre oosten trekt op één of andere manier altijd onze aandacht. Achter de artiestennaam Nonturn schuilt Nozom Yoneda, een componist-muzikant uit Tokyo met heel wat ervaring in het behandelen van verschillende muziekstijlen. Yoneda scherpte zijn vaardigheden bij in de traditionele jazz, drum-‘n-bass, blues en experimentele muziek. Onder de naam Nonturn ontwijkt de Japanner de traditionele compositiemethodes en omarmt het experiment op zoek naar grensverleggende klankcomposities.
De filosofie van Jellybeans is gebaseerd op het idee van de collectieve wijsheid en de zoektocht naar toepasbare gebruiksmanieren bij het creëren van muziek. Het album is een complex elektronisch knutselwerk geworden dat gedistilleerd werd uit vijfhonderd stukjes audiogegevens verzameld uit een grote verscheidenheid aan klankbibliotheken van over de hele wereld. Het resultaat is een elektronisch raderwerk dat zowel een speels als dromerig karakter bevat. Yoneda werkte een jaar lang om zijn knip en plakwerk van samples in de juiste klankverhoudingen te weven.
Jellybeans rolt zich kleurrijk uit doorheen het elektronisch muziekspectrum met zweverige ambientpassages vermengt met diverse luchtige ritmes en experimenteel gefrutsel. Het elektronische vlechtwerk op dit album bezorgde ons een gelukzalig gevoel van vrijheid en onbezorgdheid.
Yoneda recycleert en manipuleert op Jellybeans de creatiefragmenten van derden tot nieuwe geluidsontwerpen die hun oorsprong niet meer prijs kunnen geven. Alleen die moeilijk te vatten collectieve kennis is aanwezig op dit overheerlijke potje elektronische lekkernij.
Original review > Here
Rockerilla
