Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2012

The term “noise music” often doesn’t do justice to songs that—lacking recognizable melodies and chords—nevertheless possess a strong sense of structure and musicality. French philosopher/guitarist Richard Pinhas and Japanese experimental musician Merzbow’s latest collaboration is just that. Recorded live at an experimental music fest in Washington DC, Rhizome (a mass of roots) lives up to its biological title with an organic sense of oceanic ebb and flow that suffuses its five tracks. Pinhas’s processed guitar emits sounds ranging from identifiable guitar melodies to wind-like sighs, while Merzbow’s laptop whirs and clicks, bloops and bleeps in the background. Instead of meandering from A to B, the album functions almost like a symphony, with recurrent phrases and passages that give it coherence and impact.

Buy Rhizome here.