Becker & Mukai - Time Very Near

Описание: Since 2016, friends and producers Jean-Gabriel Becker and Susumu Mukai have made an unlikely pairing - the Parisian cinema composer known for his idiosyncratic soundscapes meeting with the world renowned Japanese percussionist and multi-instrumentalist to produce new music that sits somewhere beyond traditional genres and gets the kind of producers who’ve heard it all excited again.

Susumu Mukai, originally from Kanagawa, Japan, is one of London’s most sought after composers and multi-instrumentalists and his current list of collaborators reads like a Best of London’s electronic scene- from Floating Points to Vanishing Twin and Fimber Bravo. As Zongamin, he was a cult figure of the experimental dance movement and his collaboration with Jean Gabriel Becker is the long-awaited next example of his musical virtuosity.

Jean-Gabriel Becker, originally from Paris, is a prolific composer for cinema, collaborating with the likes of Massive Attack to produce acclaimed cinematic soundtracks. He produces music under various guises from Jeanga And George and Economy Wolf to Lux Prima.

As Becker & Mukai, the two held improvisation sessions in a state of the art gear den in Shoreditch around 2017. They often started as experimental and spontaneous and soon evolved as the duo found their own palette, combining (almost certainly for the first time) Tunisian flutes and West-African shekeres with FM synthesisers and Eventide harmonizers.

The recordings were first released in 2018 as EP “Eyes” - shambolic, contemplative and full of energy. Mainly, it was so unusual. It acquired fans in the places hardest to please - Love Vinyl included it in their best of the year. NTS played it on repeat and the record became a cult favourite among leftfield electronic producers including Andrew Weatherall, JD Twitch / Optimo and Pedro Winter.

In 2019, Becker & Mukai collaborated with label mates Auf Togo to deliver a more dance- oriented EP, where space disco met experimental electronics. Again, tastemakers and DJs fell for the in-classifiable quality of the music, championed by the hugely influential Dublab in California and Sonar Kollektiv in Berlin, to name just a few...

Time Very Near, their tentacular new album gathers sounds and inspiration from an ever- expanding palette of influences, still not complying to genres and formats, with inspiration taken from psychedelia, world music, acid house and experimental music. The unexpected meeting of sounds, the unlikely mixing of instruments...

The artwork on the front sleeve is an homage to collage artists of the past and uses various techniques and textures to create a coherent whole, much like the music does.