Although primarily known as the greatest guitar player on the planet Keiji Haino is also one of the most radically inventive vocalists in experimental music. Black Blues – his duo of radically re-tooled acoustic and electric Blues - was in reality a showcase for his stunning range, from guttural blasts of lung power through high lonesome choirs. And who could forget his stunning castrato performance on Fushitsusha’s Double Live, still one of the great contemporary devotional works? Although we’ve had full albums from Haino dedicated to single instruments – hurdy-gurdy, electronics, percussion, acoustic guitar – we’ve yet to be treated to a solo vocal album, which is where this massive new release comes in. Recorded live in the depths of a cave in the village of La Haye de Routot and a church in the same village this is an emotionally high-wire solo vocal performance with stunning sound. At points it feels as if Haino’s whole body is resonating with sound, as convulsive explosions of epiglottal fury wrack his frame and turn the air purple. There’s also plenty of his haunted choral work, with high, mournful melodies dissolving into the air. At points the arc of the song is almost classical but then he drops into a gruff Black Blues howl that would reanimate the spirit of Blind Willie Johnson and drags the whole thing down the Delta. This is a beautiful document of an artist at the absolute peak of his powers and a necessary addition to any Haino shelf: “Keiji Haino is an individual that never ceases to provoke new ideas in the minds of those that meet him. And so, although he is usually surrounded by amplifiers, a myriad of effects pedals, and cables plugged into his guitar, he nonetheless amazed his audience with the power of the simplicity of his purely vocal performance and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, in 2008, as part of the InFamous Carousel Festival. The following year I had the opportunity to get to know him a bit better, acting as interpreter for his solo performance at Les Instants Chavirés in Montreuil. Being the intermediary for all his questions allowed me to fully understand the extent to which he attempts to give the absolute best of himself on stage, and how he leads a tireless quest for music. This led me to wonder if what he had done in 2008 couldn't be done without the technology, replacing the electronic amplification with the acoustic properties of a space. Solidifying this proposal did not take long; my musician friend and label associate, Eric Cordier, who has worked for 20 years with site-specific sound recording, knew of several acoustically interesting spaces in the region in which he grew up. And so we find ourselves en route to Normandy, in June 2010. We had a week consecrated to the exploration of one voice, and this is not just any voice; a voice developed outside of any school, through a unique journey, a voice simultaneously rock and spiritual, outside any taboo, a voice that shakes us to the core. This time, in addition, this voice is heard in its purest state. Of all the spaces visited, amongst them many churches and caves, a forest, a cliff, a tunnel, industrial wastelands, etc, it was in a quarry cave in the village of La Haye de Routot that he was able to release his entire being, offering up one hour of introspective song, so good that I believed at one moment I saw him disappear… in any case it was at this point that his voice and his body were able to melt into the space, or perhaps to become the atmosphere itself. This album presents this recording, preceded by those made in the church in the same village.” - Satoko Fujimoto