不失者
在灰野敬二 (Keiji Haino) 所组成过或参与过的组合当中，不失者 (Fushitsusha) 是最重要的一组。原因是，无论在音乐上或意念上，不失者都最能反映出灰野敬二的神秘声响信仰。
这个世界，甚至整个宇宙，仍由声响组成。有古老的宗教甚至认为，宇宙万物从声响而诞生。当然，大部分人会说，声响乃由物质而产生，声响，只是宇宙万物存在的副产品。实际上，何者是何者之始并不重要。重要的，是两者间的关系。
行为与思想间的关系，应该可以是个很好的比喻。行为学派 (Behaviorism) 认为我们的思想由行为组成并受其影响，因此行为学派藉改变行为来改变思想。对他们而言，思想只是行为所产生的假象。而精神分析(Psychoanalysis) 却以为，我们的行为乃心理状况的外在展示，因此改变行为的方法是，先去改变我们的思想。
要了解事物的真象，我想我们必须退一步，退出西方哲学与科学的直线理解方式。
佛教学说中有这样的一个故事。一位法师看见树叶在风中摇曳，于是他问他的徒弟：「究竟叶在动还是风在动？」结果徒弟们都答错了。答案既不是叶也不是风。
「在动的，是你们的思想意识。」大师如是说。
「我的音乐目标不是要超越迷幻音乐，而是将之深化。」
～灰野敬二
东京地下迷幻之音崛起之后，有一个令人争议不休的课题。究竟我们应该如果界定迷幻摇滚乐？灰野敬二、南条麻人等的音乐，究竟算不算真正的迷幻摇滚？很明显九十年代日本迷幻之音与六十年代英美的迷幻摇滚有颇大的表现形态上差异。虽然我们还是将灰野敬二、南条麻人等的音乐，归纳入迷幻摇滚的范畴，但似乎私底下，我们都对此半信半疑。叫人犹豫的是，我们似乎无法在音乐形态的层面上论证出一致性解释此归纳法之定论，但骨子里又觉得有某种「说不清」的理由作为依据。我们的矛盾在于，直觉给予肯定，但理性却提出质疑。
或者我们应该将注意力从纯粹的音乐造型，转移到音乐的本质方面。虽然东京迷幻之音带明显的六十年代迷幻音乐痕，但个人认为，这不足以给我们支持论据，去将两者拿来作对等式的相提并论。东京迷幻族之表现手法、演奏概念，远远超越了迷幻音乐的单纯摇滚规格。
东京迷幻之音与六十年代迷幻摇滚之间所存系的，是一种本质性的共通——一种对于精神意识神秘性之追探。迷幻药、东方宗教及部落民族宗教系统之发现，叫不少人开始接触到人类精神意识不为人熟悉的神秘一面。而六十年代迷幻族、嬉皮士藉音乐所试图仿真的，正是与此相关的，一种异于日常生活意识的「迷幻」状态。在某程度上，这可以说是一种流于片面，对「迷幻」意识的本质未尽了解的表现。吸引这群迷幻族的，只是其表象而非其真象。来到九十年代，东京迷幻族所沉迷于的是相同的课题。但分别在于，东京迷幻族所追求的，再不是迷幻意识的表象而是其真象。他们将音乐归还声响的国度，复将声响，演奏成一种觅道的过程。
而过程中，他们将整个摇滚系统也连带炸成粉碎。
「…我藉音乐所要尝试表达的，是佛陀达至了但却无法解释的顿悟 (Satori)。」
～灰野敬二
西藏佛教有两种截然不同的修道者。其中最普通的，是一般人最为熟悉，以严守戒律为修行主旨的僧侣。他们希望藉生生世世善行所累积的功德来摆脱轮回之苦以登佛界。另一种属于极少数的，是一派专研「短途」佛法的法师，通过偏险的急行道，意图在短促的一生时间里登入原本须要生世轮回修行方可冀望接近的涅盘。以极端的修练方式去毁溃意志顽固的习性观念，复超越善恶及众生色相，从直线切入的角度顿悟万物的虚无本质。
灰野敬二是同样的一位「短途」修行者。不同的，只在于他以声响作为他的觅道媒体。这是了解灰野敬二那孤绝声响演奏系统的唯一角度。
我这里所提出的并非一个假设性的比喻。我所要指出的，并非一种相类似的关系。灰野敬二的音乐本身就是一种充满神秘主义元素的「短途」佛学。在这个课题上，没有甚么比他的重型迷幻组合不失者 (Fushitsusha) 更具有重要的阐释作用。单是组合的名字本身，已意味强烈的神秘宗教色彩。不失者的字面意思解作「一个没有质量的虚空个体」。虽然据灰野敬二表示，不失者一名乃出自他自己的想象，但其含义却完全切合佛教心经中所形容，那种在经过深层冥想后所达至的「无我」状态。而不失者那种特异的演奏系统，亦是中心以这种「无我」概念而发展出来。
正确一点来说，不失者并不是一个正常的音乐演奏组合，而是一个以灰野敬二这位神秘祭司为首的声响冥想集团。
不失者的声响演奏系统，是一套近乎神秘主义的冥想功法。乐队所钻研的，不是传统音乐演奏的法则。相反地，乐队以身体去进行声学上的思考，以直接的精神感应去彻底取代所有有关于音乐的规条及理论。尤其特别的是由灰野敬二引入的那一套将呼吸吐纳融会于声响演奏的音乐功法。灰野敬二的歌词，也彷佛是神秘主义修行者的诗词。整个过程就像西藏「短途」法师的修练一样，以强大的精神冲击去摧毁人类根深蒂固的存在概念，从中以直接的方式启悟到，众生万物都只是存在于我们意识里的精神活动。不失者的音乐，正正是一种介乎物质色相与涅盘之间的黑暗虚无，而灰野敬二所要做的，彷佛是将这种黑暗虚无，进一步转化成涅盘式的彻底解脱。
「我不是一个无政府主义者，我本身就是一种无政府主义状态。」
～灰野敬二
Wire杂志的Biba Kapf形容灰野敬二的音乐为一种以华格纳规模演奏的蓝调音乐。而日本音乐专家Alan Cummings更形容灰野敬二的巨大音响输出，像操控一个天气系统多于结他演奏。或者应该说，灰野敬二本身就是一股聚合无限黑暗能量的巨大声响团。
印度教相信声音就是神，而宇宙万物，皆根源自声音。因此一首演绎得法的Raga，被相信具有呼风唤雨的能力。而大部分西藏喇嘛法师亦相信，那些参透得到声响本质的人，可以声响毁灭人神万物，也可以声响起死回生。我相信，灰野敬二正是这样的一种演唱家、演奏家。而要体会他那套足以呼风雨，令鬼神泣号的音乐系统，除了他的个人作品外，首选莫过于他的黑暗迷幻乐团不失者。
不失者的音乐有好几个特点。乐队从演奏所发展出的，是一套完全别于正统摇滚音乐的声响结构和节奏系统。就连南条麻人亦为此而赞叹，说世上再没有另一个组合，比不失者将摇滚音乐破解得更加彻底。同时，不失者从来不会在他们的音乐会现场演奏中，重复他们的录音室作品。而乐队的现场演奏方法没有一定法则，每次均会视场地环境的声学质素而改变。
至于灰野敬二于不失者的结他演奏，亦如他的个人结他独奏，总括可分两类。第一类是与各Avant-Garde及当代新音乐作曲家相类的无韵调取向。第二类是类似中世纪音乐格律的歌德式黑暗迷幻噪音。在不失者的作品中，我们很容易察觉到此分野，而乐队的近期双碟专辑I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense...正属于后者。
I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense...是不失者两年来首辑全新录音室作品。自98年于日本品牌Tokuma Japan Communications一连发表过两张专辑后 (A Little Longer Thus及The Wisdom Prepared)，乐队只于法国发表过一张音乐会现场收音专集Withdrawn, This Sable Disclosure ere Derot'd。
虽然不失者于过往的专辑中，从未间断过其透过庞大迷幻结他噪音所展露的慑人音响魔力，然而于这套新专辑中，乐队展示出是更具概念性的长篇音响冥想。
A Reflecting Echo, My Soul Could Perhaps Become接近灰野敬二个人作品的诡异歌声与扭曲结他的对唱。I Sink Down In Search Of Your Breath's Abode及Don't Be Afraid, Even If Your Nerves Snap, You Can Tie Them To A Fragment Of The Universe开始进入以缓速燃烧的低回吟咏与黑暗迷幻结他噪音。而Staring At A Point In Time, Memorizing, Vowing Never To Return则是在登入绝对虚无国度前的沉静反思。重要的时刻是横跨两张CD的长篇迷幻音响演奏I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense...。灰野敬二那出神入化的迷幻结他演奏，以庞大的声效扭曲变化，最幽深阴暗的灵魂碎片也被焚化成漫天幽蓝的火舌。最后是有如经文颂祷的后冥想作品Hasn't Something Like This Happened Before?
Japanese guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist Keiji Haino had been a prominent figure in the Tokyo underground since the mid-70s before forming this incredible group that stands as one of Japans most inventive and extraordinary and powerful groups of the era. Their work draws on noise,rock, free improvisation, and psychedelia, yet they sculpt their group sound in a fashion that their music is relative to few forms. In fact, the sound of Fushitsusha could best be described as contemporary Japanese music as some of their modalities and vigorous improvisational manner reflects the Japanese folk and traditional formulas. On the other hand, the electricity and refined indulgence of their feedback drenched albums and live concerts bares similarities to early Sonic Youth and the Swans, yet is as challenging as avant-garde improvisation. Sonny Sharrocks Black Woman and Peter Brötzmanns Machine Gun are good points of reference, as are Captain Beefheart, Guru Guru, or even Can.
Fushitsusha is part of a continuum in Japanese avant-garde music that was developing in the 60s with noisy improvisational groups such as Group Ongaku, Taj Mahal Travellers, and, most notably, New Direction Unit, who were versed in a free-form noise dialect that went beyond the free jazz movement to higher and more unsettling places. Where Fushitsusha fit into the spectrum of rock, noise, and avant-garde could be pondered for hours. The conclusion, in most cases, could only be that they are a phenomenon of an incredibly creative force in leader Keiji Haino, who has forged some of the most magnificent avant-garde recordings of the 90s seemingly out of blood, sweat, and tears. As a solo performer, he has such an extraordinary and singular approach one could only compare him to an artist like Cecil Taylor, as his work is all-consuming, brutally passionate, and individual.
Fushitsusha recorded their debut album in 1989; however, it is rumored that the group existed in various incarnations from as early as 1980. A self-titled double album that vanished from the market very quickly, it certainly made an impact on an influential level and was a quintessential recording in the Tokyo psychedelic rock revival and noise rock scenes born in and around the PSF labels Tokyo Flashback compilation series. The following album, commonly known not by title but by its catalog number (PSF 15/16), was a double CD of live recordings released 1991 in a stark black-on-black cover that would become their standard album housing aesthetic with few exceptions. At 13 tracks and 147 minutes, the trio of Keiji Hainoguitar and voice, Yasushi Ozawa bass, and Jun Kosugi on drums delivered an album that shook the avant-rock world and was pivotal in putting all ears toward Japan for noise and improvisation aficionados. The swelling feedback arcs of Hainos guitar collide with clustered abrasive fits of noise and the rhythm section sublimely balanced off-kilter pulse flow and jagged angular explosions. The groups improvisation often comes to a crest when they grab on to an abrasive and turgid riff driving it incessantly into a blitz of noise. Other moments see tendrils of feedback and percussion cascading into haunting ambience, infused with an electrical hum and Hainos banshee vocal making the calm incredibly unnerving. Hainos admirers included Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore, who was a protagonist of the group from the start. Clearly he could relate to the approach of Fushitsusha as the tone pallet of feedback and noise of their first two albums parallel the work of Bad Moon Rising, though are considerably more abstract. Another New York musician and avatar of noise, John Zorn, had collaborated and promoted Haino throughout the 80s. He invited the group to record for his Avant label in 1993. Allegorical Misunderstanding was their first recording released on a label other than PSF and the work is probably the strangest in their discography. All due respect, Zorns production aesthetic was clean and clear, though the signature of Fushitsusha is most often in the raw ambience of their recording situations. While their early releases sound as though they were taped from an adjacent building or down a long corridor, the Airplane hangar recording environment optimized the intensity of their group sound. Reputedly a hardworking group that practiced emphatically, it wasnt for the sake of developing songs as such as for devising strategies in which Haino could conduct the group. He directs the music using a set of codes ranging from wielding a baton to almost butoh dance gestures. The titles Magic one through ten revealed the mysticism on which the work is based.
The group certainly used rock language and Haino was always quick to state the influence of West Coast psychedelic rock group Blue Cheer in his rare interviews. The most stunning display of raw and powerful garage rock came with the 1994 album Pathetique with its four extended tracks of deconstructed riffs and fractured beats. Its origins are in Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band or even the Stooges, which should not lead the uninitiated to believe that Fushitsusha is an average garage revival band, though they somehow combine the 60s garage aesthetic with free improvisation sensibilities. Suffice it to say, at any given second the album can call to mind John Coltrane, 70s Miles Davis, Xenakis, Derek Bailey, Howlin Wolf, Borbetomagus, the Music Machine, and Merzbow while remaining as far from pastiche as its does tradition. Released in 1994, this album marked the beginning of a highly prolific period for the group, its closing untitled track clocks in at 44 minutes and is one of the most blissful and self-defining pieces the group recorded.
Haino was producing a vast amount of solo recordings and collaborations and touring concurrently. Live appearances outside Japan with Fushitsusha were few and far between. By 1995, this changed and the group began to gain a higher profile on the European and American scenes with the abrasive album The Caution Appears on the French label Les Disques du Soleil appearing 1995. Its ten tracks were shorter, sharper statements than the sprawling extended psychedelia of the previous albums and marked a significant change in the groups sound. Another European release came out the same year on Blast First under the title Purple Trap, which also became an umbrella title as a sort of sister group to Fushitsusha. Releases under this name came in the form of a rare four-CD box set and an album of Haino with Bill Laswell and Rashied Ali released on Tzadik. This creates a little confusion as Purple Trap was an album title, a group name, and a label that published the Haino box set officially known as The Souls True Love. The box included one untitled CD by Fushitsusha and three solo discs from Haino. The Blast First CD is subtitled The Wound That Was Given Birth to Must Be Bigger Than the Wound That Gave Birth; also known as Purple Trap, it is a double CD of extremely aggressive and noisy tracks that are no less enigmatic and somewhat humorously packaged in blazing Crimson artwork that defies the all-black uniform of Hainos artwork.Fushitsusha had worked with the independent PSF label loyally and had become synonymous with the avant-garde labels sound. Additionally, all of the groups members were working in splinter groups for the label. However, the association changed in 1997 when the Japanese major label Tokuma signed Fushitsusha for a series of four albums. Giving the group total artistic freedom, this was an exceptionally liberal phase in the Japanese music industry to put such an outward-bound group in mainstream distribution. Evidently, this project did not result gaining a higher profile and the collaboration with Tokuma dissolved after a stunning set of albums.
A Death Never to Be Complete appeared in April 1997 and was recorded in London in a high-end studio that captured Fushitsusha more successfully than ever. The album mixed shorter tracks — Just As I Told You, the sub-three-minute opener is a fine example of the concise reduction the group was going for at this point — while other tracks extend into improvisational labyrinths in the classic early style. The next installment was The Time Is Nigh recorded and released at the same time so the production style is identical. It is curious that this pair of albums was not released as a double CD. The four tracks Just Before, My Precious Thing, Black Cluster, and The Time Is Nigh display some of the more developed and edgy sides of the group, as if they are further abstracting their already advanced metamorphosis as it is one of the more challenging recordings of the group.
For the fact that live concerts of the group were highly disciplined, ritualistic, spontaneous and intense their greater albums are often those captured on stage such as Gold Blood taped live at San Franciscos Great American Music Hall during a November 7, 1996, gig that was broadcast on KFJC FM. One of the few recordings released on a U.S. label, the dark noise specialists Charnel House put this out in 1998. The recording is exceptionally high-quality for a live date and often, the sprawl into chaos is one of the most exciting aspects of their music that shows the group navigating through such stormy territory. Incidentally, this recording is the last to feature drummer Jun Kosugi, who left the group on good terms in pursuit of a more tranquil life. The elaborately titled The Halation Born Between You and I Who Were Doomed to Appear in Form and his parting track This Trembling in My Core, With Which of Your Cells Couldnt It Hold Hands! display some of his most agile drumming with the group, somewhere between Sunny Murray and Charles Hayward.
A Little Longer Thus was released on Tokuma on June 24, 1998. Its nine tracks debut new drummer Ikuro Takahashi, who had evidently worked with the group for a considerable length of time in training to become an inside component of the Fushitsusha voice. The titles Not That Way, Repel, Charged With Fever, Head-First, and No Second Chance may be telling of where things were headed with the newly configured group. A more frantic and somewhat harder sound was developed with the inspired energy of this fearless ongoing experiment. Recorded during the same session and concurrently released was the awesome The Wisdom Prepared, which goes back to the original long form improvisation; one 74-minute track indefinitely closed the relationship with Tokuma whether or not for the fact that a Metal Machine Music-like gesture of such a statement remains unknown. It is entirely instrumental and a mammoth suit that runs the entire Fushitsusha gamut sans Hainos voice.
Often put on the avant-garde jazzand free improvisation stage for want of a better categorization,Fushitsusha appeared in front of a crowd of new music and free jazz fans on May 16, 1997, for the Festival International de Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Canada. The performance that became the album Withdrawe, This Sable Disclosure ere Devotd was released the following year on Les Disques Victo. The energy of the group was at an all-time chaotic high on this night. The record features a track listing that implies they performed versions of songs from previous recordings, although they are completely unrecognizable adaptations. The pieces Pathetique Vertigo evoke images of the group wrestling with an overpowering electric force, not to mention a full house of Canadian jazz fans with mouths agape. Fushitsusha released I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense on the U.K label Paratactile in 2000 as a double-CD set. This sprawling work would be their last as a trio. Haino was infamous in his dogmatism surrounding the practice and strategies of the group. The degree to which they developed their own musical language within the rock format is exemplified on the extended workouts Staring At a Point in Time, Memorizing, Vowing Never to Return and the drifting, two-part jam I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense, part one a mere 29 minutes while part two clocks in at 54. This stunning album was also the parting shot for drummer Ikuro Takahashi, whose departure led to one of the most peculiar diversions in the groups progression. The album Origins Hesitation was released in November 2001 after an extended leave while Haino produced more solo work. The twist to this release is that the overloaded guitar noise and feedback that was centrifugal to the Fushitsusha sound is gone entirely with Haino opting to replace the fleeting drummers himself taking to the kit and vocals with Yasushi Ozawas bass out front. This extraordinary move in the Fushitsusha/Haino legacy could be interpreted as either the crumbling of one of the most fascinating and powerful groups in 90s Japanese music or perhaps as Haino himself saw it: as the optimum deconstruction in the name of invention.
这个世界，甚至整个宇宙，仍由声响组成。有古老的宗教甚至认为，宇宙万物从声响而诞生。当然，大部分人会说，声响乃由物质而产生，声响，只是宇宙万物存在的副产品。实际上，何者是何者之始并不重要。重要的，是两者间的关系。
行为与思想间的关系，应该可以是个很好的比喻。行为学派 (Behaviorism) 认为我们的思想由行为组成并受其影响，因此行为学派藉改变行为来改变思想。对他们而言，思想只是行为所产生的假象。而精神分析(Psychoanalysis) 却以为，我们的行为乃心理状况的外在展示，因此改变行为的方法是，先去改变我们的思想。
要了解事物的真象，我想我们必须退一步，退出西方哲学与科学的直线理解方式。
佛教学说中有这样的一个故事。一位法师看见树叶在风中摇曳，于是他问他的徒弟：「究竟叶在动还是风在动？」结果徒弟们都答错了。答案既不是叶也不是风。
「在动的，是你们的思想意识。」大师如是说。
「我的音乐目标不是要超越迷幻音乐，而是将之深化。」
～灰野敬二
东京地下迷幻之音崛起之后，有一个令人争议不休的课题。究竟我们应该如果界定迷幻摇滚乐？灰野敬二、南条麻人等的音乐，究竟算不算真正的迷幻摇滚？很明显九十年代日本迷幻之音与六十年代英美的迷幻摇滚有颇大的表现形态上差异。虽然我们还是将灰野敬二、南条麻人等的音乐，归纳入迷幻摇滚的范畴，但似乎私底下，我们都对此半信半疑。叫人犹豫的是，我们似乎无法在音乐形态的层面上论证出一致性解释此归纳法之定论，但骨子里又觉得有某种「说不清」的理由作为依据。我们的矛盾在于，直觉给予肯定，但理性却提出质疑。
或者我们应该将注意力从纯粹的音乐造型，转移到音乐的本质方面。虽然东京迷幻之音带明显的六十年代迷幻音乐痕，但个人认为，这不足以给我们支持论据，去将两者拿来作对等式的相提并论。东京迷幻族之表现手法、演奏概念，远远超越了迷幻音乐的单纯摇滚规格。
东京迷幻之音与六十年代迷幻摇滚之间所存系的，是一种本质性的共通——一种对于精神意识神秘性之追探。迷幻药、东方宗教及部落民族宗教系统之发现，叫不少人开始接触到人类精神意识不为人熟悉的神秘一面。而六十年代迷幻族、嬉皮士藉音乐所试图仿真的，正是与此相关的，一种异于日常生活意识的「迷幻」状态。在某程度上，这可以说是一种流于片面，对「迷幻」意识的本质未尽了解的表现。吸引这群迷幻族的，只是其表象而非其真象。来到九十年代，东京迷幻族所沉迷于的是相同的课题。但分别在于，东京迷幻族所追求的，再不是迷幻意识的表象而是其真象。他们将音乐归还声响的国度，复将声响，演奏成一种觅道的过程。
而过程中，他们将整个摇滚系统也连带炸成粉碎。
「…我藉音乐所要尝试表达的，是佛陀达至了但却无法解释的顿悟 (Satori)。」
～灰野敬二
西藏佛教有两种截然不同的修道者。其中最普通的，是一般人最为熟悉，以严守戒律为修行主旨的僧侣。他们希望藉生生世世善行所累积的功德来摆脱轮回之苦以登佛界。另一种属于极少数的，是一派专研「短途」佛法的法师，通过偏险的急行道，意图在短促的一生时间里登入原本须要生世轮回修行方可冀望接近的涅盘。以极端的修练方式去毁溃意志顽固的习性观念，复超越善恶及众生色相，从直线切入的角度顿悟万物的虚无本质。
灰野敬二是同样的一位「短途」修行者。不同的，只在于他以声响作为他的觅道媒体。这是了解灰野敬二那孤绝声响演奏系统的唯一角度。
我这里所提出的并非一个假设性的比喻。我所要指出的，并非一种相类似的关系。灰野敬二的音乐本身就是一种充满神秘主义元素的「短途」佛学。在这个课题上，没有甚么比他的重型迷幻组合不失者 (Fushitsusha) 更具有重要的阐释作用。单是组合的名字本身，已意味强烈的神秘宗教色彩。不失者的字面意思解作「一个没有质量的虚空个体」。虽然据灰野敬二表示，不失者一名乃出自他自己的想象，但其含义却完全切合佛教心经中所形容，那种在经过深层冥想后所达至的「无我」状态。而不失者那种特异的演奏系统，亦是中心以这种「无我」概念而发展出来。
正确一点来说，不失者并不是一个正常的音乐演奏组合，而是一个以灰野敬二这位神秘祭司为首的声响冥想集团。
不失者的声响演奏系统，是一套近乎神秘主义的冥想功法。乐队所钻研的，不是传统音乐演奏的法则。相反地，乐队以身体去进行声学上的思考，以直接的精神感应去彻底取代所有有关于音乐的规条及理论。尤其特别的是由灰野敬二引入的那一套将呼吸吐纳融会于声响演奏的音乐功法。灰野敬二的歌词，也彷佛是神秘主义修行者的诗词。整个过程就像西藏「短途」法师的修练一样，以强大的精神冲击去摧毁人类根深蒂固的存在概念，从中以直接的方式启悟到，众生万物都只是存在于我们意识里的精神活动。不失者的音乐，正正是一种介乎物质色相与涅盘之间的黑暗虚无，而灰野敬二所要做的，彷佛是将这种黑暗虚无，进一步转化成涅盘式的彻底解脱。
「我不是一个无政府主义者，我本身就是一种无政府主义状态。」
～灰野敬二
Wire杂志的Biba Kapf形容灰野敬二的音乐为一种以华格纳规模演奏的蓝调音乐。而日本音乐专家Alan Cummings更形容灰野敬二的巨大音响输出，像操控一个天气系统多于结他演奏。或者应该说，灰野敬二本身就是一股聚合无限黑暗能量的巨大声响团。
印度教相信声音就是神，而宇宙万物，皆根源自声音。因此一首演绎得法的Raga，被相信具有呼风唤雨的能力。而大部分西藏喇嘛法师亦相信，那些参透得到声响本质的人，可以声响毁灭人神万物，也可以声响起死回生。我相信，灰野敬二正是这样的一种演唱家、演奏家。而要体会他那套足以呼风雨，令鬼神泣号的音乐系统，除了他的个人作品外，首选莫过于他的黑暗迷幻乐团不失者。
不失者的音乐有好几个特点。乐队从演奏所发展出的，是一套完全别于正统摇滚音乐的声响结构和节奏系统。就连南条麻人亦为此而赞叹，说世上再没有另一个组合，比不失者将摇滚音乐破解得更加彻底。同时，不失者从来不会在他们的音乐会现场演奏中，重复他们的录音室作品。而乐队的现场演奏方法没有一定法则，每次均会视场地环境的声学质素而改变。
至于灰野敬二于不失者的结他演奏，亦如他的个人结他独奏，总括可分两类。第一类是与各Avant-Garde及当代新音乐作曲家相类的无韵调取向。第二类是类似中世纪音乐格律的歌德式黑暗迷幻噪音。在不失者的作品中，我们很容易察觉到此分野，而乐队的近期双碟专辑I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense...正属于后者。
I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense...是不失者两年来首辑全新录音室作品。自98年于日本品牌Tokuma Japan Communications一连发表过两张专辑后 (A Little Longer Thus及The Wisdom Prepared)，乐队只于法国发表过一张音乐会现场收音专集Withdrawn, This Sable Disclosure ere Derot'd。
虽然不失者于过往的专辑中，从未间断过其透过庞大迷幻结他噪音所展露的慑人音响魔力，然而于这套新专辑中，乐队展示出是更具概念性的长篇音响冥想。
A Reflecting Echo, My Soul Could Perhaps Become接近灰野敬二个人作品的诡异歌声与扭曲结他的对唱。I Sink Down In Search Of Your Breath's Abode及Don't Be Afraid, Even If Your Nerves Snap, You Can Tie Them To A Fragment Of The Universe开始进入以缓速燃烧的低回吟咏与黑暗迷幻结他噪音。而Staring At A Point In Time, Memorizing, Vowing Never To Return则是在登入绝对虚无国度前的沉静反思。重要的时刻是横跨两张CD的长篇迷幻音响演奏I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense...。灰野敬二那出神入化的迷幻结他演奏，以庞大的声效扭曲变化，最幽深阴暗的灵魂碎片也被焚化成漫天幽蓝的火舌。最后是有如经文颂祷的后冥想作品Hasn't Something Like This Happened Before?
Japanese guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist Keiji Haino had been a prominent figure in the Tokyo underground since the mid-70s before forming this incredible group that stands as one of Japans most inventive and extraordinary and powerful groups of the era. Their work draws on noise,rock, free improvisation, and psychedelia, yet they sculpt their group sound in a fashion that their music is relative to few forms. In fact, the sound of Fushitsusha could best be described as contemporary Japanese music as some of their modalities and vigorous improvisational manner reflects the Japanese folk and traditional formulas. On the other hand, the electricity and refined indulgence of their feedback drenched albums and live concerts bares similarities to early Sonic Youth and the Swans, yet is as challenging as avant-garde improvisation. Sonny Sharrocks Black Woman and Peter Brötzmanns Machine Gun are good points of reference, as are Captain Beefheart, Guru Guru, or even Can.
Fushitsusha is part of a continuum in Japanese avant-garde music that was developing in the 60s with noisy improvisational groups such as Group Ongaku, Taj Mahal Travellers, and, most notably, New Direction Unit, who were versed in a free-form noise dialect that went beyond the free jazz movement to higher and more unsettling places. Where Fushitsusha fit into the spectrum of rock, noise, and avant-garde could be pondered for hours. The conclusion, in most cases, could only be that they are a phenomenon of an incredibly creative force in leader Keiji Haino, who has forged some of the most magnificent avant-garde recordings of the 90s seemingly out of blood, sweat, and tears. As a solo performer, he has such an extraordinary and singular approach one could only compare him to an artist like Cecil Taylor, as his work is all-consuming, brutally passionate, and individual.
Fushitsusha recorded their debut album in 1989; however, it is rumored that the group existed in various incarnations from as early as 1980. A self-titled double album that vanished from the market very quickly, it certainly made an impact on an influential level and was a quintessential recording in the Tokyo psychedelic rock revival and noise rock scenes born in and around the PSF labels Tokyo Flashback compilation series. The following album, commonly known not by title but by its catalog number (PSF 15/16), was a double CD of live recordings released 1991 in a stark black-on-black cover that would become their standard album housing aesthetic with few exceptions. At 13 tracks and 147 minutes, the trio of Keiji Hainoguitar and voice, Yasushi Ozawa bass, and Jun Kosugi on drums delivered an album that shook the avant-rock world and was pivotal in putting all ears toward Japan for noise and improvisation aficionados. The swelling feedback arcs of Hainos guitar collide with clustered abrasive fits of noise and the rhythm section sublimely balanced off-kilter pulse flow and jagged angular explosions. The groups improvisation often comes to a crest when they grab on to an abrasive and turgid riff driving it incessantly into a blitz of noise. Other moments see tendrils of feedback and percussion cascading into haunting ambience, infused with an electrical hum and Hainos banshee vocal making the calm incredibly unnerving. Hainos admirers included Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore, who was a protagonist of the group from the start. Clearly he could relate to the approach of Fushitsusha as the tone pallet of feedback and noise of their first two albums parallel the work of Bad Moon Rising, though are considerably more abstract. Another New York musician and avatar of noise, John Zorn, had collaborated and promoted Haino throughout the 80s. He invited the group to record for his Avant label in 1993. Allegorical Misunderstanding was their first recording released on a label other than PSF and the work is probably the strangest in their discography. All due respect, Zorns production aesthetic was clean and clear, though the signature of Fushitsusha is most often in the raw ambience of their recording situations. While their early releases sound as though they were taped from an adjacent building or down a long corridor, the Airplane hangar recording environment optimized the intensity of their group sound. Reputedly a hardworking group that practiced emphatically, it wasnt for the sake of developing songs as such as for devising strategies in which Haino could conduct the group. He directs the music using a set of codes ranging from wielding a baton to almost butoh dance gestures. The titles Magic one through ten revealed the mysticism on which the work is based.
The group certainly used rock language and Haino was always quick to state the influence of West Coast psychedelic rock group Blue Cheer in his rare interviews. The most stunning display of raw and powerful garage rock came with the 1994 album Pathetique with its four extended tracks of deconstructed riffs and fractured beats. Its origins are in Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band or even the Stooges, which should not lead the uninitiated to believe that Fushitsusha is an average garage revival band, though they somehow combine the 60s garage aesthetic with free improvisation sensibilities. Suffice it to say, at any given second the album can call to mind John Coltrane, 70s Miles Davis, Xenakis, Derek Bailey, Howlin Wolf, Borbetomagus, the Music Machine, and Merzbow while remaining as far from pastiche as its does tradition. Released in 1994, this album marked the beginning of a highly prolific period for the group, its closing untitled track clocks in at 44 minutes and is one of the most blissful and self-defining pieces the group recorded.
Haino was producing a vast amount of solo recordings and collaborations and touring concurrently. Live appearances outside Japan with Fushitsusha were few and far between. By 1995, this changed and the group began to gain a higher profile on the European and American scenes with the abrasive album The Caution Appears on the French label Les Disques du Soleil appearing 1995. Its ten tracks were shorter, sharper statements than the sprawling extended psychedelia of the previous albums and marked a significant change in the groups sound. Another European release came out the same year on Blast First under the title Purple Trap, which also became an umbrella title as a sort of sister group to Fushitsusha. Releases under this name came in the form of a rare four-CD box set and an album of Haino with Bill Laswell and Rashied Ali released on Tzadik. This creates a little confusion as Purple Trap was an album title, a group name, and a label that published the Haino box set officially known as The Souls True Love. The box included one untitled CD by Fushitsusha and three solo discs from Haino. The Blast First CD is subtitled The Wound That Was Given Birth to Must Be Bigger Than the Wound That Gave Birth; also known as Purple Trap, it is a double CD of extremely aggressive and noisy tracks that are no less enigmatic and somewhat humorously packaged in blazing Crimson artwork that defies the all-black uniform of Hainos artwork.Fushitsusha had worked with the independent PSF label loyally and had become synonymous with the avant-garde labels sound. Additionally, all of the groups members were working in splinter groups for the label. However, the association changed in 1997 when the Japanese major label Tokuma signed Fushitsusha for a series of four albums. Giving the group total artistic freedom, this was an exceptionally liberal phase in the Japanese music industry to put such an outward-bound group in mainstream distribution. Evidently, this project did not result gaining a higher profile and the collaboration with Tokuma dissolved after a stunning set of albums.
A Death Never to Be Complete appeared in April 1997 and was recorded in London in a high-end studio that captured Fushitsusha more successfully than ever. The album mixed shorter tracks — Just As I Told You, the sub-three-minute opener is a fine example of the concise reduction the group was going for at this point — while other tracks extend into improvisational labyrinths in the classic early style. The next installment was The Time Is Nigh recorded and released at the same time so the production style is identical. It is curious that this pair of albums was not released as a double CD. The four tracks Just Before, My Precious Thing, Black Cluster, and The Time Is Nigh display some of the more developed and edgy sides of the group, as if they are further abstracting their already advanced metamorphosis as it is one of the more challenging recordings of the group.
For the fact that live concerts of the group were highly disciplined, ritualistic, spontaneous and intense their greater albums are often those captured on stage such as Gold Blood taped live at San Franciscos Great American Music Hall during a November 7, 1996, gig that was broadcast on KFJC FM. One of the few recordings released on a U.S. label, the dark noise specialists Charnel House put this out in 1998. The recording is exceptionally high-quality for a live date and often, the sprawl into chaos is one of the most exciting aspects of their music that shows the group navigating through such stormy territory. Incidentally, this recording is the last to feature drummer Jun Kosugi, who left the group on good terms in pursuit of a more tranquil life. The elaborately titled The Halation Born Between You and I Who Were Doomed to Appear in Form and his parting track This Trembling in My Core, With Which of Your Cells Couldnt It Hold Hands! display some of his most agile drumming with the group, somewhere between Sunny Murray and Charles Hayward.
A Little Longer Thus was released on Tokuma on June 24, 1998. Its nine tracks debut new drummer Ikuro Takahashi, who had evidently worked with the group for a considerable length of time in training to become an inside component of the Fushitsusha voice. The titles Not That Way, Repel, Charged With Fever, Head-First, and No Second Chance may be telling of where things were headed with the newly configured group. A more frantic and somewhat harder sound was developed with the inspired energy of this fearless ongoing experiment. Recorded during the same session and concurrently released was the awesome The Wisdom Prepared, which goes back to the original long form improvisation; one 74-minute track indefinitely closed the relationship with Tokuma whether or not for the fact that a Metal Machine Music-like gesture of such a statement remains unknown. It is entirely instrumental and a mammoth suit that runs the entire Fushitsusha gamut sans Hainos voice.
Often put on the avant-garde jazzand free improvisation stage for want of a better categorization,Fushitsusha appeared in front of a crowd of new music and free jazz fans on May 16, 1997, for the Festival International de Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Canada. The performance that became the album Withdrawe, This Sable Disclosure ere Devotd was released the following year on Les Disques Victo. The energy of the group was at an all-time chaotic high on this night. The record features a track listing that implies they performed versions of songs from previous recordings, although they are completely unrecognizable adaptations. The pieces Pathetique Vertigo evoke images of the group wrestling with an overpowering electric force, not to mention a full house of Canadian jazz fans with mouths agape. Fushitsusha released I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense on the U.K label Paratactile in 2000 as a double-CD set. This sprawling work would be their last as a trio. Haino was infamous in his dogmatism surrounding the practice and strategies of the group. The degree to which they developed their own musical language within the rock format is exemplified on the extended workouts Staring At a Point in Time, Memorizing, Vowing Never to Return and the drifting, two-part jam I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense, part one a mere 29 minutes while part two clocks in at 54. This stunning album was also the parting shot for drummer Ikuro Takahashi, whose departure led to one of the most peculiar diversions in the groups progression. The album Origins Hesitation was released in November 2001 after an extended leave while Haino produced more solo work. The twist to this release is that the overloaded guitar noise and feedback that was centrifugal to the Fushitsusha sound is gone entirely with Haino opting to replace the fleeting drummers himself taking to the kit and vocals with Yasushi Ozawas bass out front. This extraordinary move in the Fushitsusha/Haino legacy could be interpreted as either the crumbling of one of the most fascinating and powerful groups in 90s Japanese music or perhaps as Haino himself saw it: as the optimum deconstruction in the name of invention.
單曲
