Ahousen
Ahousen

My friend Paolo got married.

For the occasion, we gifted him a honeymoon trip to Japan; he's always had a great passion for Eastern culture and Japanese culture in particular.

And so, my friend Paolo got married.

Drinking buddy, stadium games, concerts, semi-serious discussions on "universal systems" at three in the morning under the influence of THC, and a great music connoisseur. It's "his fault" that I own records by Keiji Haino, Fushitsusha, Zeni Geva, and the obscure Ahousen.

My friend Paolo became a father. Did I mention he got married?

We don't see each other much anymore, a concert here and there, a beer every now and then, but we often keep in touch. One evening on the phone he says: 'Hey Sway, I read a review in a specialist magazine about a Japanese underground group, they're called Ahousen, see if you can find something about them.'

So I start searching online, but aside from the usual Scaruffi who dedicates a few lines to them, practically nothing. Not even a single song on YouTube. The record (self-titled) exists, Discogs confirms it, 4 tracks, it seems to be in the noise experimental genre, if it exists then surely I'll find it on slsk, everything is there. But no, nothing, a dead end. Sure, I could buy it, but blindly I don't trust it, I'd like to at least listen to something first. So I hunt for it for a few months, then I forget about it.

My friend Paolo separated.

One evening over a couple of beers, we reminisce about old times and at a certain point he says: 'but did you ever find that Ahousen album I told you about a while ago?' – 'No way Pablito, I tried but it's practically unfindable, I searched for a few months, then I gave up.'

A few weeks later I open the blue bird and remember our conversation from the night before, so I give it a try and... there it is, the red primrose of the Japanese underground, I can hardly believe it, I put it on download before the spell vanishes and in less than a quarter of an hour it's on my HD playing.

'Damn, but it's a live album,' I don't like live albums much, I've always preferred studio albums except for rare exceptions. 53 minutes of free jazz that sometimes reminds me of certain works by Spring Heel Jack (but without the spaceship), everything, however, is shaken up, mixed with bursts of folk and long passages of pure noise. Accompanying each track are the saxophone and the heart-wrenching, sometimes desperately annoying, almost delirious voice of the singer Shun Suzuki alias Suu, who transports us through the tracks of the album between metropolitan nightmares and small moments of sweetness as if the nightmare is suddenly interrupted by the memory of a happy childhood; but these are only moments, then the discomfort takes over again and continues, making its way clamorously through the roughly 28 minutes of the beautiful closing track (Ophelia) which advances with a drunken gait towards improvisations and grotesque screams, until an almost resigned ending.

My friend Paolo got divorced.

We hardly see each other, work, kids, everyday life chasing life. So one evening on the phone: 'Hey Paulista, did I ever send you that damn unfindable Ahousen album? No? Then let's meet tonight for a couple of beers so I can let you listen to it, it's awesome!'

I miss my friend.