The latest from Koji Asano is available free from Solstice, so if the humble and hypnotic field recordings that make up the heart’s pulse of “Galaxies,” I guess you can find solace in having saved a few bucks in checking it out.  Too bad if that is the case, though: Asano reveals a rhythm of on-going conversations between beings and environments that is powerful and comforting.  This is no “natural sounds” tape designed to bore you out of your insomnia, though; this is interaction with a space, a time, and with the inhabitants of both.
Consisting of one sixty minute track, “Galaxies” features most prominently the buzz of what sounds like crickets, and a lot of them.  This becomes the basis for a trance experience, as the sounds of the day, the rain, the occasional bird or unnamed howl is heard.  Everything seems to be working according to its own beat and routine; the recorder seems to be up close and directly within the environment, but apparently is being ignored.  We are listening to what happens when no one is listening, or there to scare away the participants in the routine.
Koji Asano’s “Galaxies” is an aural entry into a little universe within our own, maybe within our own backyard.  It is no less a magnificent, unpredictable galaxy, with its own laws and rhythms.
6/10
