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Reviews

Volapük — Where Is Tamashii?
(Cuneiform Rune 3384, 2003/2024, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-01-22

Where Is Tamashii? Cover art

As a fan of all the Volapük albums I’ve heard, I always wondered about one item on their discography that I was unable to find a copy of. Where Is Tamashii? was a tantalizing mystery, having been released on a small French label without good distribution internationally. Luckily for all of us, whatever licensing issues there were have been resolved, and Cuneiform brings us the missing album in digital form. Volapük leader Guigou Chenevier has said the album represents the band at its best, and now that I’ve heard it I’d have to agree. As much as I love Polyglöt, this is even better. Chevenier plays drums and percussion, and he’s joined by Takumi Fukushima (violin, vocals), Michel Mandel (clarinet, bass clarinet, tárogató), and Guillaume Saurel (cello, electric bass). This is the same lineup that recorded Polyglöt in 2000 (minus guest Lars Hollmer on accordion), and they present the same intriguing mixture of chamber music and avant rock as before, just in a more refined form. In this case “refined” means they’ve moved more in their own eccentric direction, not that they’ve smoothed anything out or made concessions to standard genre boundaries. In a world where so many bands sound like other bands, Volapük is a refreshing vision of another way of being, where musicians pursue their own paths without regard to trends and fashions. Of course there are some similarities to other “chamber” oriented groups, but this group is distinct and recognizable. Fukushima’s work is a big part of that. Not only is she a skilled and creative violinist, but her vocals really take the music into another realm, being pretty and melodic but with a strong edge of the avant-garde. I also love the way that they take advantage of their instrumentation, sometimes filling in the low end with bass clarinet or cello instead of (or in addition to) the bass guitar. It’s just an all-around great album, and easily one of the top reissues of 2024.


Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases, 2003 recordings

Related artist(s): Volapük, Takumi Fukushima

More info
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/where-is-tamashii

 

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