Premeditation by Yoshio Machida & Cal Lyall

Available as double 10" gatefold vinyl with 8-page photographic booklet and/or digital album at https://bythebluestofseas.bandcamp.com/album/premeditation

"The music here is the first documentation of a long running collaboration between Machida (on steel pan gamelan) and Lyall (on banjo). The music is beautifully simple and complexly interwoven at the same time. Lyall states he was influenced by Bruce Langhorne’s playing on The Hired Hand, and you can really hear that, although Lyall adds layers of Asian string technique as well. Machida’s playing also seems based on traditional Asian approaches as much as free improvisation. The surface is generally not super busy, but it always feels like there’s a lot going on. The colour photographs bound into the gatefold sleeve are beautiful and designed to evoke the vibe of the music."
- The Wire, August 2020

"The peculiar thing is that the terrain of the music – the sounds and melodies of the two instruments – do not on the surface listen vary that much, and yet the listener feels as though they have travelled an expanse within it. Much like meditation, where focusing on the process of mind itself can reveal greater depths than the most extravagant thoughts, the album explores the absolute depths of the instruments and modes of music Lyall and Machida are operating in."
- William Patrick Owen, Folk Radio UK/KLOF Magazine

Tokyo-based guitarist and sound artist focusing on improvisation, spatialization and urban noise.