Aka Hige‘s Bandcamp page reveals an intriguing multi-media marketing idea. Interested in the music? Name your price. Interested in a print sets, a photo set or a short story book inspired by the music? Place an order. By combining these options, this Manchester artist not only presents his own work, but promotes the work of others: a laudable collaborative venture.
As a “child of the late seventies”, the artist admits that he was raised on a diet of synth pop and Bristol-based electronica. Each vein is detectible on Aka Hige’s debut album, Opening, which may refer to the opening of a career, a book or a mind. The music slides from IDM to synthesized ambience; the sleek surfaces exude a sci-fi veneer. Meredith Monk and Squarepusher are cited among the influences, cementing the association.
Being a fan of flash fiction (also known as sudden fiction), I chose the book option. The handmade binding is particularly appealing, evidence of a DIY ethos. Each of the twelve stories is connected to a corresponding track. A thirteenth track awaits the reader’s response. The opening story and song establish a melancholic mood; a daughter and father are reunited on the roof of an ice cream parlour during an unexpected flood. The music swirls beneath them like dislodged debris. Dan Carpenter’s “Relict” traces the story of a missing girl and the aftermath of her disappearance: “He’d heard his father once called the plant a relict. That years ago, it used to be everywhere, but now only this tiny patch survived.” Sheets of sound rise like searchers in a grid-lined field. The set ventures onward through waves of connection and disconnection, as prose places its feet in the muddy impressions of notes. A man dials his own number and hears the voice of another; a beast struggles to understand itself; a scientist rides a train through an impending apocalypse. And all the while, the notes, the notes, the notes, like the thoughts of the protagonist in David Gaffney’s “The Maddening”:
this this turn this this
You didn’t expect the turn. They didn’t expect the turn.
Aka Hige imitates the turn in many of his works: the music stops, resets, restarts, a different tempo, a different timbre. A window is opened; disorientation enters like a cold mist. But the unmapped track provides the album’s best metaphor. We make our own stories by association. Who is to say which is more accurate, the story or the inspiration? (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 