Yuzo Kako - Fora - 5.1 DVD-R - Leerraum [ ] BGN, WHITE_LINE, 2007. This, the latest release from Leerraum [ ], sees the work of sonic magician, Yuzo Kako on display. Forging a path that is the spritual counterpart to Ryoji Ikeda, or Frank Bretschneider, Kako’s work is an exercise in precision audio.On fora, Kako deploys jaw-clenching higher registers, bottomless rumbles, skittering taps across your ears, chattering machinations around the middle range punctuated here and there with bursts of white static. As the recording evolves, the higher frequency range mutates into a series of spacious pings. The churning rumble flourishes into a nimble rhythmic bounce. Kako pares down the brittle edges and pushes these raw sounds into funky, phase-shifting stutters and vibrantly pulsed masses. Some of the composition manipulates space with unexpected transitions and harsh contrasts. The piece’s penultimate segment builds these contrasts and then rubs them together into a seamless whole. Playful and precise, fora is at once technological and yet with an unmistakable personality, this is stripped down- to- the- bone techno with no frills, an exercise in purity, and austere elegance. Rendered once again in the series’ trademark 5.1 surround sound only makes the whole experience even more visceral, a feast for the senses. Kako concludes this relatively short excursion with a conceptual slice of techie trickery; after parsing and building and shaping his data, his guiding hand recedes into the background, leaving the CD player struggling to wrestle pure data. Like Ikeda, Kako frequently questions the role of source and composer; his music may sound artificial, or at least robotically constructed, but nevertheless has an inner warmth and bags of personality. Absolutely exquisite.