Reviews

Comet is a double-disc album dealing with the themes of ice and space (two elements needed to make comets, makes sense). Well, not just dealing with, but actually using ice and space. Perhaps you ask, how does one use space exactly? Through vinyl, tape and compact disc documentaries of space. As far as using ice goes, i'd imagine with a contact mic and whatever else pops up.
Cleavage opens up the first disc and does an excellent job establishing the icy feel that Akifumi intended. Over an ambient soundscape we're treated to various repetitious synth noisies (providing a spacey feeling without being kitschy) and the track's main sound, the ice. Here, it kind of sounds like a bunch of crushed ice being stirred around in a cup or a bowl, but, you know, processed, giving the track a crackly ambient feel.
The near thirteen minute long third track, mass, is one of my favorites on here. It starts out minimal and desolate, with an electronic sound that comes in slow waves. After a few minutes the track becomes a bit more layered, providing a backing foundation for the waves. As it progresses, this foundation becomes more of the feature as a sense of rhythm rises up from the depths. Later, i can again hear the ice, this time being used as a percussive instrument. when mass is winding down the sound gets a bit more ominous, but brings everything to a very fulfilling end.
Following the more minimal sounding enchased tube is the twenty-two minute disc closing behemoth tremor. This is the piece that really seals the deal on this album. After a very slow start Akifumi throws in some random musical sounds, only a second or so in length, spaced apart at first, then one right after the next, using both the stereo channels for different sounds. After about a minute, the beat comes in. It's a very simple one, but effective. Then those seemingly random sounds come together giving the album it's rhythmic centerpiece. During the rest of tremor's playing time, colder sounds are layered over the rhythmic ones, giving it an interesting quality, without taking too much away from said rhythm. Once tremor's over, it marks an unexpected, but excellent, conclusion to the first disc, which overall, combined more minimal works with ones that were a bit catchier and far from minimal.
Disc two has Aube using space to create his sounds, and as you might be able to imagine, it's a lot more subdued. There's far less of the previously heard rhythmic elements to give these tracks a more instant appeal. Instead, this disc is more laborious, less immediately grafitying. Seemingly, the second cd requires just as much patience on the part of the listener as Akifumi himself must've used to put these tracks together. Don't misunderstand me though, the space disc is quite enjoyable, it's just a lot slower paced. If you've immersed yourself in Aube's back catalog, you'd be familiar with the feel here, it's certainly not out of character. The twenty-two monster track of this disc, exudation, breaks free from the minimalism and provides one of better highlights. Repetitious and building, it's the catchiest piece of music on this second offering. All of the longer songs seem to be the strongest on comet as aube has sufficient time to build, layer, strip and deconstruct, whereas the shorter tracks adhere more to a singular theme. Both work well in their individual ways, and the pairing of both is certainly welcomed.
Aube originally completed these recordings back in 1997-1998, but for some reason or another, they never saw the light of day until a few months ago. Why that is, i have no idea, maybe they were lost. Kudos to troniks and cipher productions for having the wherewithal to release this album after eight years. For being that old, comet has aged gracefully as it's just as relevant today as it would've been in the late 90s. This is a nice addition to Aube's oeuvre, as well as to any serious fan of experimental music's cd collection.
Taken from Smooth Assailing

There was a time that Aube, aka Akifumi Nakajima was as active with releases as Merzbow. It was the time when a new label would start with a Merzbow release, and then one by Aube (and then disappear). For whatever reasons I never fully understood, this came to a halt, also some years ago. But he's back, or perhaps not. The recordings on this double CD were made from November 1997 to April 1998, re-mastered in 2002 and then shelved until recent. Like with many if not all of his releases, the music is made with a single sound source, or in this case, one sound source per disc. One disc it's ice and on disc two it's space, although I must admit, I am not sure what that means. Space as in the space you are in, or the constellation above us? Whatever Aube lays his hands upon, soundwise, he produces a couple of short sound with them, samples them and then starts playing around with them. Loops spin on end, in sometimes a more ambient way and at other times in a more rhythm and noise manner.
I hadn't played much Aube in the last years, but now I hear this 2CD set, I do remember what it is that causes a problem for me: many of the pieces, regardless of the sound input, sound a like. One loop, another and another one, some delay and reverb effects, built up, climax. Out of the pieces on this 2CD I think one could select one quite alright CD, but there are some weaker brothers here that make two a bit too much.
Taken from Vital Weekly

Troniks have always been know for high quality noise and sound releasers, here they have resurrect a two disk album by Aube (Akifumi Nakajima) from the late 90s, disk one uses ice as its source material. Disk two space, as its source material, it makes for a hypnotic and varied journey, into a more ambient and rhythmic take on noise.
Aube really does milk some wonderfully textures of sound from his sound sources, each disk runs an hour a piece, throughout the quality is high and captivating. It just seems to pulling you further and further into its strange alien beauty. Tremor from the first disk,starts off with echoed tones like slow down techno, then we are crowded by wonderful slashing melting ice beat patterns. Next you feel like you're sliding back and forth, in a melting ice ship deck, this is music that invites you in deeper with each new sound paten that’s added, the music has a chilling activeness to it. Obstruction feels like the very air around you is forming into crisp ice molecules, Aube stretches out such a breath taking collection of dense sound pitches. It's almost as if the room’s temperature has dropped and you can see your own breath.
Disk two for the most part enters an ever more striped down form of sound art. As mentioned early on, the sound used here is space, and all the tracks have a great feeling of anticipation, like drifting through space away or towards something. Marginal Gravity, utilizing a repeated tone, much like a Raster noton track to start with, but not really in a rthymic manner . As the track builds up and layers are added it feels like you're in a vast chamber travelling through space and it’s expanding as you drift on, the track has such almost sterile quality to it. Tune Float is the minimalistic pitter patter of tinny static tones, which again seem to grow in almost a swarm like way, like your head is slowly filling up with maps of stars and strange weather systems.
A Captivating journey through sound, each disk complementing each other, the title of Comet seems very apt, as Aube investigate first the comet building blocks ice, then the space the comet travels through. But don't hang about this is limted to 500 copies!
Taken from Musique Machine

I’ve never been an Aube fan so when this showed up it was kind of a grudging acceptance to give it a fair try. I think that is what I have done with this hefty double CD release that is a pretty nice effort as a whole package but because the so many facets of this thing just feel pretty lackluster in the end you tend to not get much out of it, especially if you’re familiar with Aube’s other works.
The last thing I listened to from Aube was “Pages from the Book” which was about an hour of about 3 or 4 loops slowly cross fading in and out of each other. Minimalism is a tricky road to travel and people either tend to love it or hate it, I usually hate it with a few exceptions here and there. Either way this material is about 10 years old, which is too bad because the first disc is a good direction for Aube and I wish he was leaning more towards this type of thing and possibly expanding on a more of the evolving soundscapes.
The material on disc 1 is actually some of the best Aube material I have ever heard. The compositions are obviously repetitive at their core but on most of them there are interesting sounds adorning the minimalist structures with small details being employed, however these tracks do ultimately leave me unconvinced that what Aube is doing is really something special because at the end of it all, it still feels like one huge fade in, followed by a fade out.
The first disc benefits from a crisp and clear production and kicks in with “Cleavage” a pulsating bubbling rhythm with what could be contact mic noise, and what is crusty, crumpling plastic sounds that move so constantly on top of the loop that it doesn’t appear to be moving at all. Towards the end you are rewarded with a few LFO modulated oscillator sounds thrown into the mix as well. “Obstruction” is the ultimate failure of the first disc and features nothing but a focused high-pitched sound wave and some quiet crumpling that is vaguely reminiscent of the first track but much lower in the mix and missing all of its body.
I can imagine fans of Aube would probably accuse me of not putting forth enough listening effort to hear the subtle changes that are taking place and I feel that the argument may be validated but when it comes down to it the sounds aren’t really anything interesting, the macro structures are formulaic and the concepts benign.
Enough bashing because there are some good tracks on the first disc like the 3rd track “Mass” which is easily my favorite on the album and features a nice galloping rhythm that actually for once evolves a bit and is complimented by many delayed synths and samples to form a true outer space feel. There are some nice reverberations mixed in and the layers consist of more then just constantly looping sounds mixed in together. “Enchased Cube” is another kind of cool track but consisting of less layers then Mass. It’s another spacy rhythmic outing that eventually becomes a little heavier with the introduction of some pulsating bass lines.
“Tremor” ends the album with a continuation of more bubbling delayed synth sounds that have a lo-fi feel to them but with good production so it sounds good and I am really able to enjoy the different sounds. Once again on the rhythmic side of things this track has a few elements moving around the space nicely and just giving a strange modern sci-fi feel that isn’t seen often in too many experimental releases. The sounds move around nicely mostly by employing what sound like filters and perhaps a little distortion, nothing special but well produced and able to keep me interested for the duration of the track.
Where the first disc is strong the second is weak in a way that harkens back to the Aube that I know and hate. First of all the production sounds completely different with the amplitude at least cut in half so you really have to crank this thing. Of course it’s not really even worth it to crank it because all you’ll find are uninspired loops fading in and out of each other for about an hour. Luckily it’s broken up into 5 tracks all of which feature different sounds (unlike my previous experiences with him where it might be 1-3 tracks per album).
So the first disc here is pretty cool, representing the better side that I didn’t know Aube had. The second disc is pretty much worthless to me. Overall a little better then what I would expect based on my experience with this artist.
Taken from Blood Ties

I haven't heard an Aube release for a while, so I figured it was about time when good people of Cipher Productions and Troniks released this cool double CD. Each disc has 5 tracks and last about an hour. As you should know, all the Aube releases are based on one certain source material out of which the sound is sculpted. This time it's ice on disc one and space on disc two. Anyway, I hate to say this turned out as a big positive surprise as I didn't really know what to expect.
The tracks are minimalist, based on two or three different layers of drones and loops which are manipulated as the track goes on. The drones are deep enough, the rhythmic loops work well and the tracks build up nicely as they progress. A new sound or other change is brought in at just the right moment. Hell, actually this turned out to be one of my absolutely davourite Aube releases!
Disc one actually reminds you of icebergs crashing into each other, ice cubes rattling in a shaker, the reflection of sunlight on crystal clear ice, etc... The steady beat on the last track is sure to first put you in a trance and later nearly make you dance if you're not careful. Simply amazing. As already mentioned, disc two uses space as source material. Whatever the mean by space, I'm not sure, but the results are not less amazing than on the ice disc, although in calmer and noticeably darker way. The sounds of the opening track "Coma" suit its title perfectly: dark, heavy, deep tone on the background and cosmic whirls on top of that. The mood is amazing throughout the disc and the subtle rhythms work fine. As a whole, this is just amazing sound art. Highly recommended!
Taken from Hard and Obscure #2

Double CD released under the collaboration between Cipher Productions and Troniks. The last effort of this Japanese project deals with solutions of hard minimal electronics with few inserts of sound explosions. The CDs are respectively entitled "ice" and "space", the elements which give birth to a comet. Let's leave for a sidereal journey through lost places, amon irreal and fluctuating sounds. 5 tracks for CD, the initials of each songtitle compose the word "comet". The first steps are violent, the comet runs mad and frenzied in "Cleavage" among rhythmical throbbing basses. After the noise sterm of "Obstruction" the comet enters landscape covered by burning apocalyptic passages and throbbing basses with high frequencies. The ice slowly melts in the long "Tremor", exhausting and hypnotic in its percussive loop pierced by metallic and fleeting noise inserts.
Now let's enter the space with "Coma", simple, terse in its minimal frozen structure. The following "Oncoming", through its shortness, gives a more definite outline in a pressing cosmic crescendo. "Exudation" can be considered cosmic in many ways, more than 20 minutes of neural loops, gone made heartbeats and disturbing samples filled with transparent shadows. "Tune Float" closes the dances with solid hypnotic sounds, after more evasive and fluctuating passages. Interesting but hard work, its duration and complexity don't help the listener, but lovers of the most experimental noise won't be disappointed.
Taken from Exoteric #4