INDEX
Dust as Musical Motif and Collaborating with the Filmmaker
-What was it like for you two to begin this “journey” through a series of detailed discussions?
Ishibashi: For that, I can refer to the email Mr. Hamaguchi sent to me. Please wait a moment (and she flicks to a nearby smartphone).
-What kind of email is it?
Ishibashi: (coming back to her seat) Even I can’t help but chuckle at the thought of myself writing such a thing in an email. It was December 22, 2021, when I first spoke to Hamaguchi about the video and live performance project. At the end of that month, I told Hamaguchi what I thought about the “memory of the land.
As for the story I mentioned earlier about Manchuria, I shared some vague thoughts with Hamaguchi, such as, “The land originally had the lives of the people who lived there, and that was lost as development centered around the South Manchuria Railway (Mantetsu) progressed—so I was thinking about what the map looked like before Manchuria became symbolized as Manchuria.”
-You guys shared many ideas together.
Ishibashi: It seems I was talking about novels by science fiction writers like Philip K. Dick or perhaps Kurt Vonnegut for instance, works such as “Slaughterhouse-Five,” which is based on Vonnegut’s experiences during World War II, particularly the bombing of Dresden. During these discussions, in May 2022. Hamaguchi recommended a film titled ‘Staub’ (2007) directed by Hartmut Bitomsky.
-That’s an unique documentary portraiting from everyday dust to dust from terrorism and war, and even cosmic stardust
Ishibashi: I also spoke with you in 2013 when I was in charge of music for a performance of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play “Trash, the City, and Death,” for which I was also the film director. After those exchanges, in July 2022, Hamaguchi headed to the garbage factory.
-Wow, he visited there right away.
Ishibashi: In August 2022, I created a demo with ‘dust’ as one of the themes. In November, Hamaguchi-san and others came to the studio in Kobuchizawa, Yamanashi, where I was. Coincidentally, Shun Ishiwaka, Jim O’Rourke, Marty Holoubek, and I were having a session, and they filmed the scene. Later on, they showed us an experimental montage of classic film footage with our music layered over it.
While watching this, I told Hamaguchi that it would definitely be interesting if he made a dramatic film as he always does, instead of focusing on the music as he does in music videos. From there, we proceeded from research to scriptwriting, shooting from February to March 2023, and editing the film and creating the music from April to May 2023.
-The film and music would exist independently of each other, and would be better when combined as a live performance. While the film editing of ‘GIFT,’ which was the beginning of the project, preceded the creation of the music, it seems that ‘Evil Does Not Exist,’ which was conceived later as a version with voices, came first. In fact, when we listen to the music of ‘Evil Does Not Exist,’ there are some very impressive tracks, such as one with multiple string recordings and one with ambient sounds.
Ishibashi: The electronic music and other tracks were created around the theme of “dust,” even before there was a script or anything like that. It was when Hamaguchi visited a garbage dump. I made about four or five songs based on this theme and handed them over to him. He selected some from those and polished them up, and those are the ones actually used in ‘Evil Does Not Exist.’
On the other hand, I composed two string tracks. One was created after the script was completed, based on unedited footages, while the other, which eventually became the main theme, was composed after watching edited footage. After viewing the edited material, I sensed something like Hamaguchi’s “anger,” and that’s how the main theme, repeated several times throughout the play, came about.
Takumi (Hitoshi Omiga) and his daughter Hana (Rei Nishikawa) live in Mizuhiki-cho, Nagano Prefecture. One day, they come up with a plan to build a glamping site near where they live. It was planned by an entertainment agency, which was hit hard by the Corona disaster, with a subsidy from the government. Takumi and the other townspeople are upset by the plan, which could pollute the forest environment and the town’s water supply. Unlike ‘GIFT,’ this is not a silent film.
-Does his concept of using sound to provide feedback on “anger” contribute to the complexity of the layers in the main theme’s music?
Ishibashi: You could say so. The fact that I wanted to mix in a bit of dissonance may be due to the complexity I sensed from the images and the story, as well as Hamaguchi’s “anger”.
-There are many beatless tracks this time, aren’t there?
Ishibashi: I knew in advance that we were going to shoot nature, so I wanted to use organic music rather than music with a steady rhythm.
