aus + The Humble Bee :: Chalybeate (FLAU)

Conceived during a month-long Autumn 2024 residency in the Onsen town of Ikaho, Chalybeate distills aus and The Humble Bee’s bath-born installation into a mineral-rich ambient work where listening becomes a bodily immersion, steeped in steam, stone and subterranean drift.

Ambient fermented in steam

Onsen-born ambient drift and mineral-toned soundwork shaped by baths, steam and the quiet pulse of Ikaho courtesy of aus with The Humble Bee: conceived as a document of a month-long stay by aus in the historic onsen town in Autumn 2024, Chalybeate originated on site as an installation, ‘Ikaho Surrounding – Ambient Onsen*,’ unfolding across eight discrete onsen; while soaking in roten-buro (open air hot baths) visitors listened, the project notable for its proposal of listening as a bodily act (音泉音浴) not distinct in kind from heat, moisture and duration.

With field recordings captured in multiple ryokan (inn) baths, Yasuhiko Fukuzono (aus) synthesized the onsen‘s subterranean movement with local detail: the bubble of source water, the hoozuki (lantern plants) and furin (wind chimes) at each ryokan, and surrounding insects and birds. Rather than portray Ikaho as a landscape, the recordings ‘trace the town’s respiration.’ Chalybeate** is the Tokyo producer’s re-construction of the installation, recordings left open to Ikaho’s air and humidity for the sound to ferment. Through this process the material, repeatedly re-submerged and re-worked, takes on a corroded texture, tape hiss, gentle distortion, and subtle fluctuations quietly rising like steam. ‘What remains is not documentation but residue,’ (FLAU press release).

Mixing was handed to Manchester producer The Humble Bee, as ‘aus exhausted himself traversing Ikaho’s steep stone steps.’ The exchange mirrors the work: from bathtub to hot spring, sound to body-surrounding entity. Woodwind-like tape noise and water movement dissolve into one another. ‘The music does not arrive all at once. It settles slowly, as if lowering into warm water.’ (FLAU press release).

(*onsen (温泉) : natural hot spring, geothermally heated by volcanic activity, containing at least one of 19 designated mineral elements; integral to Japanese culture for relaxation and healing.)
(**refers to kogane-no-yu (golden water), Ikaho’s iron-rich mineral water which oxidizes on contact with air, leaving rust-colored traces in its baths)

Chalybeate is available on FLAU. [Bandcamp]