「30年目の復刻」によせて 　
 
 コムデギャルソンから、目を離せないでいる。
 この想いは、数十年来、持ちつづけてきたものだ。しかし、コムデギャルソン が気になって仕方がないという思いが、ここ数年、加速度をつけて強くなってきている。
 その予兆は、象がひっぱってきた。
１９８８年春夏のブランド・イメージに、同社はファッション写真を使うことなしに、数頭の象がＮＹの街をつながってノッシノッシと歩いていく、アンドレ・ケストルの写真を採用した。この写真から受けたインパクトは、川久保 玲がつくった紺のジャケットや穴のあいたセーターに、初めて手を通した時と同じ種類の衝撃があった。
 美しかった。１９８８年秋冬は、歯の矯正器具を見せて、大きく笑っている姉妹の写真が使われた。少女たちの父親である、ジム・ブリットの作品である。技巧からは生まれることのない、大きな笑顔がそこにあった。
 
これらの仕事は、アート・ディレクター、井上嗣也と川久保 玲が出逢ったことに端を発している。
そして雑誌「ＳｉＸ」の創刊だ。今までに目にしたことのない面白い無駄が、ページのうえで踊っているような「ＳｉＸ」にも、コムデギャルソン の新しい風を感じた。
新たな風は、もちろん川久保のデザインにも吹いていて、１９８８年秋冬には赤のマジックを見せ、１９８９年春夏のコレクションではパステル・カラーも登場した。
青山に新しく作られた店＝空間も、そういった新たな空気を具現化して、非常にユニークだ。服の斬新さにおもねらない、見やすさがあった。店員さんの態度も、驚くほど感じがいい。オーソドックスで、同時にフレッシュな喜びがそこにはあった。
 
そして音楽だ。１９８８年春夏（実際には１９８７年秋）、オム・プリュス、同コムデギャルソン のパリでのショーから、音楽をオノ セイゲンが担当することになった。井上嗣也とオノ セイゲン、この二人が、新たなコムデギャルソン の動きをとらえる上で欠かせないキーワードになっていると、筆者には思えるのである。
さて、このディスクのことに話を進めよう。通常、ファッション・ショーでは、レコードから選曲したコンピレーション・テープが、その時のテーマに添って作られ、使われる。
しかし、オリジナリティを何より大事にするコムデギャルソン は１９８８年の春夏コレクションに向けて音楽家の選考を開始。オノ セイゲンに白羽の矢が立てられた。
「誰も、まだ聴いたことがない音楽を使いたい」
「洋服がきれいに見えるような音楽を」
川久保 玲から出された、この二つだけの注文を胸に、オノ セイゲンは制作にあたった。
 「COMME des GARÇONS SEIGEN ONO」CD1は１９８８春夏のコムデギャルソン とオム・プリュスで使われた音楽から、「同」CD2は、１９８９秋冬のコムデギャルソン のショーで使われた音楽をそのまま収録したものだ。
  ２枚の作品にするにあたって、ダヴィングをやり直し、ミキシングや編集を加え、ＣＤにふさわしい音に衣がえをしての登場である。（中略）
  協力しているミュージシャン、録音された場所を考えるとき、ともにセイゲンにしか成しえなかったクリエイションであることがわかる。
  CD1は、オムの色あいが濃い作品になっている。いい意味で、カドが立っている尖鋭的な作品だ。「ラウンジ・リザーズ」のジョン・ルーリー、「アンビシャス・ラヴァーズ」のアート・リンゼイとピーター・シェア、それにジョン・ゾーンといったＮＹでも最も先端をいく感性たちが、ここで共演しているのだ。
  ジョン・ルーリーの参加した１−５「ハンティング・フォー・ライオンズ」は９月のオム・ショーの後、パリで録音されたものだが、アフリカ音楽を手掛けているロイ・エリックやアブドゥも加わったトラックだ。１−１１「540AM, ヴュー・オブ・エンパイア」、２−１３「フィナーレ」 は、東京に来ていたジョン・ゾーンとフレッド・フリスに加えて、韓国を代表するユニットであるサムルノリのキム・ドクスとジョン・シル、それに日本の音楽シーンには欠かせないドラマー、山木秀夫が共演した、東京での録音だ。
このように国境も音楽のジャンルも越えた音楽が、ここにはある。音楽のユートピアとでも呼べる音世界が、展開されているのだ。（中略）
  バンドネオン奏者、アルフレッド・ペデネーラの参加をえた２− １ 「ジュリア」は、ロマンチシズムがあふれかえるようだ。特にオープニング曲の旋律は、深く甘く心に残る。
そして、その録音後、渡辺貞夫のアルバム『エリス』録音のために、エンジニアとしてブラジルに渡ったセイゲンは、その機会を利用して、ブラジルの伝説的なシンガー、マーレーニとの録音を果たすといった離れ技をやってのけた。マーレーニは、美しいプロポーションと張りのある声からは到底想像できないが、８０才に近い年齢のはず。往年のハリウッドでの活躍、若きフランク・シナトラと一緒に載っているスタア年刊から逆算すると、そうなるのだ。２− ２に収録されている「パストリニャス〜バンデイラ・ブランカ〜マスカラ・ネグラ」での素晴らしいメドレーには、心底聴き惚れてしまった。今のリオのカーニヴァルが失ってしまった、ゆったりしたテンポで歌い奏されるこの曲からは、１９４０年代のかぐわしいカーニヴァルの香りが立ちのぼってくる。まさに圧巻である。
  ２− ５〜９までに参加しているのは、「ジャズ・パッセンジャーズ」のリーダー、ロイ・ネイザーソンだ。ここでも、今までのオノ セイゲンの作風にはなかった明るい曲調の作品が、楽しそうに演奏されている。
 
  オノ セイゲンの耳は、特別製だ。彼は計器が指している数字より、自分の耳を信じる、日本にはあまりいないタイプのレコーディング・エンジニアだ。そのセイゲンの感性と耳、加えて多彩な交友関係が見事に結実したのが、この２枚組のアルバムだ。
ここにある音楽は、音楽の内にあるさまざまな境界線に縛られることなく、自由な精神で編まれたものである。一つひとつの曲は違ったかたちをしていても、決して別なものではなく、ひとつの大きな環をなすものだ。
それは川久保のデザインにも通じるものであって、一枚のシャツのデザインだけが素晴らしいのでも、色使いだけがとびぬけているのでもない。全体が送ってくる風、すべてを包む空気こそが、コムデギャルソンの特質を形作っているのではないだろうか。
それと同じように、このアルバムは、ひとつの空気、吹きとおる風となって聴く者に伝わってくる。その風に吹かれていると、既成のアルバムにはない、新しい喜びに浸ることができるのだ。
この作品と、川久保 玲のためにあるようなロラン・バルトのことばを思い出した。
「『新規の』ものでありながら、まったく『新品だ』というわけでもない。それこそ、芸術やテクストや衣服の理想状態ではないか」　　　　　　　　　　

=============―
On the Occasion of the 30th Anniversary Reissue
 
I have never been able to take my eyes off Comme des Garçons.

The first sign came in the form of elephants.
For its Spring Summer 1988 brand image, Comme des Garçons chose not to use fashion photography. Instead, it adopted a photograph by André Kertész: several elephants lumbering through the streets of New York, linked together in slow procession. The impact of that image struck me with the same force I felt the first time I slipped my arms into a navy jacket or a sweater with deliberate holes designed by Rei Kawakubo.
It was beautiful.
For Autumn Winter 1988, the brand used a photograph of two sisters laughing broadly, orthodontic braces visible. The image was taken by their father, Jim Britt. There was a vast smile in that photograph, one that could never be manufactured by technique alone.
These works began with the encounter between art director Tsuguya Inoue and Rei Kawakubo.

That wind was evident in Kawakubo’s designs as well. In Autumn Winter 1988, she revealed a magic of red; in the Spring Summer 1989 collection, pastel colors appeared.
The newly created store in Aoyama embodied this atmosphere. It was highly unique, yet never subservient to novelty for its own sake. The space was easy to view, open. The staff were astonishingly gracious. There was something orthodox and, at the same time, freshly joyful.
And then there was the music.
For Spring Summer 1988, actually presented in Autumn 1987, for Homme Plus and Comme des Garçons in Paris, music would be entrusted to Seigen Ono. To me, Tsuguya Inoue and Seigen Ono became essential keywords in understanding this new movement within Comme des Garçons.
Let us turn to this disc.
Ordinarily, fashion shows rely on compilation tapes assembled from existing records, selected to match the season’s theme. But Comme des Garçons, which values originality above all, began selecting a composer for its Spring Summer 1988 collection. The choice fell on Seigen Ono.
“I want to use music no one has ever heard before.”

With only these two requests from Rei Kawakubo in mind, Ono began composing.
COMME des GARÇONS SEIGEN ONO CD1 contains the music used for the Spring Summer 1988 Comme des Garçons and Homme Plus shows. CD2 contains the music used for the Autumn Winter 1989 show.
For this two disc release, the material was re dubbed, remixed, and edited, newly tailored into sound suitable for CD.
Considering the musicians involved and the recording locations, it becomes clear that these creations could only have been realized by Seigen Ono.
CD1 carries a strong Homme character. In the best sense, it is sharp edged and avant garde. John Lurie of The Lounge Lizards, Arto Lindsay and Peter Scherer of Ambitious Lovers, and John Zorn, some of the most forward looking sensibilities in New York, appear together here.
“Hunting for Lions” (1 5), featuring John Lurie, was recorded in Paris after the September Homme show and includes Roy Erick and Abdou, musicians working in African music. “540AM, View of Empire” (1 11) and “Finale” (2 13) were recorded in Tokyo, with John Zorn and Fred Frith, joined by Kim Duk Soo and Jong Sil of the Korean ensemble Samulnori, as well as indispensable Japanese drummer Hideo Yamaki.
Here is music that crosses borders and genres. One might call it a musical utopia unfolding in sound.
“Julia” (2 1), featuring bandoneon player Alfredo Pedernera, overflows with romanticism. The opening melody in particular lingers deep and sweet in the heart.
After that recording, Ono traveled to Brazil as an engineer for Sadao Watanabe’s album Elis. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he recorded with the legendary Brazilian singer Marlene. Though her proportions and vibrant voice suggest otherwise, she must have been nearly eighty at the time. Judging from Hollywood annuals in which she appeared alongside a young Frank Sinatra, that calculation seems correct.
The medley “Pastorinhas ~ Bandeira Branca ~ Máscara Negra” (2 2) is utterly captivating. Sung and played at an unhurried tempo that today’s Rio Carnival has lost, it releases the fragrant atmosphere of the 1940s carnival. It is nothing short of overwhelming.
Tracks 2 5 through 2 9 feature Roy Nathanson, leader of The Jazz Passengers. Here again, one hears bright tonalities not previously found in Ono’s work, performed with evident delight.
Seigen Ono’s ears are custom made. He is the rare kind of recording engineer in Japan who trusts his ears more than the numbers on the meters. His sensibility, his ear, and his wide network of collaborators have borne magnificent fruit in this two disc album.
The music here is woven in a spirit free from the boundaries that often confine music. Each piece takes a different shape, yet none stands apart. Together they form one large circle.
This is akin to Kawakubo’s design. It is not that a single shirt is extraordinary, nor that color alone is exceptional. Rather, it is the wind the whole sends forth, the atmosphere that envelops everything, that defines Comme des Garçons.
In the same way, this album reaches the listener as a single atmosphere, a wind that blows through. Standing within that current, one is immersed in a new joy unknown to conventional albums.
It calls to mind words by Roland Barthes, words that seem made for Rei Kawakubo and this work:
“While being ‘new,’ it is not altogether ‘brand new.’ That is the ideal state of art, of text, of clothing.”
 
by Yo Nakagawa  (1988/2018)
 

=======
COMME des GARÇONS × Seigen Ono

by Shinya Matsuyama 2018
The landmark albums ”COMME des GARÇONS SEIGEN ONO” fundamentally transformed the role of music in fashion shows and firmly established Seigen Ono’s reputation as a composer. Originally released in 1988 (Volume 1) and 1989 (Volume 2), the two works have been reissued several times. For this new reissue by Nippon Columbia, the project expands beyond CD editions (Volume 1 & 2) to include a mono LP and a hybrid SACD featuring newly added mono sources. In addition, a previously unreleased companion work titled ”COMME des GARÇONS Fragmentation Seigen Ono”, which can be considered a developmental offshoot of the original albums, is being released simultaneously. We spoke with Seigen Ono about these two works.
 
COMME des GARÇONS SEIGEN ONO as Milestone
― Could you briefly explain how COMME des GARÇONS SEIGEN ONO came into being?
I began working as a studio engineer in the late 1970s. In 1984, I released my first solo album, SEIGEN, as the inaugural title in Victor’s Music Interior series. Around that time, I felt I had established my fundamental approach to sound-making.
In the mid-1980s, I deepened my connection to the New York downtown scene through work with John Zorn and by producing The Lounge Lizards, collaborating with musicians such as Arto Lindsay and Marc Ribot. In that scene, the boundary between engineer and musician was fluid, and everything moved quickly. Musicians changed from session to session, and you learned what kind of chemistry each pairing could create.
You selected players according to theme or composition and worked swiftly within a fixed budget. That style fit me perfectly. I believe those experiences formed the foundation for my work with Comme des Garçons.
― That was when Comme des Garçons approached you?
Yes, in 1987. It was just before I released The Green Chinese Table in 1988 on a Virgin-affiliated venture label. I presented that music to them, but they rejected it, saying, “The people involved have already heard it. No good.”
 
― The request from Comme des Garçons at the time has become legendary: “We want music no one has ever heard before,” and “Music that makes the clothes look beautiful.”
(Laughs.) So I gathered musicians capable of meeting difficult demands quickly and creatively. We recorded new material in New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo.
 
― Were you imagining beautiful clothing while composing?
I still don’t understand clothing very well. So I returned to my high school memories of “beauty” found in cinema. Films by directors like Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini had unconsciously shaped me.
― You must have learned a great deal from this project.
Being allowed complete freedom was crucial. I had never seen a Comme des Garçons show, and no one was allowed to see the new clothes in advance. In commercial or record label projects, clients and agencies usually attend sessions and offer constant instructions. Here, there was none of that.
All I had were abstract yet essential phrases: “Music no one has heard before,” and “Music that makes the clothes look beautiful.” So while shaping the sound, I had no choice but to move toward a vision. There might be minor adjustments along the way, but maintaining a consistent vector toward the goal is essential. I only realized that clearly in retrospect.
 
― Did you participate in the shows themselves?
Yes, as part of the backstage production staff. At the Paris Collection, I handled the operation myself, including PA tuning.
 
― How was the reaction?
When it premiered in Paris, the response was overwhelming. People asked for multiple cassette copies.
The following year, I was commissioned to compose music for a major Italian furniture manufacturer for what later became the Salone del Mobile in Milan. Lighting was handled by Henri Alekan, who had worked with Cocteau, photography by Peter Lindbergh, and music by me. Some of that music later appeared on my albums NekonoTopia NekonoMania (1990) and Bar Del Mattatoio (1994).
Including such opportunities, these two Comme des Garçons albums became a milestone in my career.
 
Exploring the Boundary Between Sound and Music
― The first six tracks of the simultaneously released COMME des GARÇONS Fragmentation Seigen Ono are not music but live sound from the show venue. That was surprising.
In 1997, I was invited back for a Paris show. This time, the request was not to use “music,” but to use “sound.”
In the 1980s, venues held over a thousand people, but by then they had shifted to smaller spaces. They even referred to it as a presentation rather than a show. For several shows before that, no music had been used at all. Only the photographers’ voices and shutter sounds filled the space. Models found it difficult to walk; tension was intense. Media and audiences began requesting music again, but Rei Kawakubo did not want to use music.
So the request came to me: not music, but sound. The first six tracks of Fragmentation are edited live recordings from that presentation.
 
― You can occasionally hear instrumental sounds between the shutter clicks.
There were more than a dozen models. I assigned one sound to each model. Just a brief insertion somewhere along the runway. A sudden burst of sound, then silence. At first, the audience thought it was an accident. But by around the fifth model, they began to realize it was intentional.
 
― Were those instrumental sounds fragments of recorded compositions?
Yes. In 1997, I recorded in New York with Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot, and Nana Vasconcelos. I prepared a sampling keyboard loaded with fragmented pieces of those tracks and triggered them live, responding to the models’ movements and the audience’s reactions. Some lasted five seconds, others were just a single burst. It was improvisation through fragment placement. I only did that once.
 
― What were the original recordings like?
I first recorded a guide piano, a sketch of chords and simple melody. I call it “Lurking Tonality Piano,” a completely new method. Musicians were instructed not to ensemble. They added parts individually or in pairs without hearing the previous performer. From multiple takes, I selected intriguing combinations to complete two pieces: “Jean on Third Street” and “John on Third Street.”
Fragments of these were used in the presentation. A newly recorded piece built on that same piano foundation, “Agenokuhate,” appears on this release. The presentation lasted about forty minutes, but on the CD layer of Fragmentation it is edited into roughly ten minutes. In this shorter form, the underlying tonality of the fragments faintly emerges. The hybrid SACD includes the full version.
 
― Couldn’t you have used fragments from older recordings?
Recycling the past would not be Comme des Garçons. It must always attempt something new. (Laughs.)
 
― Two tracks are credited In 2003.
They document a live performance celebrating the first anniversary of the Comme des Garçons Osaka store. A four-piece band featuring accordionist coba performed in the center of the store without a stage. The audience surrounded them. On the second floor, composers Ichinose Hibiki and Gondo Tomohiko live-remixed the sound while layering acoustic elements.
 
― Why release Fragmentation alongside this reissue now?
I have worked as an engineer on many projects by Ryuichi Sakamoto. His recent works, including async, often explore the fragile edge between music and noise. I have constantly considered how to record such sounds most effectively. That sensibility traces back to Fragmentation.
In terms of perspective on the boundary between sound and music, perhaps the times have finally caught up. That is why I felt now was the moment to release it.