Taylor Deupree & Christopher Willits — Mujo
In Japanese Mujo means constant change, transience. The aim of the artists? To celebrate “the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It’s the second Willits / Deupree release, after last year’s Audiosphere 08 (Sub Rosa) but it is actually the first they did work on together, recording in Deupree’s studio in Brooklyn.
Mujo is an interesting mix of what both musicians are able to do at their best: Willits digitally edited guitar work and Deupree’s digital edition of other people sounds work together in a very interesting, and at times intriguing, kind of way. Add to this a bit of accordion and melodica, and you have a seemingly rather limited palette of sounds giving birth to a kaleidoscopic world.
If you’ve got some issues with digitally reconstructed music, then you won’t enjoy Mujo as much as I do. But there is no denying the quality of the melodies and the sheer beauty of the soundscapes. This is music that is fragile, incomplete and almost immature, and in those apparent problems lies the beauty of the ensemble.
Whether you are actually able to identify the source material or not doesn’t matter after the first song: you let yourself drift away on this endless flow of great sounds. Another fantastic release from Plop, just a few months after Lullatone.