Takagi Masakatsu Pia

Takagi Masakatsu's debut for Carpark is a quietly experimental symphony of tones and voices, some radically rearranged into glitch territory, but never so much that the computers overwhelm the creativity. Reminiscent of ambient space music and sound sculpture (Takagi was a visual artist before he became a musical one), Pia floats from track to track, often with bits of glitch processing burbling in the background, but still focused on trance-state tones and occasional melodies. Even the processed tracks, including highlights "Bienna" and "Eau," retain a soft beauty. For "Cino Piano," a tremulous female voice and some tentative piano work give way to found-sound music of a playground. Not surprising from a record whose thank-you list includes "the beauty all over the world." (Pia comes with a CD-ROM including accompanying visuals for several tracks, as well as the Quicktime movie Water Fall.) --- John Bush, allmusic.com