MONO: No Words Needed
Japan’s MONO are a force to be reckoned with. Twenty-two years into their career, they still sit more or less in a genre of one, with an emphasis on pushing boundaries that makes even the incredibly broad post-rock tag feel relatively redundant. Over ten studio albums, as well as a host of other splits, EPs and collaborative records, the instrumental four-piece have arguably told more stories and conveyed more emotion in their music than many others could even manage with words. Their 11th full-length, Pilgrimage Of The Soul, is no exception – a stunning, sprawling journey that finds the quartet in a powerfully self-reflective mood.
“This new album’s theme is our last 20 years of journey,” explains the band’s guitarist and primary composer Takaakira ‘Taka’ Goto. “When we finished our 20th-anniversary show in London, due to the excitement still, maybe, I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time that night (it was also the final day of our year-long 2019 world tour). That’s when the last 20 years flashed back suddenly and I felt that one of our journeys that we continued to run relentlessly had just finished. The journey felt like a pilgrimage, like how Paulo Coehlo‘s The Alchemist‘s main character felt. That’s when I thought about describing our last 20 years on the next album.”
It wasn’t long at all before Taka sat down to give musical voice to this journey, writing the songs for the album in January and February 2020. Like many others though, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a fresh set of challenges for MONO – not least because the band have recorded nearly all their releases since 2004 with legendary producer Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago, some 6,000 miles from their Tokyo home. “Back then, we were not even sure if we could enter the US. We looked into this thoroughly as well but no one could give us a clear answer. Although a lot of people around us recommended not to, we weren’t thinking that seriously. If we can enter, we’re lucky and if we can’t, we can simply postpone – we were relatively optimistic. But we had a strong wish to record.”
As the saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and Taka and co. found a way. “Since our drummer Dahm [Majuri Cipolla] lives in the US, the rest of us practised together in Tokyo and communicated with Dahm remotely. Then once we got to Chicago, we all met up, rented one of Steve‘s studios, rehearsed over several days and we recorded. We had worries, of course, but in the end, everything went smoothly as planned thankfully. Back then when no one knew what would happen to the world, the only hope for the future was to make an album.”
As mentioned, Pilgrimage… continues a long history of collaboration between MONO and Albini. Together, they’ve produced some impressive records, including the career high of 2009’s Hymn To The Immortal Wind, as well as Pilgrimage’s 2019 predecessor, Nowhere Now Here. Unsurprisingly, Taka is nothing but positive about the band’s long-time collaborator. “Steve is a true genius. Musically and logistically, he records and mixes the band sounds, electronics, strings, wind instruments and more, boldly and perfectly, with full analogue recording. The fact that we can express many emotions that can’t be expressed in words, realistically, that appeal to the heart, is all thanks to Steve‘s realistic sounds. When we finished recording and all the songs were being played onto the master tape, Steve said “I can listen to this album forever”. That really made me happy. We feel too that we managed to create the best album in our career.”
Taka is right to be proud of Pilgrimage Of The Soul. It’s yet another masterful record that sits right at home alongside some of the band’s very finest offerings. Like every MONO album, it boasts a strong sense of emotional resonance and beauty, something which has always been one of the quartet’s primary missions. Taka explains: “I feel telling or trying to tell emotions and truths you want to convey through music becomes something beautiful, rather than something that’s written using your head or showing off your empty technique or theory… I simply write music like I go deep inside my heart and shed light on it. I’m drawn towards things that give you different values and emotions after finishing, like fantastic books or movies. I believe you can do the same with music.”
Having spent over two decades with their sights set firmly and consistently on expanding their musical horizons, it’s no surprise Taka and MONO want to take things further still. “I always want to continue to evolve. Of course, I’m confident about the music I’ve been writing and satisfied with them, but I want to pursue music more and more. The feeling of wanting to write even better music hasn’t changed ever since I was young… Like before, I want us to become the world’s best live band and be able to create fantastic albums. Nothing has changed.”
Pilgrimage Of The Soul is out now via Pelagic Records.
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