Presence of Soul (below:PoS) has been active for nearly 20 years and has overcome many crises throughout their career.
Their 4th album “Absence of Objective World” was finished with a more profound and darker sound than the previous one.
Many guest players from both Japan and abroad participated in this work, and as a result of each player adding their own expression to PoS’s sounds, they succeeded in expanding their image. Their energy of the sound has become enormously powerful second to none, and is undoubtedly a piece of art that proves the evolution of PoS.
PoS has become only Yuki (Vo.Gt.Key) and Yoshi (Gt) after the rest of the members quit the band in May 2018, and it is safe to say PoS was in a big crisis. Still, they never stopped and continued to play shows with support members, or in a duo form, hence created a masterpiece from adversity.
I have interviewed two official members of PoS, Yuki and Yoshi about the new album.
Through this interview, I have felt the respect and love towards their support/guest members, as well as the fact that this album was created through a very strong bond between Yuki and Yoshi, and the strength to move on and overcome any obstacles in any circumstances.
The words of Yuki and Yoshi should give strong hopes not only for those who love music but also for those who go on living daily life.
||About the guest players||
—- Each songs recorded in this work are finished in a form that further expands the boundary of your music by each participating player playing in their own sensibility, right?
Yoshi: We passed our songs to the guest players and we wanted them to incorporate their own sensibilities freely. As a result, they played exactly with their own interpretation, so I think the world of the songs has expanded more.
1. Boundary of Reality and Fiction
Guitar : Roel van Oosterhout
[IZAH] https://izahband.bandcamp.com/
Yuki: Of the artists we offered to participate in this album, Roel was the only person I had never met. I love IZAH and contacted him for the first time when we were looking for a show for the last European tour. He is a very nice guy and we have been keeping in touch ever since.
As musicians we also discussed various things other than about the album production with each other. I’m so happy to be a good friend even though we have never met. He is also a composer, and this song has a lot of his unique melodies that makes it very attractive.
2. Antinomy
Guitar : Jean-Philippe Schopfer
[RORCAL] https://rorcal.bandcamp.com/
Vocal : Ryo Amamiya
[Funeral Moth] http://weirdtruth.jp/funeralmoth/
—- In this work, Eric (Rosetta) and Ryo (Funeral Moth) participate on vocal, but unlike instruments, vocals are also a part that affects the spiritual part, right?
Yuki: Ryo has been a member of overseas tours sometimes, so we just asked him to come to the studio and sing! He did more than I expected and it also match with this song very nicely. I’m glad we asked him.
Yoshi: He did it with ease. He’s not just a vocal for Funeral Moth for nothing. We haven’t been featuring a vocal so far with our songs, but this time we had a new discovery by his bold vocals.
Yuki: JP who participated in the guitar is also very active in the band RORCAL, so I was grateful for taking time out of his busy schedule. When we play with them in Tokyo during RORCAL’s Japan tour, I thought his distortion sound was so cool, so it was absolutely necessary for this song.
3. Silence and Connivance
Drums : Dairoku Seki (STORM OF VOID / Ex-envy)
[STORM OF VOID] http://www.stormofvoid.com/
—- I think “Silence and Connivance” is a song that was created because you guys are now active as a duo.
Yuki: I really enjoyed making this song. This song wouldn’t have been completed if it wasn’t for Dairoku. We sent the song that we made in duo form to Dairoku and wanted him to improvised playing it, then he gave us various opinions while playing in the studio session with three of us. There is also a version that we played for almost 15 minutes as we became feeling good while playing.
Making a song in this way was fun because it was different from the usual band production. And this was something that we were able to challenge because the member organization changed.
Yoshi: I think that since this song was made by three people, it became interesting because the degree of freedom of performance was high.
4. Probability of Destruction and Hope
Vocal and Lyrics : Eric Jernigan
[ROSETTA] http://www.rosettaband.com/
—- We can listen to Eric’s beautiful vocals in this song. It was unexpected because this song is a chaotic and heavy.
Yuki: Yes, I didn’t expect he would sing. At first, I asked Eric to participate as a guitarist, but after a while he gave us a suggestion, “Is it okay if I sing this song because I think I will be able to get an inspiration for a good phrase with a vocal than a guitar.”
I was a little surprised, but we shared the theme of the song and the image of it, and then I had him sang freely.
After, listening to the track sent from him, we were so impressed because his vocal was beyond our imagination.
Yoshi: When I listened to his vocals, I re-realized again that the immense power of a song. Depending on the vocals, the scale of the world in a song differs dramatically, something we can’t accomplish from adding more guitars and synths. So I was glad he suggested he would like to sing in this song.
Yuki: I was also happy that he sent a message to me saying he wrote the lyrics for this song. it was such a great lyrics.
I thought this is exactly what collaboration song is and I really enjoyed it with new discoveries and surprises.
He wrote in his e-mail his thoughts about “probability of destruction and hope” and he his words resonated with me.
And I was deeply moved that we in different countries and cultures feel the same way about the same theme. I felt great joy of expressing it with music.
