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CD
1. Cold Was The Ground 
2. Blues Trip #1
3. Blues Trip #2
4. Blues Trip #3
5. Utusimi
6. Holy Letter
7. Benares Blue
8. Blues Trip #4
9. Troll
10. Blues Trip #5
11. Kiev
7"
12. Azrini
13. Harvest
All selections composed and arranged
by L except "Cold Was The Ground" composed by Blind Willie Johnson, arranged by L
All selections performed by L: 6 String Guitar (2, 5, 6, 8, 10), 12 String
Guitar (4, 7, 9, 11), Bottleneck
Guitar (1), Prepared Guitar (3),
Bass Guitar (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10),
Vibes (1, 2, 6, 7), Drums (2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10), Assorted Percussion (3, 9, 10, 11), Tam-tam (3, 4), Organ (5, 7, 10), Harmonium (6), Didjeridu (4, 5)
Electric Guitar on "Troll" by Taku Sugimoto, Cello on "Holy Letter" by Masaaki Motoyama
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This offer is now closed. Holy Letters will be reissued in 2004 on vhf
L Holy Letters CD + 7"
Holy Letters is a barely-circulated masterpiece of deeply felt self-expression. Recorded in 1989/1990 by Hiroyuki Usui, Holy Letters beautifully captures the spirit and substance of a half-dozen of the key sub-underground pillars of sound. Working with guitar, vocals, vibes, harmonium, bass, drums, cello, field recordings, digeridoo, and more, Usui-san blends delicate folk, psychedelia, and experimental sounds into a mostly subdued but undeniably glowing suite. The layered but careful instrumentation on tracks like the epic "Holy Letters" and "Troll" backs the alternately plain-spoken and crooning vocals perfectly. Odd touches like snatches of throat singing and bowed vibraphone leap out of the mix at just the right time. There are overt references to the blues (the first track is an oblique cover of "Cold Was The Ground") - but other than the occassional slide guitar touch, the connection is overwhelmingly in the timeless feeling and atmosphere. I can hardly think of anything else like "Holy Letters," but suffice to say if you like Richard Youngs, Popol Vuh, Six Organs of Admittance, Tim Buckley, acid-folk, japanese underground - anything like that - this is an essential purchase. Really, I'm not doing it justice.
Holy Letters was self-released by Hiro in 1993/1994 or so, primarily to be given away to friends. A handful of copies were sold via Tokyo's Modern Music/PSF operation in Japan and by Forced Exposure in the US, but other than that, it disappeared completely. The copies we have are from Hiroyuki's original numbered pressing. The CD is accompanied by a two song 7" and housed in a beautiful oversized color gatefold sleeve.
Hiroyuki Usui's name pops up in several intriguing places in the apparently still underdocumented Japanese underground lexicon. While he now concentrates mostly on Digieridoo (and his profession of garden design), he once played drums in Fushitsusha (late 70's/early 80's), A-Musik (with the legendary vocalist Phew), Marble Sheep, and several other true-underground outfits.
All $20 from your purchase will be donated to Human Rights Watch in the interest of counteracting the continued appalling behavior of so many people out there (both recently, and surely in the future). If you are reading this, I am sure you know in the back of your mind that Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the Shrub (and if not them, someone else in your part of the world) are coming for you soon, so start enjoying this right away and arm yourself cosmically against evil of all types. Usui-san has donated the CD's and we're picking up the rest of the costs. I should also note in the interest of full disclosure that we're going to re-issue this as a VHF CD in 2004, but I urge you to buy it now and do some good with your money.
I want to thank Hiroyuki Usui and Alan Cummings for generously donating their time and then some to make this happen.
SOLD OUT
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