Ken Wohlrob
Variac
niku-zuki-no-men (肉付きの面, mask with flesh attached)
Our brains are a strange lockbox. What we choose to keep in there is inexplicable. I was watching Kaneto Shindō’s Onibaba. The soundtrack by Hikaru Hayashi utilizes a sharp sound to heighten the tension, possibly a bow being drawn rapidly across a violin or viola for a quick instant, especially when a character appears wearing the demon-like Hannya mask. The velocity of that single note was strangely compelling. It stuck, much like the flesh to the mask in the film. I don’t know why. But at odd moments it would rise up from my subconscious. I would hear that high-velocity note. And I would see the mask from the film…
“Variac” started with that sound. Or rather, creating my own version of it. Can we be haunted by a musical sound?
But like all the soundscapes I’m creating, it grew into something else…
Memories are not like movies. They don’t have story beats. Or a three-act structure. They’re more fluid. One bleeding into the next with no rhyme nor reason. Layer upon layer triggered by the devil knows what. Ever found yourself saying, “It’s weird, but I just thinking about…”?
I can’t tell you what you should feel when listening to “Variac.” It’s probably going to be different because I haven’t lived your life. And I don’t know what you’ve got tucked away in the subconscious behind the mask.