Hot Air’s relationship with Otomo Yoshihide stems from some early and reciprocal samplings of each other, bits of his 1993 “The Night Before The Death Of The Sampling Virus” CD embedding themselves in S,H&W’s 1994 Hairballs CD and said sampling virus CD mirroring SHWs 1993 Giving Up cut-up interaction via CD players random access shuffle mode. Proof, if it were needed, of kindred spirit. Other collaborations were to come.
Mr Steve Beresford’s connection goes back earlier to an appearance by S,H&W at Derek Bailey’s Company Week 1991, our set seemingly befuddling the Improv purists that inevitably gather at such an event. Steve was one of the only people to approach me and comment on how much he enjoyed our oblique noises.. Not surprising given his act ‘Alterations’ could be seen as prescient of SHW in many ways. Knowing him not only from so many improvisation recordings but from his many guest spots on ON-U sound records it was a thrill and a massive privilege to get the Beresford thumbs up back then.
FF > 1997........
The Yoshihide/Beresford duo stemmed from a recent trio tour of Japan with Motuharu “Papa” Yoshizawa on bass not long before his sad demise. These recordings made at an ‘undisclosed’ space somewhere in London feature Otomo on turntable and Steve on sampler, piano and various keyboards. The previous days booty of old organ records from a visit to Cheapo Cheapo records are augmented by split second splashes of General Strikes ‘Danger in Paradise’ and Organ Transplants Volume One ... little wonder the recordings finally found a home on the Hot Air label in 1998.
The original vinyl is often and weirdly listed as having two solo sides, one Otomo, one Steve, this bit of disinformation even persists on the mighty Discogs!! It’s totally wrong, though both sides of the clear vinyl 10” have different moods , one being very dense & sample heavy the other being more spacious and spindly in it’s improvising allowing more of Steve’s piano to surface. It is all duet with both players bouncing off each other such that it’s almost impossible to separate who’s doing what, sample snippet from snazzy finger frill, except for those pastoral moments when the piano floats by in its inflatable lifejacket, a survivor of some jazz shipwreck dashed on the spikey iceberg of waxy references.
As if to make amends for shattering the mysteriously presumptive misapprehensions out there in the Unternet wilds, the original recordings ( gently remastered from DAT originals for the earpod generation ) have been augmented with two ACTUAL solo recordings. Both submitted to Hot Air during the same year for a proposed split channel CD compilation project I was contemplating but never got enough material to complete. The brief was simple: MONO!! which Steve promptly aced, though in recent conversation seems of the opinion that he may have been “In a Very Bad Mood” when making said track, performed entirely on a Zoom Sampler... the track has been slightly “stereo-ized” before mastering for this release.
Otomo on the other hand seems to have heard the brief differently as his piece pans about in the stereo spectrum like a dog anxious for you to “throw the damn stick already!! “ ..no idea how that mistranslation occured? No “stereo-izing” necessary.
Both 5 minute extras are most welcome, bumping this audio document up to a full 33 mins in the company of two of the worlds most genial, hard working and respected gentlemen of the avant-garde sound/music noösphere.
( matt wand 2021 )

more ‘interesting’ releases from Hot Air at:
hot-air.bandcamp.com