by Martin Walters
The prolific Japanese noise guru delivers yet another installment of guitar absolution as arresting as anything he made prior. While many fans of the enigmatic noiseician believe his power trio Fushitsusha is the context that he is best heard in, his solo work is always a discreetly private and seemingly candid display of guitar meditation. On The Book of Eternity Set Aflame, his solo guitar comes on sounding like a car crash then slowly, within its noise texture, reveals a pensive drone study, and interlocking feedback lines become an orchestra of electro-hum, which suggests a minimalism that is not often present in his work. Ritualistic, challenging, and alien, his music is consistently inventive, and from one recording to the next, Keiji Haino keeps one common theme: absolute variation.