Another venture from the brilliant mind of Koshiro Hino - aka YPY and a member of goat (jp) among other relevant journeys - in collusion with the cellist Yuki Nakagawa - a collaborator with the likes of Eli Keszler or Joe Talia -, KAKUHAN take their name by heart - a “stirring” of various elements, in Japanese - in a symbiotic electro-acoustic approach that goes way beyond the usual meaning of the term. More than a half-assed conjunction of electronics with organic instrumentation, KAKUHAN’s music is like a living entity where shapeshifting rhythms - a line that goes from Photek to Autechre or errorsmith, just for mere reference - evolve along cello lines that can be both dramatic and escapist - as Arvo Pärt as Arthur Russell. And, as much as we’d like for the title of their first record - Metal Zone - to be an homage to the classic distortion pedal, there should be a way more prosaic meaning behind this sound which is fixed in the present but keeps anticipating futures.