“Noh Plays” and “Noh Theater” are part of the traditional Japanese aesthetic of transience. Actors, musicians, dancers and other performers put on a show together but rehearse their own parts separately. Thus, the tempo of a given performance is not set by any single performer but established by the interactions of all the performers together… And each performance is unique and subject to chance, even though the performances are scripted and practiced.

The concept of “Noh” relates to these objects in two ways, first as a pun, because there is “no” object to speak of, no CD, no record or tape. And secondly within the “aesthetic of transience” each object is exceptionally unique, special, and temporary. No edition will be similar, and the art within the addition itself will be diverse and one-of-a-kind. Each edition will be very limited and only available on this website, first come first serve. The recordings themselves will not be restricted to any one style of music or process, but will tend toward the spontaneous, the improvised, the singular. Mostly music that exists first in the moment it is created/recorded, and is not subjected to too much planning.

The form of presentation for the music (online download) invokes the collective unconscious. Knowledge pulled from the ether to rest in your lap. In this spirit each recording will be made available to everyone for free at the end of each year. The music will be unbound from the objects.

So why are we doing this? It is simply a forum to present nice hand-made things, and a chance to bring a lot more music to your ears, and our own. There are many excellent CD-R labels in the world now, they have the benefit of being able to put out a lot of different albums and bands all the time, because they can make many small limited runs very cheaply. This is great! We sincerely commend all of our DIY brethren. But we want to move one step past the CD-R, it goes right onto your computer anyway, right? Then where does the CD-R go? On the giant trash island floating in the Atlantic Ocean? Maybe. So we say download it, and if you want to put it on a CD, go ahead and burn it yourself.

We already live in a culture that is too disposable... things are not made to last, they are made to be replaced, they are made this way on purpose... CD-R's degrade at rapid rates, sometimes becoming dysfunctional after only two years. "Real" CD's scuff and scratch and skip too. Almost everything that pollutes our senses is mass produced. The things that remain meaningful often are that way because they are unique, have character, were made by people. We'll try to make some affordable art that will last, made with great care by one or a few people, touched by human hands and intentions... and also some good tunes to go along with it.

This is what we are doing, if you have ideas, or suggestions, let us noh.gnome(at)gnomeliferecords(dot)com