Left & Right : 19990926

When you unwrap this and find 2 CD’s, which will you listen to first?
Starting with either is correct and incorrect at the same time.

There are lots of phrases that contain a pair of opposite words and that exaggerate both elements by contrast, such as obverse & reverse, black & white, and good & evil, and left & right is one of them. What is important is that in these pairs both are essential.

It’s true about “Left and Right” of “The Fragile”. Both should/shouldn’t have priority. For these two balance pretty delicately.
If you call them ’1′ and ’2′, there is order. But if you call them ‘left’ and ‘right’, there is balance between them.

This time I think Trent is particular about balance. I can tell this, because he changes contents minutely to equalize every side in quality and quantity, according to formats that are cassette, LP and CD, so that all the sides balance. The cassette format consists of 4 segments and the LP format consists of 6 segments, so each segment has a ‘beginning’ and an ‘ending’.
To balance perfectly these ‘beginnings’ and ‘endings’, which are also the pair of elements that are different yet come together, he gives enormous cosideration to each format. Actually, CD Left is rather longer than CD Right. But when you listen to these two CD’s, you don’t realize the difference of the actual length, which I suppose is the outcome of his effort. Also, either set of a ‘beginning’ and an ‘ending’ doesn’t show any sign that one CD has priority. It’s probably that either is OK.

The implications of this are very deep and I notice that even this alone contains various expressions and shows lots of answers overlapping.
It’s as if his work itself is built with this delicate ‘overlap’ as a frame. These parallel meanings and expressions unite and bring listeners to another world. Also, ‘they’ produce such a feeling as if his work is alive. And listeners see themselves as well as him in this living thing.

Inside of him are ‘male’ & ‘female’, ‘good’ & ‘evil’, ‘liberation’ & ‘confinement’, ‘descent’ & ‘ascent’ and ‘humility’ & ‘arrogance’. The expression that everything applies these pairs of opposites and that the existence that contains them is one and only seems symbolic of a human. I think it means a lot that ‘left’ & ‘right’ is also the metaphor of a ‘heart’. About the human body there are lots of parts of left and right. A ‘brain’ is one of them.

In this expression I feel his will that he accepts all the pairs of opposites. As he discovered himself in his past ‘journey’, he will accept opposites within him and go with them from now on, I suppose. By embodying his will, the soul that gets itself gets the body.
When he casts this sense outward, it may be the sign of preparation that he accepts some existence that isn’t himself. It’s a courage to face others. It may mean he sees his existence and the other’s as opposites. In this album I think he faces every listner as an opposite.

Now I see him walking, him who has become ‘nothing but himself’ with no meaningless existance. I have a feeling that he started to run as if he shaked off everything that surrounded him.I feel the track that lots of overlapping sounds weaved has become an upward spiral.
It’s like it makes one ascent when it comes full circle. It must have been more depleting work than his past work where he brooded downward on himself, yet, he needed to shave useless things.

In his last album he thought about himself through and through, turn existent himself with extreme negative mind power and obtain ‘completely new self’, that is he mentally gave birth to himself. Now he seems to wear a new body.
He started to walk, run and has wrapped himself in new flesh with which he can touch someone. There he is, the one who has mentally achieved great evolution. I can’t help but love him for his touching courage.
Fever and blood tide in his flesh lap all the pairs of ‘opposites’ that accompanies living, and there he is made up.

His beautiful captivating eyes tell that his way hasn’t been smooth, which gives me strength to live again. The same fever as inhabits his new body inhabits mine.
I shall go on a journey, as this work contains plenty, to appreciate it through and through.