RareNoise Records’ new release An Untroublesome Defencelessness is the outcome of a collaboration bringing together Japanese sound extremists Merzbow aka Masami Akita and Keiji Haino with Hungarian drummer Balázs Pándi.

The three players have variously worked together before but never all at the same time. Merzbow and Pándi started collaborating in 2009, and have since made two RareNoise Records releases – 2013’s Cuts with Mats Gustafsson, and 2015’s Cuts Of Guilt, Cuts Deeper with Thurston Moore. Meanwhile Haino and Merzbow have played out and recorded toether under the name Kikuri.

“The chemistry between us was there right from the very beginning,” says Pándi. “Masami has been flirting with the idea of live drums on his shows for a while as he is a drummer himself. According to him, however, the metal drummers were too much in the autopilot zone and jazz drummers were not intense enough and couldn’t keep up with volume.

“When Masami and I did a gig in Osaka back then, we threw a couple ideas back and forth and decided that it would be great to try and form a trio with Haino-san. Keiji is like an infinite well of ideas. It’s incredible how he can push music and sounds into new directions. Sounds coming from him have way more qualities than the ones coming from most musicians, as he uses every possible way to alternate sounds and give them extra qualities that people just don’t know about.”

An Untroublesome Defencelessness includes a suite in three movements called “Why Is The Courtesy Of The Prey Always Confused With The Courtesy Of The Hunter”, and the four part “How Different The Instructions Of The Left From The Instructions Of The Right”. To Pándi, this set, like all of Merzbow’s singular sonic experiments, remains “music of great mystery”.

An Untroublesome Defencelessness will be released on 22 July by RareNoise.