Musique concrète / sound collage. I was interested in isolating and exploring the 3 most prominent sounds in the recording: the sizzling sounds of cooking, the conversation, and the noises from various objects being moved around and being used. 

I was able to split the audio out into 4 separate channels with the help of Demucs. In places I have integrated some samples from my own field recordings too. Who is Mr. Ōizumi? You’ll have to ask the people in the restaurant.

You can listen to the original field recording by Zion Bai (https://soundcloud.com/zion-bai) below.

Japan’s culinary culture has its own unique style, with both food preparation techniques and dining practices continually evolving through exploration and innovation.

The recording location for ‘Omakase – Dining Environment’ is at an Omakase restaurant in Tokyo. The literal meaning of Omakase is ‘I leave it to you.’ The chef presents a series of dishes, starting from the lightest to the heaviest, and ending with dessert. During this experience, customers do not need to place orders; they simply wait for the chef to serve what they have prepared. 

Patrons who choose the Omakase style expect innovation and surprises from the chef’s menu selection, turning the meal into an artistic performance. Some may even view it as a form of ‘gambling’ because customers do not know what the next dish will be. 

Throughout the dining experience, there is minimal communication between customers and the chef. The chef informs the customer of each dish’s name, and the customer enjoys the meal.

Cities and Memory is one of the world’s biggest sound projects, a global, collaborative sound art and field recording programme with the aim of remixing the world, one sound at a time. It covers more than 125 countries and territories with more than 6,000 sounds and more than 1,800 contributing artists.