„Battleship Island“ (c) The Speed Of Dark


Dark Water Ed.   Dead Shores   Wrecks

      

HASHIMA
The Dark Water Edition - Movement 2

Hashima   (23:52)

1) Wandering Spirits   (12:02)
2) Walking the Ruins   (7:48)
3) Gunkanjima   (3:58)

The track was conceived, realised and recorded August-November 2007
at the Laboratory of Aural Research, Dortmund (L.A.R.D.) using field
recordings, lapsteel guitar, samplers and sample treatments.

With its brighter and thematical approach it´s more accessable than the
introspective soundscapes of the first movement. The track reflects the
impressive environment which gave it its name.

The island "Hashima" (or "Gunkanjima, the battleship-island" due to its silhouette),
located 15 kilometers ahead of Nagasaki, was populated in the early 1900s for
offshore coal mining. In its pinnacle in 1960 more than 5.000 people lived and
worked under unbelievably hard conditions on that rock, making it the most densely
populated place on earth. In 1974 when the mine was closed an unprecedented
exodus scattered the inhabitants rootlessly over Japan, leaving their homes rotting
and abandoned to wind and sea. Today it still is a dead place completely off-limits
to the public, a remarkable scar in Japans history.

For further information about the Ghost Island refer to

The Gunkanjima Odyssey
The Kawamura Hashima-Site
"Hashima: The Ghost Island" by Brian Burke-Gaffney
"City of the Future?!" at Archibase.Net
"Hashima Island" at Wikipedia.org