Inscriptions by Ryoko Akama, Will Montgomery, Joseph Clayton Mills

Proposal (/prəˈpōzəl/) noun 1. A plan or suggestion, especially a formal or written one, put forward for consideration or discussion by others. 2 An offer of marriage.

“Originally influenced by Sol LeWitt, I began to study the idea of sequences in shape, color, and direction. Each piece includes additional comments to support my proposal for the performer to refuse or to accept.”

—Ryoko Akama


Presenting realizations by Will Montgomery and Joseph Clayton Mills of two compositions by Ryoko Akama, inscriptions is the second in a series of releases documenting Akama’s “proposal” scores. The use of this word, “proposal,” is deliberate and crucial. It makes clear that Akama’s compositions are suggestions, put forward for consideration and exploration, rather than directives to be obeyed. As with acceptance, released by Suppedaneum in 2016, each proposal in the series draws on a similar compositional vocabulary—arrows, shaded boxes, and fragments of text—but each is also subtly different, written to reflect the particular character of the musician to whom it is dedicated. The scores themselves are open and allusive, occupying an ambiguous middle ground between drawing, poetry, and instructions, and the question of how these elements are to be assembled and understood is left unresolved. Or, rather, it is left to the imagination and understanding of each performer. Each score thus originates as a kind of portrait but, in the act of realization, becomes just as much a self-portrait. What each performer brings to Akama’s proposals—how they chose to recognize themselves in what she has given them, and how they accept, resist, or reinscribe her compositions—becomes as crucial as what she offers them.

This release was originally presented together in a wooden veneer envelope that included an archival CD-R containing realizations of each piece, one copy of each of the two proposals, a brief text from each performer describing their approach to Akama’s score, and an additional informational sheet providing credits and track listing.

This is Suppedaneum no. 14.

suppedaneum.com