MUSIC
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“A sultry haze of shimmering ambient electronics and sparkling, effects-heavy guitar. Just what the ambient doctor ordered." - Electronic Sound
"Consumed in its entirety Late Spring is a soothing breeze, teleporting you directly to a grassy field in the sunshine – as transfixing as any record released thus far in 2021." - The Vinyl Factory
"The record sounds exactly like what you would expect with a name like Late Spring; it is a meditative, hypnotic look at the human condition and its emotional spectrum, as it attempts to grasp undefinable." - Far Out Magazine
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Japanese musician Chihei Hatakeyama is set to release his new album ‘Late Spring’ on 9th April 2021. An album of a humble nature, ‘Late Spring’ gently unfolds as a shared journeying experience through a series of rich and outstanding encounters.
An extract from the liner notes by Nick Luscombe:
"For an artist who typically works quickly, Hatakeyama considers Late Spring to be one of the more time-intensive records of his career – he started working on it in 2018, and completed it towards the end of 2020. For Late Spring, Hatakeyama re-examined his approach to musical performance, using a new amplifier and microphone set-up to playback and record his guitar and synthesisers. From the cathedral organ-like opener Breaking Dawn with its sub-aqua resonances, to the subtle drift of the closing track Twilight Sea, this record is a masterpiece of dense and beatific melodies. Drawn from evolving synthesised sounds and shimmering slow motion guitars, it combines these with occasional sonic elements that are best described as evoking computer code running through the veins of the machines like artificial blood."
Chihei Hatakeyama is a sound artist, mastering engineer, and record label founder who was born in 1978 and lives in Tokyo. He has performed for years under his given name and also as one half of the electroacoustic duo Opitope alongside Tomoyoshi Date. From his first full-length album ‘Minima Moralia’ (“Excellent” 8.1 Pitchfork) in 2006, through the subsequent 70+ albums that followed, Hatakeyama has created a mighty canon of work. His catalogue is spread across a number of highly-regarded labels, including Kranky, Room40 and his own White Paddy Mountain imprint. His release rate is unquestionably impressive, but what is even more striking is the continual high quality of each alluring album.
Top Boy is the British television crime drama series, created and written by Ronan Bennett. The story follows two seasoned drug dealers return to the gritty streets of London, but their pursuit of money and power is threatened by a young and ruthless hustler. It stars Ashley Walters, Kane Robinson, and the 2020 BAFTA Rising Star Award-winning Michael Ward. The first two seasons aired between 2011 and 2013, but following interest from rapper Drake, Netflix announced in 2017 that it would revive the series. Co-produced by the Hotline Bling-rapper, the third and fourth season of Top Boy launched in 2019 and 2022.
In the captivating Netflix series Top Boy, Brian Eno's transcendent music serves as a vital companion, molding the narrative's essence with its ethereal power. With a masterful touch, Eno's atmospheric compositions effortlessly transport us into the gritty world of crime, friendship, and survival in East London. From delicate ambience to pulsating beats, his sonic tapestry envelops every scene, elevating the storytelling and evoking a range of emotions. Eno's singular ability to capture the struggle, hope, and inner strength of the characters accentuates the raw authenticity of Top Boy, leaving an indelible mark on its viewers. His haunting melodies and intricately crafted soundscapes symbolize the unyielding resilience amidst chaos, making Brian Eno's music an integral and unforgettable component of this groundbreaking series. This album represents Eno's contributions across the entirety of the Series with music from every season and will be released alongside the final season launching on Netflix in September.
“From the beginning of Top Boy, I was given the freedom to work in the way I prefer,” says Brian, “making music and atmospheres and then giving it to the film makers to use as they saw fit. I try to absorb the idea of what a piece is about and from that I produce a lot of music, and say, ‘Here it is. Use it as you wish.’
“If you’d been scoring it in the conventional Hollywood way, the temptation would be to up the excitement factor, up the danger factor, all the time. But Top Boy is really about children in a pretty bad situation. So I explored the internal world of the children, not just what’s happening to them in the external world. Quite a lot of the music was deliberately naive, it was sort of simple. The melodies were simple, not really sophisticated, or grown-up.”
These days I try, whenever possible, to write like a Japanese Calligrapher - prepare the room, the ink and paper and then the make the act of creation as spontaneous as possible.
I desire therefore, a release mechanism that mirrors this creative process as closely as possible, giving me the freedom to share music quickly and directly with people that care.
This first Bandcamp focused release is music from a soundtrack I was commissioned to write for a Japanese documentary ‘Jōhatsu…the art of evaporation’. I have no idea if it will ever see the light of day, (post pandemic funding issues), but one of the conditions of my contract was the ability to release the music myself should the documentary remain unreleased by the end of 2021.
Regardless of its origins, this is the music I wish to make, the emotions I wish to capture and share…the ideal of living simply with Kindness, Grace & Gratitude.
I hope that this achieves that connection with you.
The year 2023 marks 30 years since Yakushima was registered as Japan's first World Natural Heritage site in 1993.
And what is the world like today, 20 years after the release of Final Drop "elements" (2003), a masterpiece produced by DJ KENSEI, GoRo the Vibratian, Kaoru Inoue, and KND, and known by many?
We modern people are constantly bombarded with so much information that we wonder if we are living our lives in a way that allows us to interact with nature, enjoy it, and refine our sensibilities.
Listening to Final Drop's latest work, "Mimyo," one is reminded of something universal and important.
Mimyo" was produced in January 2023 by DJ Kensei, one of Japan's top DJs, who creates original sound spaces through a variety of selections and sound controls, and GoRo the Vibration artist, who manipulates didgeridoo, kalimba, mouth harp, flute, hand pan, percussion, and self-made musical instruments. The project started with the reunion of artist GoRo the Vibratian after 20 years.
DJ KENSEI, GoRo the Vibratian, Kaoru Inoue, and KND, who are usually active in Japan and overseas as solo artists, DJs, musicians, and sound engineers, respectively, have been working on a project that brings together a vast amount of sound files saved during a field recording session in Yakushima in 2002. KND, an electronic musician/producer/sound engineer and member of SOFT, the most important band in the Kyoto underground scene, was approached by DJ KENSEI to compile the files, which DJ KENSEI and GoRo the Vibratian then used as the basis for the project. DJ KENSEI and GoRo the Vibratian built, produced, and mixed this new work.
NTsKi. Nom de musique of Japan-based vocalist/songwriter/producer; pronounced n-t-s-k-i. "Calla" is her 2nd album, a unified statement of her musical vision at this point in her development, with all-new songs melding her breathy and intimate voice, singing in Japanese and English, with organic acoustic sounds and distinctive electronic colors. NTsKi possesses a charming melodic gift as well as a distinctive production style, giving "Calla" a cohesion and subtle momentum, with relaxed tempos, interesting arrangements and intriguing melodies fusing into a focused musical statement that is refreshing, charming and forward-looking, underpinned by a sense of wistfulness, nostalgia and melancholy. As with her 2021 "Orca" release, co-released on EM Records and Orange Milk, NTsKi is joined by engineer Illicit Tsuboi and British musician/producer Dan Shutt. The songs here are lovely, concise gems, warmly glowing, gently sparkling, evocative and moving. Available on LP and DL, with a Japanese and English lyric sheet. Cover art drawing: Ellen Thomas.