October 2016

  • Sylvan Grey

    If one would pick up a practice as a musician, one wouldn’t normally pick up the kantele as a focus. Of Finnish descent, this instrument that features close to 40-strings, whose closest relatives are a hammered dulcimer, zither, or a Japanese koto, requires nearly devotional study to accurately pick up all its nuances and capabilities.…

  • My apologies to David Lynch fans, but when I imagine what the music of Twin Peaks should be, I imagine something more along this profound piece of music from Toshifumi Hinata than the real life, final product. I say this, because Toshifumi Hinata’s Sarah’s Crime captures a fully idealized musical vision of an in-between feeling. It’s…

  • What’s there to say about an unheralded classic? The origin story is already there for the taking: in 1972, fresh of recording their revolutionary Kazemachi Roman, pioneering Japanese band led by musical visionaries like Haruomi Hosono, Eiichi Ohtaki, and Shigeru Suzuki, travel to Los Angeles in hopes of recording an album more in tune with a huge source…

  • NOTE: Today, I’m digging back into the A-Track, A-Day archives for a gorgeous piece of autumnal music, Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, one that still remains too criminally hard to find. No matter, it’s my sonic balm for you, today. You can find a lot of what I said then below, but what do I think about…

  • Pictures rarely lie, right? Take a look at the album cover to Frank Fischer’s Gone with the Wind. What does it bring to mind? Breeziness, brightness, tinges of autumnal feelings, and crisp, cool sensations are the first things that come to my mind. Released on krautrock giant Klaus Schulze’s iconic label Innovative Communication, by then more known…

  • It bears repeating: nostalgia is a powerful thing. When used for nefarious purposes, we get horrible people like Donald Trump trading on delusionary illusions. When used for sentimental reasons, well, that’s when lines blur, and comfort starts to go through that inarticulate process of myth-making. What starts out as a simple idea, present a reflection on…

  • Barefoot Ballet

      There’s smooth jazz, then there’s: Smooth Jazz. Chicago-native, and Art Institute alumnus, John Klemmer, thankfully, belongs to that of the latter kind. In the ’70s, he was primarily known as the go-to sax session man for all sorts of Rock and Pop musicians looking to dip their toes into a jazzy sound. What set John apart from most…

  • Recorded by Hiroshi Yoshimura at his private studio, Hiroh 806, using Yamaha DX7, TX7, and FB01 synthesizers, a Roland MSQ-700 sequencer and a Victor AV computer. That’s exactly what the Sona Gaia release of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green stated in its liner notes. That can’t be. You put on Green, and the things that last with you, long after the…

  • It’s easy to get away with music that sounds like something. Vast store shelves are littered with “albums” proclaiming exactly what you’ll hear inside. Relaxing Sounds of the Rainforest, Nights in Ireland, Serenity and Bliss Mix, etc. all serving as perfect sonic backgrounds to whatever space you want them to live in. But is this…

  • Hiroshi Yoshimura was commissioned in 1984 by Japanese multi-national personal care company Shiseido to create something that might be entirely out of his own wheelhouse: music that could complement a fragrance. It’s a pitch that would sound ludicrous to most musicians but for Hiroshi presented a magnificent idea.

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