japan
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You know, sometimes as I choose to share a bit of music, what strikes me to do might be things that might not strike others quite the same. One of those things, I’ve got to say, is that I’m still a big fan of album covers and album titles that invite your mind to wander.…
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We’re still sailing along aren’t we? Hopefully, aiming towards more easy-going, yet surprisingly deep waters. It’s all to reveal sights and sounds, mostly, that reveal far more hidden at the surface. Listening to Shigeru Suzuki’s くじらの海 (Living Whales) I’m reminded of this sentiment.
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If there’s one thing I know about my sign…it’s that it’s (pardon my language) all bullshit. I know, spoken like a true Gemini. Yet, there are people out there who still believe in astrology and that our anthropomorphization of the heavens, somehow, provides a keen insight into who we all are as a person and…
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Blue. What does the color “blue” sound like? I don’t believe that’s a question I (or others) easily answer. Barriers to sensation, usually, come via barriers from feel. The eyes can’t experience what the mouth can taste or skin can touch. Traveling. That’s a word that helps. Music can, in some ways, paint a picture…
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Talk about worlds within worlds. Isn’t that the essence of Keishi Urata’s 世界の果て (Final Frontier)? It’s about combining electronically-imagined sound atmospheres with otherworldly IRL, acoustic instruments. It’s about exploring the edges of jazz, ambient, and traditional music for an imaginary soundtrack to imaginary environs. It’s a work full of mystery from a man whose whole…
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As I fish my increasingly puzzled brain, trying to suss out words for Amahoro’s Flowering Of The Spirit (いのちの花), I go back to just how unlikely of a story and of a pairing these two came to be. You see, if you didn’t know who was behind the music, you wouldn’t think it was the…
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I’ve always had a belief: it’s that you can really tell a lot about a person by what they listen to, how they create, or what inspires them to create. As I read interviews with today’s focus, Hajime Mizoguchi, I sense that his music speaks volume of the person he is. Elegant, graceful, yet uniquely…
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What exactly gives life to any inanimate object? Is it the way it looks? Is it the way we interact with it? Or is it the memories we attach to it? I imagine these were some of the many questions revolving around Yoshihiro Kanno’s head when he was invited to create environmental music to fill…
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“Now, we’re all under stress. What music do you need to get rid of it? You can find it with this.” – From the liner notes to ストレス・クリニック<自信がつく> (Stress Clinic) Couldn’t have said it better myself. You see, much like many of you, I am not immune to the stresses of life. And lord knows,…
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Certain albums are pretty hard to justify, or quantify, the how, when, or why to share. Salon Music’s O Boy isn’t one of them. My only regret is how long it’s taken me to get to writing about it. Far from being “alien” to any of your musical taste — in its proto-shoegaze, proto-noise, dream…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental folk-rock fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic