minimalist

Takami – 天使行 Y. De Noir Ⅱ [Tenshi Kou] (1983)

2017/02/22

We’re in the wilderness now. If nothing puts you there, Takami’s 天使行 Y. De Noir Ⅱ will. Playing out like a modern Japanese update on Nico’s Marble Index or Desertshore, Takami’s debut album sounds like little else. 天使行 roughly translates to “Angel Line” giving you, the listener, a clue into what the theme of the album is about. Were these songs…
Mariano Lozano-Platas: A Field In The Sky / Rotterdam-88 (1987)

2017/02/20

ugust 21st, 1988 in Rotterdam, Netherlands must have been some kind of wonderful night. On that night, the music of composer Madrileño Mariano Lozano-Platas played to a crowd of 250,000 in attendance (and millions on TV) in an event unlike any seen/heard before. Heralding the designation of Rotterdam as the culture capital of European in…
Pierre Barouh: Le Pollen (1982)

2017/02/17

News travels so quickly now that it’s hard to keep up with the cycles of life. Word of Pierre Barouh’s passing, at the end of December 2016, didn’t come recently to me, it came to me this week. It came when I discovered them while researching this thought in my head – of sharing his work at FOND/SOUND.…
Various Artists: Yen Manifold Vol. 1 (1983)

2017/02/08

he first year of Yen Record’s existence surely must have felt like a fruitful one for its famous YMO founders Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Initially begun as an imprint for the Alfa Records company, Yen Records became less of a way to release YMO side projects, and more as a way to expand upon the amount of musical ideas…
Orquesta de las Nubes: Manual de Usuario (1987)

2017/02/03

rquesta de las Nubes, The Cloud Orchestra, isn’t really an orchestra, that we know for sure. What it is is a trio of Spanish musicians aiming to make music that was unlike anything else. While researching the history behind the band I ran across interviews by founder Suso Sáiz mentioning how even they themselves didn’t know the type…
Joe Hisaishi: 吉祥天女 Kichijoutennyo/Kisshō Tennyo (1984)

2017/01/20

Now here’s someone’s backstory I can’t even begin to try to tackle. To be brief: pioneering Japanese composer and musician/violinist Joe Hisaishi might best be known for his timeless work soundtracking the vast majority of Studio Ghibli’s films and all of Hayao Miyazaki’s oeuvre. We all can fall in love with his music from Princess…
Apsaras: Apsaras (1984)

2017/01/18

How do you classify a six-piece Japanese band like Apsaras? Their debut album Apsaras definitely covers a ton of bases. Let’s count all the genres that they bring into their musical mix: dub, new age, minimalism, vocoder funk, balearic, are a few. Heck, you even hear the glimmers of Afropop and Jazz-Fusion. How many genres have I mentioned so far?…
Pale Cocoon: 繭 (1984)

2017/01/04

This might not be the most proper way to start off FOND/SOUND’s blogging new year, but I’m hoping for a blessing in disguise. Let’s get this right out the way: I have little info to provide on the following Japanese band, Pale Cocoon. Released on cassette, in 1984, 繭, which translates to “cocoon”, has all those perfect wintery things we…
MUJI: BGM 1980-2000 (2000)

2016/12/23

I ran into a predicament when sussing out this post. How does one describe MUJI if one hasn’t actually experienced it? It’s entirely easy to simplify what this brand is by calling it the Japanese IKEA and call it a day. However, from what I can tell, that’s not really what MUJI is, or stands for. And for…
Interior: Design (1987)

2016/12/21

What happens when a Japanese minimalist band gets signed to the American New Age juggernaut that is Windham Hill? Led by Daisuke Hinata, Interior remains an interesting piece of this label’s history. Few examples exist of William Ackerman’s roster ever attempting to tap into the decidedly more electronic, ambient New Age that Japanese labels like Music Interior or…