walearic
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Before I introduce you to Missa Fukuma’s Festa Manifesto, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share how I first encountered her music. I was in Osaka, visiting Eiji’s Revelation Time record store, when I kept glancing at the stack of CDs on his counter. Fearing that I was taking too much of his time, a…
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You might not know it, but every mix I’ve made for this site has been the product of searching for a certain state of mind. When I reflected on what I wanted to capture for this mix, I kept coming back to just how many mixes I’ve hosted.
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Much like many of you, once you’re done catching up with Maya Hayashi’s life, you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: glad she made it out the other end. Before her current career as a farmer and television personality, Maya had a quite short but very memorable career as a model turned singer, culminating…
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What better way to ease into spring than with an album that exemplifies that grand idea we call “rebirth”? Rebirth, more often than not, is defined by what one lets go in order to awaken something entirely different. And in the case of Mayumi Itoh, it’s about completely putting to bed a certain past so…
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It’s not often I revisit works from artists I’ve already written about, but when I do, it’s because these other works shed light on a new dimension of their creativity. In today’s case, few artists reveal as many fantastic—and drastic—sides as Naoko Kawai through her work as The Gentle Wind.
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With fall fully in season, I think now is a great time to turn over a few leaves I’ve neglected. Lately, my mind has been gravitating toward the music of Japanese singer Kuniko Fukushima and her 1983 leftfield turn, 夢幻 (Mugen).
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Sometimes, you just have to go where the breeze takes you. That’s something that’s become clear to me lately. This summer, I decided to scale back the time I’ve devoted to the blog and simply go outside and enjoy life (with music). So, when it was time for my LYL Radio show, I thought: why…
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When I think of “relaxation music,” I envision music with a Brazilian touch. It’s that kind of music that carries a certain breeze, a sense of yearning, and bittersweetness that evokes the transition between the heat of summer and the coolness of fall. In considering Japan, as we often do, my thoughts turn to Jun…
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I hate the old saying, “they don’t make them like they used to.” However, in the case of Atsuko Okuno – better known as Iria – you could argue that she has always made herself into exactly what she wanted to be. From pioneering Japanese girl punk rocker to her wonderful left-field turn as a…
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Sometimes, it’s the combined power of simpatico ideas that yields the biggest payoff. I remind myself of this whenever I listen to the wonderfully sunny, “summery” music of Carole Serrat. Made in Japan but born in France, Carole’s OSE serves as a perfect gateway into a little-known bit of musical symbiosis.
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist Mix neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic