Let’s hope this post posits something with clarity. You see, yours truly, has been mightily under the weather this week and propping myself up to put words on screen has been (equally) that much of a struggle. Thankfully, this week, Shiho Yabuki’s New Meditation the subject of this post, has provided perfect backgrounding music to latch on to. Not entirely a “new” album, New Meditation rather a new distillation of highlights from her earlier work as Japanese healing music pioneer coupled with truly forward-thinking, new, “originals” made just for this release.
In Shiho’s story I find a lot of solace. Her musical upbringing, as noted in Subliminal Sounds’ recent reissue, began at the age of 5, studying classical piano at home. At such a young age, Shiho realized that “classical” study wasn’t the source of much of her inspiration. Rather, nature itself formed the focus of her sonic enlightenment. Peering outside the window of her home in Okayama, Shiho would improvise ditties with whatever nature was forming sound around her. That improvisatory spirit led her to study jazz and move to New York City hoping to pursue a compositional career in America.
In New York City, an initial spirit of hope, had introduced her to many positive movements in her life. Shiho met someone and married in due course. However, as her relationship deteriorated, and her own musical career had been sidelined due to their troubles, Shiho was forced to confront a huge personal setback. Divorcing herself from that connection and striking up a renewed affair with her love of music allowed Shiho to navigate turbulent waters out of a dark time in her life. Dedicating herself to creating music that could heal others, at it healed her during those rocky days, would spur her next path.
Moving back to Japan, Shiho pursued a recording career. Unable to find any takers, Shiho put all her money and savings into creating her own label from the ground up and releasing her own take on New Age music (initially) under her own Esthetic Music record label. A devoted Tendai Buddhist, A Body Is A Message To The Universe finds that combination of still/floating music touching on meditative states favored by her spiritual wellspring of influence. In fact, Shiho wrote and performed “Shiunkai” at the Enryaku-ji as a means to dedicate its 1200 year anniversary. The music on that, her debut is universal enough, and melodic enough that anyone could get spirited away with her mix of soothing synths and sampled orchestration.
Even as America came calling back with the hugely influential New Age label/radio label Hearts Of Space issuing her American debut, Purple Sails, now her sophomore release, Shiho remained fiercely independent. Shiho convinced large label Apollon to allow her to experiment further with binaural and alpha wave 1 / f fluctuation music, through so called “healing music” that was being promoted in therapeutic environs (medical establishments, self-help, wellness services, and the such) and “aesthetic music” like Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Face Music and A・I・R (Air In Resort) focused towards physical betterment and promoted by Shiseido. In Shiho’s case, through Kanebo Cosmetics portfolios and, specifically, through their Kanebo Beauty Research Laboratories she tried to tie color theory to her musical ideas.
Fluctuating in recording quality, availability, and in focus, all the albums released before New Meditation (although brilliant) were entirely difficult to find for most overground Japanese music listeners. Apollon’s New Meditation wraps up, in a brilliant way, the sprawling ideas she had placed everywhere, rerecording/remastering older tracks she made when she was less assured in her own ideas, remaking them in sterling fashion. Three original tracks made just for the album — “New Meditation”, “Moon Shadow”, and “Loves and Lights” — are simply sterling examples of how that series it belonged to (α波 1/fのゆらぎ) wasn’t entirely ambient, new age, or BGM. This was something different. Here in rare longform compositions, Shiho’s ideas had time to luxuriate and really take a hold of your airspace.