Shinsuke Honda (本多信介): The Song Of Blue (イルカ・ドリーミング)(1997)

If there’s one thing that I find worthwhile about sharing music with y’all, it’s that it forces me to push myself to stick my neck out. It moves me to dig a little deeper and get a fuller picture for y’all to experience. And in today’s case, it puts me in a position to do my little bit to conserve history. 

With summer in full bloom, I thought it would be refreshing to go back deep into the well of one of my favorite musicians and show you a different side to their artistry. It’s deep in the discography of Shinsuke Honda that we get to experience the more esoteric side, one closer to his love of the sea and oceans abutting his native Hiroshima. 

I’ll spare you Shinsuke’s full bio, as most of you might have already come across it on the site, but six years on from his revelatory Banka (晩夏)/Late Summer we can flesh out a bit more of his story by finding Shinsuke shifting towards music production for films, theater, TV dramas, and commercials. Turning his eye towards multimedia – at least as what’s thought of it being in the late ‘90s – found him setting aside his trademark ambient guitar for more ethereal synths and aquatic electronic music production.

In 1997, Shinsuke was approached by Bandai Music to work on creating a soundtrack of sorts to background footage taken by Shizuoka oceanic photographer, Akinobu Mochizuki, known for his vivid sea mammal photography. The songs that would be collected under this album, The Song Of Blue (イルカ・ドリーミング), would attempt to tell a musical story to accompany Akinobu’s dip into creating PC videos. Centered around the world of dolphins, each spectral song had a certain dreamy quality and vibe to it – perfectly suited for their idea of “dolphin dreams”. 

Shinsuke would circle his melodies on nostalgic mood music like album opener, “夜明け – Silent Sea”. In some essence, Shinsuke’s idea of “Relaxation Music” tried to evoke (or at least aspire to) songs that float right through you rather than soak you in melancholia. As a composer, minimalist songs like “白い海 – Tideless” settle on the contours of his earlier music without all the canvas painted on. Taking to heart the free-spirited nature of dolphins, Shinsuke treated listeners to music that was just as gracefully moving.

Scanning as just seven songs on the CD, songs like “遠い記憶 – Memories” and “南の楽園 – Seatopia” have these reflective qualities that remind me of the works of Brian Eno and Art Of Noise. Far from his guitar, on keyboard, Shinsuke is equally adept at stamping his sound on music that might be overlooked by others. 

And in the wonders – or perhaps tribulations of your fair writer – I was able to find a way to draw out three videos included with the release. Accompanying all sorts of dolphins, songs like “Summer Dream” recall a certain slice of smooth jazz that’s seemed to age better with time. Taken together as a package, The Song Of Blue (イルカ・ドリーミング), in the end, is another gorgeous entry into Shinsuke’s world…one that could swim out to sea. Hopefully, one you can put in the foreground of your summer background. 

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