experimental
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Deep, deep, earth music from Tsutomu Ōhashi and the Geinoh Yamashirogumi crew. A macrosymphony composed for the International Garden and Greenery Exposition in Osaka, Japan, 1990, Ecophony Gaia, was supposed to be the stunning, aural centerpiece for a light and water performance system echoing the sentiment of the venue: “Harmonious Coexistence of Nature and Mankind.”
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Hiroki Okano’s debut 19871990 is startling in more ways than one. A trailblazing stew of new form Japanese ambient and new age minimal music isn’t something you normally see coming out of Germany’s Innovative Communication label. Also surprising, is that for such a fully formed debut, what we’re hearing is actually a collection of works spanning three…
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Koharu, Koharu, wherefore are thou Koharu? That’s the big question rolling around in my head. Koharu Kisaragi’s 都会の生活 Tokai No Seikatsu (which translates to: Urban Life) isn’t just an impressive, largely, unheard of album, it’s also impressive for being largely unknown in details both in what went into its creation and what happened to its creator. This true one-off by Japanese playwright, theater…
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As much as one tries to distance themselves from being just another mp3 blog, one has to realize that one is operating in a gray territory. For as much as I’d love everyone to discover rare albums like Flüght’s Flüght, one from a fascinating Mexican band that debuted with a sound that experimented with ambient, progressive electronica, and new age, not…
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A true giant of Polish Pop music comes out of the wilderness to join up with a Polish Jazz giant who purposely went into its wilderness to create a masterpiece of Coltrane-influenced Spiritual Jazz…one influenced by the Coltrane we tend to forget. You see, Samarpan has all the touchstones of one Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane.
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One of my favorite albums from one of my favorite record label series. Largely piano-based, José Luis Macias’s Regreso a Valencia (Returning to Valencia) touched on that personal essence that made other albums like Toshifumi Hinata’s or Ichiko Hashimoto’s so intimate and gorgeous. Combining western-style minimalism with their own more regional, neoclassical styles, all these releases affect austerity at first, but…
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ot much is known about the Japanese female/male musical duo Tolerance made up of Junko Tange and Masami Yoshikawa. Understatement of understatements, even 36 years later the forward-thinking slab of music a few people know of as Divin has yielded little in terms of discovery on how the duo came to be, and (more importantly) why/how they…
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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…
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f someone’s in touch with the music of the cosmos it’s Kagawan Toshi Tsuchitori. The music I’m sharing from his 1980 release, Breath, gives us a peek at what would set him off on his life-long journey to create music that harkens back to Japan’s prehistoric time. Now known primarily as a percussionist, Breath is the rare…
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imply, phenomenal, a landmark release of Spanish music. The more I hear Eliseo Parra y MOSAICO’s Homenaje A Agapito Marazuela, the more I am convinced of my declaration. This album, a musical homage to the massively influential and important Castilian folklorist, musician, and dulzaina master Agapito Marazuela, does so many things right. Released a year…
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