japan
-
Disclaimer: you’re not going to hear any music on Jun Kawabata’s Mind Migration (Voyage To The Whale). What you’re hearing on this release is the kind of healing music little known on this side of the world. In the early ’90s CBS Sony created a record sublabel dubbed “Aqua Planet” combining three things: aquatic themed…
-
As long as there is summer and people still want to hear/read about another Hajime Mizoguchi album, I’ll be more than happy to ride on that feeling. Continuing on a very long retrospective on Hajime’s work, see prior posts for his prior work, today we land on another of his wonderfully summer-esque albums — A…
-
Can I say something? I’m beginning to empathize more with the creative mindset of one Henry Kawahara than with one of Hiroshi Yoshimura. I say this not to inflame any passions but because I’m appreciating how he comes to terms with creating his kind of music. Far from the studied, mannered, ambient, Japanese kankyo ongaku,…
-
Sometimes the best ideas come to you on-the-fly. Truth be told, I completely forgot about this month’s mix for LYL Radio. For the first time in a good long while, I had been strapped for time, making space to plan for a long vacation. So, if I had to carve out time for it, it…
-
I think that just about does it. If you had on your bingo card Toshiyuki Honda to complete the Japanese “saxophonist goes Avant Pop” game, you’re the winner now! Joining the likes of Yasuaki Shimizu, Genji Sawai, and Hiroyasu Yaguchi, comes Toshiyuki’s Saxophone Music, another album redefining what is exactly that: music played by saxophonists.…
-
A leftfield reimagining of vaunted Afro-Cuban jazz classics, in a new school “futuristic” Japanese Pop style, shouldn’t sound so interesting as it does in Today’s Latin Project. Launched on the demise of one famous group (The Tokyo Cuban Boys) and the rise of one important, new musical voice, Yasuaki Shimizu, you’d expect something titled Today’s…
-
Guest post by Giacomo Lee. The first thing that strikes you about Asian Wind is its sleeve. The striking pink and upside-down triangle on the front cover is the handiwork of design group Sign, a Japanese trio who were responsible for, among other things, the cover of Sakamoto’s Thousand Knives LP )back in the tail…
-
My apologies to my less than trusty Google Translation app, but there are only a few things I can describe as legibly belonging in the shared space of Yuki Nakayamate’s Octopussy. Names like Roxy Music, Matia Bazar, August Darnell (as part of Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band and Kid Creole and the Coconuts), and Grace…
-
Coming in clear, not just a message from Min’yō but one of other beautiful Japanese folk traditions from the Muromachi period and others from deep sōkyoku compositions, albeit transformed via newfound ideas (of newer ages), as played through by the late great clarinetist Koichi Inamoto. To put it simply: Well, what’s the Message From Min-Yō…
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