japan

  • Be honest. How many of you know someone (or are friends or acquaintances) with a certain somebody that in the way they act, the way they dress or think, seem not of this era? I keep thinking of this thought when I go back to Toshihiro Nakanishi’s music and this selection: You Make Me Blue.…

  • Don’t ask me why but it seems that jewelry companies always find a way to leverage their buying power to commission others to create some of the most interesting music-related value propositions. In plain speak: I’m holding an album, 4℃’s Christmas Suite, given as a holiday gift to (what I imagine) were there well-to-do customers,…

  • I hate to say this but this review might be one of the lighter ones. Not because of the album itself – the whole package is truly wonderful (a mix of nostalgia, elegance, and a certain uniqueness, tying quasi-ambient, quasi-neoclassical music with gorgeous photography of Hokkaido) – but because of the lack of information about…

  • It is my hope that more than a few of you out there can truly appreciate the brilliance of pianist Yuriko Nakamura’s debut: Wind And Reflections. Frankly, I expect that something that sounds this painfully out of time requires one to have a certain palette to understand it but if you have it here’s hoping…

  • What exactly is darkness? Is it a sensation, a color, or a feeling? It’s something I kept asking myself for my recent Halloween-inspired mix for LYL Radio. Why do certain tracks or artists fail to miss the mark on what I feel it is?

  • When, or if, someone would ask me what kind of album I think perfectly encapsulates the promise of ‘80s music in Japan, I’d say look no further than Macoto Tezka Presents Reiko Okano’s Fancy Dance (ファンシイダンス). As before, I’ll be the first to raise my hand and state: “If you’re looking for someone who is…

  • Would you mind if I share something simply for no other reason than: it’s beautiful? From the packaging to the music, I have to say Tomoyuki Hayashi & ForestIII’s The Forest is just plain pretty. If you had your hands on the physical copy, you can lift up the CD cover and feel the same…

  • You’re probably getting tired of reading this but….here’s another big thank you to someone else: here’s one for Austin from Incidental Music for steering me in the direction of today’s focus, Junichi Kamiyama. What he exposed me to was the healing music of Junichi Kamiyama featuring Mr. Kamiyama’s patented “tender sound”, displayed particularly well in…

  • I almost hate to share this compilation dubbed Lover’s Hawaii not because I’m not eternally grateful for Francis, sometime Fond/Sound guest contributor, for sharing/finding it with me, but because there is scant/to no information out there about the release itself. In my opinion, such a gorgeous collection of neo-Resort Music (if I may so dub…

  • It’s time to count my blessings. The first one, of course, is that I have this platform to share what I think is great work done by others. Then, I have to admit, I think of it as a blessing to have an audience willing to inhabit this space and share their own path to…

ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist mpb neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic