neoclassical

Tôsha Suihô: 四季の笛 (Die Vier Jahreszeiten In Kyoto) (1983)

2018/10/12

Certain albums linger in your mind for certain reasons. Tôsha Suihô’s 四季の笛 (Die Vier Jahreszeiten In Kyoto) or Four Seasons In Kyoto is one that I can never forget. The premise for its creation was simple: master flautist Tôsha Suihô travels to various sites in Kyoto and records himself performing within the environment he’s in. What happens, though, is…
Mix: 15. JAPANESE AMBIENT, ENVIRONMENTAL, NEW AGE & HEALING MUSIC 1980-1993 (VOL. 2, EARTH)

2018/10/05

Illustration by Laura Gomez What is “earth”? This element we can use all our senses to comprehend, means more than just that. For the second part of my series with NTS, I imagine I had an easier task imagining it musically, than “earth” illustrator Laura Gomez had to capture its spirit visually. How do you hear…
Seigen Ono: The Green Chinese Table (1988)

2018/07/27

This one is a bit special. Last we heard from Seigen, he was introducing us to his very jazz-influenced take on Japanese New Age music. On the follow up to that epic debut, The Green Chinese Table, we find Seigen dividing his time up between recording sessions in Tokyo and New York City. It’s impossible…
Hajime Mizoguchi: Oasis – Behind The Clear Waters (1986)

2018/07/06

Let’s take a step back. Let’s take a breather and rediscover the music of Hajime Mizoguchi. Romantic, sunny, and surprisingly graceful, Halfinch Dessert notched another special rung on Japan’s wonderful New Age music from that era. In 1985, it was that debut, that gave us a taste of the string-laden, pining sound Hajime was inkling…
Mix: 12. Toshifumi Hinata – 日向敏文

2018/05/11

Toshifumi Hinata, what can one say about Toshifumi? By far one of my favorite artists and composers, it’s not hard for me to talk about his career and music without ruminating over his work with some wild wanderlust affectation. I’ll spare you that, though, because you don’t need me fawning over one of my personal,…
Sonoko: La Débutante (1987)

2018/03/23

Donovan’s A Gift From A Flower To A Garden, Paul McCartney’s Ram, Kate Bush’s The Dreaming, or Clifford T. Ward’s Mantle Pieces, these are a few of the albums I hold quite personally in my heart space. Completely earnest, lovely, bittersweet, precious, and intricate, they exemplify a certain spirit or spirits that are sorely lacking…
Real Fish: テナン Tenon (1985)

2018/03/16

I might be stringing myself out there but it’s due time for me to bring up the unbridled, unheralded genius of Seiji Toda — and to be more specific: Real Fish’s Tenon. Much like Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside, one listen to a Seiji Toda group — Shi-Shonen, Real Fish, or Fairchild — or his production…
Ossian: Księga Chmur – Tom 1 (1979)

2018/03/13

Disclaimer: If I’m wrong on Ossian, please let me be wrong spectacularly. Usually, I do my due diligence and keep some note or bookmark some site when I discover a particular history that could help me write about an artist in the future, whenever I get back to covering them for FOND/SOUND. In this case,…
Mix: 8. Dreaming Of A Dream (Walearic Japan – Vol. 2)

2018/02/02

We can affect change or be an effect of change. These ideas, proposed wonderfully in Charles Demuth’s Spring, moved me to take up a call from Zattirizat to create a playlist for their brilliant guest mix series. Umut from Zattirizat got me thinking: What can I do to move your needle? To do so, I had to…
Yoko Ueno: Voices (1993)

2018/01/26

What a perfect image. Even William Blake must be blushing at Masumi Hara’s otherworldly portrait for Yoko Ueno’s Voices. Feminine angels (bearing more than just their souls), perfectly trapezing on man-made wires, as ever darkening skies, grow ever more, endlessly, on some barren land. Mystical and philosophical, through one image Yoko Ueno’s Voices had its…