Today, Penguin Cafe announce their fifth studio album, Rain Before Seven… due for release on July 7. They also share the video and single In Re Budd. Watch: https://youtu.be/Jgo0vj8OkOQ

Discussing the track, band leader Arthur Jeffes explains; "This was the first piece I ever wrote on the balafon — and the day I was recording it I heard about Harold Budd's passing away. I never met him but I’ve always loved his work and I felt that the incongruity of the track wouldn’t be at all inappropriate for a dedication."

The In Re Budd video is a sublime performance with visuals and backdrop inspired by the cafe in Simon Jeffes’ infamous fever dream hallucinations, which led to the creation of the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

The group will be headlining the Erased Tapes label festival at the National Concert Hall in Dublin on May 20, as well as appear at this year's Wilderness Festival, followed by a UK/Europe tour in November, with plans to tour Japan and North America in early 2024.

A sense of optimism infuses Rain Before Seven… not the braggadocious, overconfident kind, but more a blithe, self-effacing optimism in keeping with the national character. Even when all signs point to the contrary, it operates within the certainty that things are going to be alright. Probably.

Penguin Cafe - In Re Budd (Radio Edit)

Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Pionier IOO

Fell into this little groove while practicing and went with it  :)

A Little Improv

Step into a moonlit river of sound. Session XIX — Lanterns Over the Water drifts through the heart of Japan’s shrine and lantern traditions, weaving non‐lexical shrine chorus hums, shakuhachi sighs, koto glissandi, and taiko heartbeat pulses into a deep, meditative lounge journey.
Inspired by Kyoto’s Gion nights, coastal lantern festivals, and the still elegance of Shinto shrine waters, this session captures a ritual calm where fireflies, incense smoke, and floating lights move as one.

▸ REGION: Japan — Shinto shrine ambience, lantern festivals, Gion street nights
▸ VOCALS: nonverbal shrine chants, breath vowels (“aaa–ooo–eee”), whispered blessings (“mizu,” “tsuki,” “kokoro”)
▸ INSTRUMENTS: shakuhachi, koto, taiko, suzu bells, temple woodblock, night cicadas, water ripple field recordings
▸ MOOD: moonlit stillness • ritual elegance • drifting light on water

🎧 For meditative evenings, incense-lit moments, or midnight walks by water.

#LanternsOverTheWater #JapaneseChill #ShintoAmbient #BuddhaBarVibes #DowntempoBeats #WorldFusion #ZenChill #AmbientLounge #RitualMusic #GlobalLounge #TaikoBeats #KotoMusic #ShakuhachiFlute #LanternFestival #Ætherflux #ChilloutMusic #OpiumLounge #SlowBPM

Tsuki

Despite his status as a key figure in the history of Japanese ambient music, Hiroshi Yoshimura's music remains tragically under-known outside of his home country. Empire of Signs – a new imprint co-helmed by Maxwell August Croy and Spencer Doran – is proud to reissue Yoshimura's debut Music for Nine Postcards for the first time outside Japan in collaboration with Hiroshi's widow Yoko Yoshimura, with more fully licensed reissues of Hiroshi's work to follow in the future.

Working initially as a conceptual artist, the musical side of Yoshimura's artistic practice came to prominence in the post-Fluxus scene of late 1970s Tokyo alongside Akio Suzuki and Takehisa Kosugi, taking many subsequent turns within Japan’s bubble economy afterward. His sound works took on many forms - commissioned fashion runway scores, soundtracking perfume, soundscapes for pre-fab houses, train station sound design - all existing not as side work but as logical extensions of his philosophy of sound. His work strived for serenity as an ideal, and this approach can be felt strongly on Music for Nine Postcards.

Home recorded on a minimal setup of keyboard and Fender Rhodes, Music for Nine Postcards was Yoshimura’s first concrete collection of music, initially a demo recording given to the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art to be played within the building's architecture. This was not mere background music in the prior Japanese “BGM” sense of the word, but “environmental” music, the literal translation of the Japanese term kankyō ongaku [環境音楽] given to Brian Eno’s “ambient” music when it arrived in late 70's Japan. Yoshimura, along with his musical co-traveler Satoshi Ashikawa, searched for a new dialog between sound and space, a new way of listening: sound not as an absolute, but as something that interlocks with a physical environment and shifts the listener’s experience within it. Erik Satie's furniture music, R. Murray Schafer's concept of the soundscape and Eno’s ambience all greatly informed their work,  but the specific form of tranquil stasis presented on releases like Nine Postcards is still difficult to place within a specific tradition, remaining elusive and idiosyncratic despite the economy of it's construction. This record offers the perfect introduction to Hiroshi's unique and beautiful worldview: it's one that can be listened to - and lived in - endlessly.

Music for Nine Post Cards

Hiroshi Yoshimura (吉村弘) - "Dance PM" from Music for Nine Post Cards (EOS01) OUT 11/17/2017

Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto - Trioon I (Vrioon)

Mashup made  in a sleepless night, two songs merged together and it comes a new, intriguing and fascinating song, I hope you enjoy!  Deep ambient,  for open-minded listeners .

Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto & Jack DeJohnette -  Disturbed Anatolia

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - By This River

Isan - Cinnabar (Maps and Diagrams remix).

An old-ish "unofficial" remix from 2006 which never managed to see the light of day. Taken from the wonderful album "Plans Drawn in Pencil" by Isan (Morr Music – MM068CD)

https://handstitched.bandcamp.com/

http://www.discogs.com/ISAN-Plans-Drawn-In-Pencil/master/45024

Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Berlin ( D.S.edit 121221 )

Davido Sylviani