Love it. Upbeat charm! It’s been so long since new Aus material. I have several CDs from you since your beginning. You run a fine label but it’s about time for this new material from you. NICE!

Great track - full support from RockDafuqOut - https://www.rockdafuqout.com/post/electronic-artist-aus-wakes-us-from-our-winter-slumber-with-until-then

The teaser track/first single Swim from aus' new album Everis,  is a futuristic ambient jazz track that cuts through the torrent of piano, kick and noise with the mystery of the voice. Synthesized drones and close harmonies are always filled with something swirling.

aus - Swim

Taken from the forthcoming long player 'Everis', Tokyo-born composer and producer aus (AKA FLAU Records boss Yasuhiko Fukuzono), releases a brand new single 'Landia', on independent London imprint Lo Recordings. As familiar and intimate as it is uncharted, aus has ultimately created a sound that would be equally at home listened to on a sun-drenched Balearic coastline as it would on a far-flung Icelandic mountain top. 

Owing as much to introspection as it does to exploring organic sounds from the wider, external world, aus took inspiration from the groundbreaking Japanese radio station St Giga which he enjoyed listening to as a child. Being exposed to this continual chatless mix of high quality field recordings, jazz, new age and pop music from around the globe meant that he could draw on these internal aural memories and combine them with the gorgeously enduring melodies for which he is known.

aus - Landia

Melaine Dalibert - Épilogue

With the cinematic and sparkling new track ‘Until Then’, FLAU honcho aus awakens from its long slumber to showcase its unique realm.

The original works from aus arrives as a rich blend of instrumentation coming from a plethora of global influences. Unique vocals partner with deep synth swells and a chugging percussive groove. The vocals — recorded, destructed and re-synthesised — point to his interest in language as the track, tropical and floating as it is dark and distorted, engines forward. 
mixed by Matt Karmill
mastered by Matt Colton

aus - Until Then

FLAU - 25/11/2022

"nature dreams, sings, of the moments of absolute clarity – alignments in the universe coinciding with the individual experience of living creatures. the subconscious web between all things, briefly brought to the fore. made luminous in a flash of benevolent light."
 
Known as Singapore’s “ambient boy,” Kin Leonn is ready to captivate his audience anew with his upcoming release, mirror in the gleam. Following his previous albums, Commune (2018) and Faraway Vicinity with Hiroshi Ebina (2020), Kin Leonn has left his mark with his production collaboration with Yeule on her album softscars, remixes for Moderat and Yunè Pinku, and his contribution to the original score of The Breaking Ice, a Cannes Film Festival 2023 Un Certain Regard selection, directed by Anthony Chen.
 
In his second full-length album, Kin Leonn delves into a semiotic approach to sonic storytelling. mirror in the gleam is a collection of mysteriously significant events and their metaphorical sentiments, crafting a unique empathetic folklore that offers solace in the face of modern-day disconnection. Each track serves as a musical ode to those moments of profound clarity that remind us what it truly means to be alive.
 
Breaking free from a fixed palette of instruments, Kin Leonn embraces a fluidity that seamlessly blends organic expressions with electronic textures throughout the album. Prioritizing mood and storytelling over technicality, he embarks on an ambient world-building journey where nature plays a pivotal role. Whether through field recordings, found sounds, or the mimicry of natural behavior through instrumentation, the album is grounded in the intimacy of the environment. 
 
Despite its ethereal qualities, mirror in the gleam is designed to resonate deeply with listeners, evoking a sense of familiarity reminiscent of a past existence or a vivid exploration of our current hyper-reality. Kin Leonn’s musical craftsmanship invites audiences to embark on self-discovery through sound.
 
Available on LP, CD and digital formats, Kin Leonn releases mirror in the gleam on 27 October 2023 (LP edition arriving in November 2023) via KITCHEN. LABEL. Stephan Mattieu mastered this record at Schwebung Mastering in Germany.

Kin Leonn - ghost strata (mirror in the gleam, 2023)

LE SASS

My tribute to the late, great Rei Harakami. RIP..

Rei Harakami - Pone(Cabeson Remix)

Cartaforbicesasso

2019 Released by Cold Fiction Music.
cfmlabel.com/releases/cfm104/

port

Skywalk

It began with ‘Kwaidan’, a simmering study on the lost art of Japanese ghost story-telling. Then there was‘Komachi’, baptized in the earthly winds and static that define its comforting sonics.

On ‘Kofū’, Meitei masterfully closes his trilogy of lost Japanese moods with an engaging interrogation of artforms and aesthetics as a provocation — or, as fashioned in the album’s subtitle, a “satire of old Japanese aesthetics”. Each entry’s distinct flavour hasearned Meitei acclaim for conjuring a bygone culture through his transportive form of ambient music. ‘Kofū’ arrives as a deconstruction of this approach. His first release with KITCHEN. LABEL, Meitei has quietly defied expectations set by his previous two albums, while continuing to challenge modern notions of Japanese sounds.

Once again, Meitei resumes his focus on a Japan that has long ceased to be. This time, ‘Kofū’ is deliberately playful in bridging a sensibility that connects this imagined past to the present. Fractured piano chords are the first to greet you on ‘Kintsugi’ before they make way for a spectral elegance that parades the haunted mask of Kwaidan on ‘Man'yō’. 

But like an ambient soothsayer schooled in the art of the 808s, Meitei quickly drives ‘Kofū’ with propulsion on ‘Oiran I’, which shares a sibling in Side B track ‘Oiran II’. On both songs, he builds tension served up by flickering hip-hop rhythms — achieved by carefully processing old drum and metal sounds — with a subversive spirit unforeseen in any of his work thus far.

Dissecting vocal recordings to the point of incomprehensibility, Meitei aims for something stirring beyond- words — not unlike J Dilla and his mountain of cut-up soul samples, or The Caretaker with decaying 78s. He abides by a principle attributed to the master Hayao Miyazaki: “Beyond logic speaks of human nature”.

‘Kofū’ allows full immersion into fragments of the past without the trappings of nostalgia. The tracklist is denoted by prominent (and unseen) figures of this history. Tracks ‘Sadayakko’ and ‘Otojirō’ are named after renowned entertainers from the Meiji era, while ‘Nyōbō’ is dedicated to a long-suffering line of working class women within a patriarchal Japanese society. The sounds of ‘Oiran’, sharing the name of the title bestowed upon courtesans, were sparked after learning about the treatment of red light district workers within this era. It paints a grim picture of baidoku (also known as syphilis) and its ravage spread.

These stories cloud the overall mood of ‘Kofū’, but Meitei takes a Mizoguchi-like approach to mould that unimaginable pain with tenderness. ‘Oiran 1’’s hidden subtitle is Hana, and ‘Oiran II’ is Shiokaze. As Meitei explains, “Hana means gorgeous and glorious. Shiokaze is the sea breeze — for her life.” Tracks like ‘Urameshi-ya’ and ‘Gen'ei’ provide a meditative space amidst the turbulence, while ‘Shōnen’ takes a turn for the cinematic. The eight-minute odyssey is engulfed by shadowy voice loops, mixed best for a headphone experience in a solitary setting.

Meitei bids farewell to an expedition first sparked by a passion for a long-forgotten cultural past. ‘Kofū’ is a definitive conclusion with an open invitation to listeners from Japan and beyond — encouraging continued appreciation of this sacred part of history, wholly untethered from the world at large.

‘Kofū’ will be released on LP, CD and across all digital formats via KITCHEN. LABEL. Chihei Hatakeyama mastered this recording in Tokyo, Japan.

Release Date:
CD, Digital - 25 Sep 2020
LP - 30 Oct 2020

Ⓟ & © 2020 KITCHEN. LABEL

Meitei - Shōnen (Kofū, 2020)

FLAU is a record label based in Tokyo, Japan.

general inquires: flau@flau.jp
press: press@flau.jp

Motohiro Nakashima/Kumi Takahara/Seigen Tokuzawa & Masaki Hayashi/Kazumichi Komatsu/FEM/Spring In A Small Town/The Future Eve feat. Robert Wyatt/Same Waves/Cicada/Madegg/Henning Schmiedt/CRYSTAL/Rayons/Nemui PJ (kidkanevil & noah)/Noah/Submerse/Radicalfashion/Stefan Jós/Cuushe/Rima Kato/Machinone/Ulises Conti/Danny Norbury/Sparrows/IKEBANA/Ensemble 0/Masayoshi Fujita/El Fog/Liz Christine/Twigs & Yarn/MayMay/Cokiyu/Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven/Kanazu Tomoyuki/The Boats/Kumisolo/Novisad/aus/Dale Berning/Part Timer/Colophon(Jefre-Cantu Ledesma)/Geskia/Orla Wren/Sylvain Chauveau

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aus - Until Then

FLAU

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