yui onodera / sinkai
ARCTIC TONE (Japan) 2015
http://www.arctictone.com/at02-yui-onodera-sinkai/

Recorded & composed in Tokyo, 2013-14.
All sounds sourced from Piano, Electric Guitars, Field Recordings, Found Objects, Analog Electronics, Synthesizers and Processing.



These tracks were recorded between 2011 and 2020 with some musical overdubs in 2019 and 2024.

Composed and performed by Paul Landry
Mixed and mastered in The Progulator by Paul Landry
Paul Landry, Guitars, bass, Keyboards, synths, VSTi drums and vocals

© 2025 Paul Landry
℗ 2025 Ditto Music LTD



Reflections

Solitary Journey is about the roads we take alone—whether it’s actual solo travel or the quiet, personal moments that shape who we are. Making this was a deeply personal process, and I hope it speaks to you in your own way.

Closing Chapter

Dreamy, melancholic, peaceful, or just plain gorgeous? As long as your ears are open, the sound world of Yui Onodera will take you where YOU want to go. From simple means (piano, guitar, computer), Onodera draws complex materials, and then mixes them back into deceptively simple results. The work draws inspiration (and its title) from an abstract structure thought up by architect Christopher Alexander. What you get is quiet background music if you leave it at that or, if you are willing to take the time to listen, a deep immersive journey.

Hailing from Tokyo, Japan, Yui Onodera is a musician, a composer, and the founder of Critical Path. He studied both music and architecture, which explains his uncanny grasp of spatiality in music. His method consists in blending delicate instrumental lines with field recordings and computer treatments to create quiet, ambient electroacoustic pieces. This approach is akin to artists like Machinefabriek, Stephen Vitiello, and Chihei Hatakeyama.

"Semi Lattice" is Onodera's second solo album to be released in 2015 (the first one was "sinkai" on Japanese label Arctic Tone), after eight years of solo silence. In the interval, Onodera pursued several fruitful collaborations with musicians and groups like The Beautiful Schizophonic, Pjusk, Vadim Bondarenko, Mizkami Ryuta, and Baskaru recording artist Celer. All these projects seem to have informed "Semi Lattice" in some way, Onodera's solo works having grown lusher, fuller, and more fully-formed.

Yui Onodera - Semi Lattice 2

Taken from the album "Deep Ground" [SSD03]

Deep Ground

Watts

from 'Evighetsblomma': https://purl.bandcamp.com/album/evighetsblomma

'uncovered some 
glimmering remnants of a past life 
in a long forgotten part of 
my garden of sounds 
didn't want to bury them and 
forget them forever 
so dusted them off 
to let them tell their fragmented tales 
of dreams long gone 
indefinable longing 
and wonder'

Music by Ludvig Cimbrelius 

Art by Magda Kozuba ∣ www.instagram.com/magda_kozuba/

Evighetsblomma

Like it never was ('Evighetsblomma')

Rhucle / Fade In (Snippets)

Anthéne is Toronto, Canada based artist Brad Deschamps who has been recording Ambient music since 2011, after also forming part of the duo North Atlantic Drift for which he’d performed alongside artists such as Benoit Pioulard and Bing and Ruth. Solo releases have emerged on leading labels such as Hibernate, Sound In Silence and most recently Home Normal, who released ‘weightless’ only last month which label boss Ian Hawgood describes on the website as ‘warm analog sleep echoes’. Brad also runs the magnificent Polar Seas Recording label, which has released material from artists such as Mikael Lind, Celer and Andrew Tasselmyer.

We’re pleased to present the next release in Brad’s catalog, which is entitled ‘asymmetry’ as he strived to explore different depths of sound. The title of the album was born out of his idea of recording in different ways to create narrow, saturated recordings as well as widescreen ambience yet trying to blend these works together as a cohesive whole. Guitar and effects pedals, synthesizers and field recordings are some of the elements that form the basis of this dynamic yet minimal range of compositions but a simple yet key ingredient can be heard in the warm and gentle tape hiss which underpins the record.

Whilst Brad’s ideas are rooted in joining disparate, unrelated textures, the resulting record is something that makes sense; the seven pieces have been lovingly mastered by Ian Hawgood, the sheer patience of each gently unfolding track will comfort even the most restless of soul and the packaging design features artwork from Peter Nejedly. Somewhere, unintentionally, an indescribable theme emerges from nothing to blanket your eyes and ears.

Asymmetry

wlr053 anthéne - asymmetry

The fictitious tour of far-away lands continues, as anonymous artist Glåsbird follows the scratchy, folk-ambience of Norskfjǫrðr with a return to lonely arctic-island sounds. Novaya Zemlya is a Russian-owned island, stretching from just off the mainland between the Kara and Barents seas, with two islands split by the Matochkin Strait.

The Southern island Yuzhny is the home of a few inhabitants whereas the Northern counterpart Severny is pretty much all glacier. The added complication of sea-ice during Arctic winters have made certain parts of this land very difficult to navigate. There are accounts stretching back to the 16th century when explorer Willem Barentsz died on an expedition and his body is rumoured to have been buried on Severny.
Into more recent times, Novaya Zemlya has been a sensitive military area throughout the cold war as well as a nuclear testing site. In 1961 the world's most powerful nuclear weapon was detonated, the 'Tsar Bomba'.

In this album, Glåsbird composes a soundtrack which transcends the years of history, combining themes of explorers and Barentsz's tragic demise, isolation, climate change and polar bears, underpinned by radio broadcasts to give a slightly unsettling undercurrent, hinting back to the cold war. The track Vanya is named after a code name the Russians had for the Tsar Bomba detonation project and this piece sits at the centre of this album, in some of the most dramatic soundtrack work this artist has made to date.

The cover artwork and bonus images within the CD packaging were taken by photographer Uliana Prokhorova, who visited a few locations on the island. As always, this album uses the sounds, photography and track titles to build an imaginary soundtrack in your mind as you listen and immerse yourself in this latest sonic exploration.

Credits:
Written and produced by Glåsbird
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography by Uliana Prokhorova
Packaging Design by Harry Towell

Novaya Zemlya

wlr080 Glåsbird - Novaya Zemlya

Tracklist

01. Ishmael Cormack - Skywire
02. Hakobune & Pleq - The Beginning
03. Gray Acres -  Touchstones
04. Marcus Fischer - From A Tree
05. Seabuckthorn - It Can Ashen
06. Simon Scott - Nigh
07. Tobias Hellkvist - Vesterhavet 5
08. Porya Hatami - Ewm
09. Bethan Kellough -  Black-East from the Crow
10. Pepo Galán - Growing Seed

202. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Elm Records compilation album. The Silence Beneath The Bark. Featuring artists Anthéne, Andrew Tasselmyer, Halftribe, Spheruleus, Stijn Hüwels, Valotihkuu, Ishmael Cormack, zakè & City Of Dawn and James Osland

Mastered by James E Armstrong except track 08 Mastered by Stephan Mathieu

Artwork by James Osland

Rhucle / Fade In (Snippets)

hibernate / we like ambient