KITCHEN. LABEL

This track focuses on my local seascape. 
I currently live on an island in Hiroshima, Japan. 
There are many seas that resemble rivers. 
The view of the straits surrounded by many islands called "Seto-nai-kai 瀬戸内海" is very beautiful. I hope you listen to this track and have various imaginations. Bandcamp page https://meitei.bandcamp.com/track/banka

Artwork picture Rough Waves by Ogata Kōrin 
Mastered by Chihei Hatakeyama

BANKA / 晩夏

Marking the 5th year anniversary of his seminal debut album, Hiroshima-based artist Meitei announces his Kwaidan Anniversary Japan Tour beginning from 22nd July in Tokyo, with more dates to be added. This is the first time the ghostly masterpieces from Kwaidan are being played live in a thematic-specific show. 

A collaboration between 2 Singaporean labels – KITCHEN. LABEL (Kofu I & II) Evening Chants (Kwaidan), the anniversary also sees the highly anticipated special 5th Anniversary Edition of Kwaidan with 2 unreleased bonus tracks. This will come in the long out-of-print vinyl format, with obi strip, 8-panel insert, new colour variant and the first ever CD version. 

In 2018, Meitei shook the ambient world with the release of his debut album “Kwaidan”, a transposition of Japanese folklore into intricate compositions, capturing what he would coin as the “lost Japanese mood”. The album almost instantly received critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, where it was included in their Best Experimental Albums of 2018, Bandcamp, calling it “different than some of the ambient music that has been coming from Japan in recent years”, The Wire and more. Outside of press, he has also received nods from the likes of Rosalía and has collaborated with contemporaries Anthony Naples, DJ Python, Tourist, Chitose Hajime and more. 
Cementing his name in the ambient and experimental world, Meitei has since continued to cultivate devoted fans globally, with monumental follow-up albums as part of his unique musical canon – Komachi, Kofu I and Kofu II, showcasing his immense musicianship in building a unique sonic world of his own. 

Mastered by Taylor Deupree, Kwaidan’s 5th Anniversary Edition will be released with 2 bonus tracks on a smoke haze variant LP, CD and digital formats, released via KITCHEN. LABEL and Evening Chants.

Meitei - Sankai (Kwaidan, 2023)

Meitei - Touba (Kwaidan, 2023)

“The reason never lies in oneself. The others do. Its just a matter of reception, not emission.”

Following 2009’s critically acclaimed ‘The Setting Sun”, FJORDNE (aka Shunichiro Fujimoto) releases his second album on Kitchen. Label entitled “Charles Rendition”. The lyricism of that earlier album, and stories of tragedy and social decline are intact but further explored. “Charles Rendition” is an introspective piano study through a child’s eyes set in a self-penned short story, inspired by Charles Dickens’ 1861 novel “Great Expectations”, about a morality tale of a forest boy and girl struggling to accept and adjust to the decadence of society in a mysterious timeless era. “Charles Rendition” takes its cues from the antique patina of time, with traces of a lingering past that continue to intrude onto the present.

The opening of the album sets the tone to FJORDNE’s take on the album – texture-focused piano jazz unfolding against the twist of a field of subtle electronics. On “Gathering”, the metronomic tick-tock of an ancient grandfather clock peters out as the muted horn section and bright attack of a piano refrain slowly kick in at an easy, handsome pace like a gentleman stroller of the city street. The jazz haze continues on the following track, “awakening”, where FJORDNE showcases, among other tracks like “forfeiture” and “Ald square”, a stunning newfound freewheeling approach to his craft that is more groove-based, as it wraps itself around a loose, roving beat, the rustle of an errant saxophone and the suspended quiver of sound assemblages extracted from old records.

Seemingly channeling the languid decadence of life, the more pensive piano outings “constellation”, “Ebenze” and “antidotal” are a result of the influence pianists such as (to name a few) Bobo Stenson, Marc Copland and Paul Bley had on FJORDNE. These are then fractured and enhanced sonically with his trademark treatment of bristling echoes and dissonance and a plaintive string section. Elsewhere, on “hope”, this twinkling, whispery interlude ends with a spirited free jazz flourish; evoking the wan light leaking from smoky bars as patrons slink out the door and emerge into the steely glint of radiant surfaces under the city’s neon, moonlight, and street-lamps.

“Charles Rendition” is available on CD and digital formats on 15th July 2011. The physical CD copy comes in a customized 7-inch LP-sized paper edition, professionally offset printed and made with a careful selection of materials and processes – Letter-pressed and individually numbered 300gsm premium matt cardboard folio; and loose newsprint broadsheet fold-outs that include FJORDNE’s self-penned short story accompanied with visual reflections and ambiguities. Limited to an edition of 700 copies only. 

FJORDNE - Gathering (excerpt)

FJORDNE - constellation (excerpt)

Taken from the demo EP 'Children's Haiku Garden' 

Produced by Ricks Ang
Written by Ricks Ang

Vocals by April Lee
All Instruments by Ricks Ang

© 2002 www.kitchen.label.com · www.aspidistrafly.com

No Chance of Reconciliation (Children's Haiku Garden EP, 2002)

Taken from the album 'A LITTLE FABLE' out now on KITCHEN. LABEL
http://www.kitchen-label.com/catalogue/ki007r-aspidistrafly-a-little-fable 

Produced by Ricks Ang
Written by Ricks Ang

© 2011 www.kitchen.label.com · www.aspidistrafly.com

SEA OF GLASS (A LITTLE FABLE, 2011)

2015 Released by cold fiction music.
http://cfmlabel.com/releases/cfm067/

Sunny Boy

コトリンゴ - Stars (Free TEMPO)

グッドバイ[cover of toe](original ver.)

"Snow Hills 2AM" by Jimanica feat. Anna Yamada
2013 Jeminic records

Dedicated for this beautiful snowful night in Tokyo

Snow Hills 2AM

track from『第3区間ピアノ』yatchi
https://seikosha.stores.jp/items/5a66d7c23210d57eb9001e04

第3区間ピアノ

ループ階段

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 - Sadayakko (Kofū, 2020)

Meitei - Oiran II (Kofū, 2020)

KITCHEN. LABEL SHOWCASE 2012
"EPILOGUE OF AUTUMN"
8th December 2012 at Fujimigaoka Church, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo

April Lee (vocals)
Ricks Ang (guitar & programming)

With special guests 
Janis Crunch(chorus) 
Junya Yanagidaira (piano)
haruka nakamura (guitar)

Live mix by Ken Inamori
Additional production by Ricks Ang

Originally from the album "i hold a wish for you" by ASPIDISTRAFLY (2008, KITCHEN. LABEL) 

http://www.kitchen-label.com
http://www.aspidistrafly.com
http://www.ironomi.com
http://www.janiscrunch.com
http://www.harukanakamura.com

Endless Dreamless (live at Fujimigaoka Church, Tokyo)

From the album "Stranger to my room", Kitchen. Label (KI-013, 25th July 2013) 

▶ Preorder (World): http://www.kitchen-label.com/catalogue/ki013-sonicbrat-stranger-to-my-room
▶ Preorder (Japan): http://www.inpartmaint.com/shop/sonicbrat-stranger-to-my-room/
▶ iTunes: Available 25th July 2013

Release Info (ENG): http://www.kitchen-label.com/catalogue/ki013-sonicbrat-stranger-to-my-room
Release Info (JP): http://www.inpartmaint.com/shop/sonicbrat-stranger-to-my-room/

Ⓟ & © 2013 Kitchen. Label 
Released by Kitchen. Label 
Distributed in Japan by p*dis / Inpartmaint Inc.

http://www.kitchen-label.com
http://www.kitchen-label.com/artists/sonicbrat
http://www.sonicbrat.com
http://www.facebook/kitchenlabel
http://www.twitter.com/kitchen_label

sonicbrat - Caesura (Stranger to my room, 2013)

"By deathly pale light, silent is the night."

Established within the cultural nexus of Tokyo and tracing its origins to Singapore, KITCHEN. LABEL stands as the home for artists traversing the realms of ambient and transcendent musical expressions.

Founded by Ricks Ang in 2008 and named with an essence drawn from the magic realism of Banana Yoshimoto's novel "Kitchen," the independent label has gone on to release music by haruka nakamura, ASPIDISTRAFLY, ironomi, Meitei, sonicbrat, Kin Leonn, Hiroshi Ebina and more.

FJORDNE - constellation (excerpt)

KITCHEN. LABEL

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