Akari is the third album from Tokyo duo Illuha. Following 2011’s debut Shizuku (12k1067) and 2013’s Interstices (12k2028), Akari takes the next artistic step for the band. While Shizuku was recorded in the US and completed separately by the artists, Interstices captured the duo creating their exceptionally detailed music together live during a Japaneses tour. Akari, in turn, is the first studio album where Illuha recorded and mixed together, throughout the entire process. The beautiful st-robo studio in Tokyo put a collection of amazing equipment at their fingertips, from vintage mics and outboard gear to a vast collection of instruments, both acoustic and electronic. Their writing sessions were numerous and long with details meticulously obsessed over for nearly a year. The result is the most bewildering music Illuha have created to date. An album swimming with the most delicately tactile sounds and instrumentation that draws the listener in with hushed, motionless attention.

While Illuha’s Corey Fuller and Tomoyoshi Date are often drawn to the most sparse notes of Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos, acoustic grand piano and guitar, the breadth of instrumentation is partially what makes Akari so abosrbing. They have succeeded in creating their own universe of sound, so beautifully recorded, where each element not only has its own space but connects and interacts so fluidly with the other sounds. It is as if they are placed perfectly by nature, the compositions are fluid and organic, a far cry from anything calculated or structured. It is this open space that the music exists in which in turn defines the music itself. There is ample room to breathe within this forest of gentle tines, bubbling analogue synthesizers, clicking percussion and quiet field recordings. This is subtlety at its most refined; hushed without being saccharine, distant without being morose.

Akari is the Japanese word for light. Conceputally the duo used this word as a guide, as if they were searching through the dark, trying to keep the light alive, as if one is cradling a candle doing everything in their power to keep it alight in a storm. It is this almost visceral sense of sheltering, of protection, that gives Akari a very human and personal sound whose intensely deep focus is as impressive as it is arresting.

Akari

Structures Based on the Plasticity of Sphere Surface Tension

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Structures Based On The Plasticity Of Sphere Surface Tension

Andrea Belfi - "Natura Morta" out november 7th on Miasmah.

Natura Morta, "dead nature" or "still life". This album can be understood as a powerful study of the minute details of the art of electro-acoustic composition, as much as the Renaissance "nature morte" were a masterful display of the artist’s skill in portraying the glow of a ripe fruit, or capturing the light beaming on a vacant chair.

Six tracks, to be listened to as two long explorations in the art of variation and repetition. Layers of drums and percussions intertwine with synth waves making the portrait come to life, detail after detail, until a complex figure emerges from the white canvas. The constant, unsteady sounds, wavering noise, swirling cymbals, and distant feedback gently pull the listener into the picture, letting them enjoy every detail of this beautifully staged compositions.

Recorded at EMS studio, Stockholm, ZKM in Karlsruhe and at the legendary Funkhaus in Berlin, this album mixes influences from both Italian minimalism and the electro-acoustic contemporary scene. Somewhere in between the electronics of Keith Fullerton Whitman, the percussive repetitions of Jon Mueller, and the atmospheric sensibility of Pan-American.

Andrea Belfi - Roteano

Bing & Ruth - Reflector

Video: https://youtu.be/2xgcnaqKxoI

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From the album Tomorrow Was the Golden Age

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Bing & Ruth - Reflector

My Handpan 1

Pianaura - I See Fire (Piano Version)
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3fmT5jzPxizYgeZsjMCr8s?si=77cf3c3d4567437a

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Instrutalica Records / Town Music Group. All rights reserved.

I See Fire (Piano Version)

Stream on Spotify

Pianaura - I See Fire (Piano Version)

Hugo & Willem - Ambient Guitar M 7822 4:38 19-04-2025

Goodnight To All Dogs

Hearing Music

Going Through the Veil - Becoming a Swan

TOMAGA "Memory In Vivo Exposure" (12"/DL).
HITD 037
Release date: 8th December 2017

All tracks composed, perfomed & recorded by TOMAGA
Mastering by Mike Grinser @ D&M, Berlin
Original cover photograph by David Child

Label, orders: www.handsinthedarkrecords.com

TOMAGA - Memory In Vivo Exposure (Parts 1 & 2)

Track 1 from Lea Bertucci 'Metal Aether' [NNA108]
Available February 9th, 2018 on Vinyl, CD & Digital formats.
Order: http://nnatapes.com/available-releases/lea-bertucci-metal-aether

From a Harmonic Algorithm

Laurie Spiegel

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