Considering a reissue CD from '99 now goes for €100 (don't even ask about  the vinyl!) this liberation by Wrwtfww Records for Satoshi Ashikawa's 80's Japanese minimal masterpiece is most welcome. An elegant, sensual soundtrack for life's quieter passages.

Remix by Norway's Biosphere of the last track produced at Black Knoll Studios in Seattle. This white label 12" titled "Unfurled" is part of a fundraising campaign launched by Ghostly International to replace all of The Sight Below's stolen studio equipment. More info here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-sight-below-s-music-gear-data-stolen

Unfurled (Biosphere remix)

Original Improvisation E 70bpm 20240505 - 5

‘Apologues’ will be released by Erased Tapes on September 11, 2015 on LP/CD/DL and can be pre-ordered from www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP075
or via iTunes here: http://snip.ftpromo.net/apologues

Masayoshi Fujita, the Berlin-based Japanese vibraphone player, also known under his alias el fog came to the attention of label founder Robert Raths a few years ago. Not only because the vibraphone is an intriguing instrument, but also the way Masayoshi treats his instrument and draws ethereal and layered sounds, is what truly attracted him to Masayoshi’s work.

Having released more ambient-based/electronic recordings of the vibraphone under el fog, Masa became more interested in the sound of the vibraphone itself. He started to compose acoustic pieces and released the first solo album under his real name, titled ‘Stories’, in early 2013. ‘Apologues’ sees Masayoshi for the first time use an array of instruments besides his lead instrument – such as the violin, cello, flute, clarinet, French horn, accordion, piano and snare drum played by friends, but arranged by Masa himself.

In addition to the mallets, Masayoshi often plays the vibraphone with a violin or cello bow, like on ‘Tears of Unicorn’ and ‘Knight and Spirit of Lake’. He would also place bead strings on the vibraphone bars to create an ambient shimmer that can be heard on songs like ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Swallow Flies High in the May Sky’. The latter was composed to let the clarinet express its characteristics and tell its story, whilst the vibraphone takes a supporting role. “The clarinet sounds very warm and soft and very ‘spring’ to me”, says Masa.

“With this album the main idea was to evoke images, atmospheres, sceneries and stories in the listener, the images that have accumulated in myself. At the same time it was an exploration of the unexplored beauty of the vibraphone, and also a pursuit of the charm of the instrumentation and the music itself. Erased Tapes releases a lot of great stuff and naturally became my favourite label of late. And I thought it would fit well to my music.” – Masayoshi Fujita

OFFICIAL WEBSITES: masayoshifujita.com · erasedtapes.com

Apologues

Moonlight

Masayoshi Fujita – Moonlight

from the album 'physicalist' available 9/23

physicalist

forma 'physicalist'

Taken from 'Collected Pieces' by Mary Lattimore, out April 14, 2017.

Order Links:
The Ghostly Store: https://goo.gl/xXKSXW
Retailer of your choice: https://Ghostly.lnk.to/ml-collected-pieces

Collected Pieces

Mary Lattimore - Wawa By The Ocean

Track taken from the upcoming album '3 5 1' forthcoming on Fluid Audio...

Music: Irving Park
Mastering: James Plotkin
Record Label: Fluid Audio

www.fluidaudio.bigcartel.com/mailing-list

3 5 1

Irving Park - Foundations

Brian Eno & Robert Fripp - Wind on Water

Shida Shahabi is a Swedish-Iranian pianist / composer, currently based in Stockholm. The beautiful, intimate and homespun piano of ‘Homes’ marks Shida’s debut release and the fourth in a row of new albums by female-fronted artists released on 130701 this year.

The entirety of the album was recorded at various home locations. During the writing process, Shida was renting a one bedroom appartment which she used as a studio space, before moving to a new house in the midst of the recording. So the music was actually written in one home studio and recorded in two different living rooms, hence the title, ‘Homes’. A sense of this homeliness and unpressured ease is clearly audible across the album – something utterly natural and unforced. There are no whistles and bells attached here, no big name guest performers or hired studio hands. Absolutely beautifully played and composed, it is a deeply charming record that exudes a confident warmth and an emotional depth and honesty in every note. Its production eschews the prioritising of cleanliness, with a warm, fuzzy noise floor audible from the very first track immediately immersing the listener into this sublime yet imperfect reality – as though the whole existed beneath a layer of dust. It posits comfort over obsessive cleanliness. Living comfortably with traces of wear and decay, the recording makes audible intimate acoustic details and imperfections – creaking and hissing; tiny distortions; the pressure exerted by fingers and feet against the piano’s pedals and keys.

Homes

Shida Shahabi - Pretty In Plums

http://brian-eno.net
Small Craft On A Milk Sea album released: 2 Nov 2010 (15 Nov 2010 in the UK)

Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Emerald and Stone

Brian Eno with Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams - Emerald and Stone (taken from Small Craft On A Milk Sea)

Beck.  NYC  73 - 78.   from the album REWORK_Philip Glass remixed

WRWTFWW Records is honored to announce the much anticipated reissue of Satoshi Ashikawa’s undeniable classic of Japanese environmental/ambient/minimalism, Still Way (Wave Notation 2). The album, available on vinyl (first time since 1982) and digipack CD (with one bonus track), comes with a cover artwork by Hiroshi Yoshimura and liner notes by Midori Takada, Satoshi Ashikawa himself, and Irish producer Gareth Quinn Redmond (whose Still Way-inspired album Laistigh den Ghleo is being released simultaneously on WRWTFWW).

Initially released in 1982 as part of the Wave Notation series*, Still Way is, without a doubt, a seminal Japanese environmental/ambient/minimalism album, often mentioned alongside Midori Takada’s Through Looking Glass and Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Green as one of the genre’s most important pieces.

"Like the moment of stillness, after the wind passes through the garden, when the rain stops for a brief second…" Notably inspired by Erik Satie’s Furniture Music and Brian Eno’s ambient work, Satoshi Ashikawa aimed to compose music "intended to be listened to in a casual manner, as a musical landscape or a sound object…not something that would stimulate listeners but music that should drift like smoke and become part of the environment."

The result is simply phenomenal, subtle minimalism and emotional elegance exquisitely orchestrated by Satoshi Ishikawa and his team consisting of his wife Masami Ashikawa (on flute), Midori Takada (on vibraphone), Yuko Utsumi (on harp), Tomoko Sono (on piano), and Junko Arase (on vibraphone).

In conjunction with Still Way, WRWTFWW is releasing Laistigh den Ghleo, a companion album by Irish ambient/minimalist composer Gareth Quinn Redmond, inspired by Ashikawa’s approach.

*The Wave Notation series also includes Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music For Nine Postcards album.

芦川聡 Satoshi Ashikawa - Still Way (Wave Notation 2) [TRAILER - WRWTFWW030]

WRWTFWW Records + We Release Jazz
Musique Pour La Danse
Mental Groove Records

芦川聡 Satoshi Ashikawa - Still Way (Wave Notation 2) [TRAILER - WRWTFWW030]

[ WRWTFWW | MusiquePourLaDanse | MentalGroove ]

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