Synthtastic

Symbol

Blue Sky And Yellow Sunflower

GEMS, 14

from the album 'the patience fader' available 02/1 8

The Patience Fader

pan•american 'outskirts, dreamlit'

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

Dawn After A Long Day

This is an excerpt from a greater piece titled "Outdoors At Night", in which the natural sounds of an outdoors area at night were re imagined by electric sounds. 

Outdoors At Night (Clip)

It's beautiful up there, but it's not easy...

A Troublesome Space Voyage

Suspensful Digital Rainforest

For Daytime

Soundscapes for the Emotional-Type Listener

November, 1st in Detroit

Sakura

Azukiiro No Kaori

from the forthcoming album 'tahoe' available 2/23

Tahoe

dedekind cut 'tahoe'

Healing Collection: Quiet Comfort

Forest Forest of Light

from the album 'because of a flower' available 11/13

because of a flower

ana roxanne 'suite pour l'invisible'

Vinyl Edition available now via Second Thoughts Records:
https://secondthoughtsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-turntable-guitars-sampled-instruments

Recorded and produced by Chuck Blazevic, Summer 2017 - Fall 2019.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering.
Graphic Design by Simone at Studio-Noi.
Co-released by Second Thoughts Records and Reliable Effects

Music For Turntable, Guitars & Sampled Instruments

Light Patterns

Modular synthesizer compositions and sound design.

~ mlesprg@gmail.com ~
mlesprg.info
mlesprg.bandcamp.com

Suspensful Digital Rainforest

Emily A. Sprague

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