Following in the footsteps of the pathbreaking Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie music, Morr Music and Alien Transistor have again joined forces to release The Fruit Of Errata, a compilation introducing the world to the intimate DIY pop of yumbo. Led by songwriter, pianist, and occasional vocalist Koji Shibuya, the Japanese band has released four albums since forming in 1998. This compilation draws fifteen songs (eighteen on vinyl) from those albums, and some ancillary releases, to uncover a biographical narrative of yumbo, showing how Shibuya’s songwriting, and the group’s limber, sensitive playing, has developed over the decades. It also places them squarely within a tradition of home-spun but ambitious Japanese pop that takes in Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tenniscoats, Nagisa Ni Te, Yuzo Iwata, Kazumi Nikaido and more.

yumbo is very much the vision of Shibuya, an amiable iconoclast whose songs seem informed by some of his early listening – there’s the playful seriousness of Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s Tori Kudo here, an avowed long-time hero for Shibuya, but also the flexibility of freely improvised music. You can also hear Shibuya’s fondness for Mayo Thompson and The Red Crayola in both the idiosyncracies of the writing and the egalitarian looseness of the playing. Shibuya also carries those energies into the group’s membership – there are fantastic stories of him having a conversation at a record shop, or overhearing someone speaking, and asking the person in question to join yumbo as one of their various singers. He seems open to chance as a driving force, as a way to make space for unexpected possibilities to blossom.

The great achievement of yumbo and Shibuya, though, is translating all of this into beautiful, unpredictable pop songs. There’s a gorgeous soul-inflected lilt to “A House” that makes it delightfully affecting; the swaying brass on “Storm” propels its melody to a moody, dreamlike conclusion; the nakedness of “The Sweetest Mass” is slightly reminiscent of Carla Bley’s more pop-focused writing, crossed with the classicism of the songs that spilled from the Brill Building in the ‘60s. Throughout, Shibuya renders pop a deeply personal experience; you can hear musings here on friendship, family, intimacy, the complexity of relationships, mortality, and imbalances of power. These musings are also shadowed by real-life events: the effects and impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 are captured in songs like “Umbrella People” from Onibi.

Throughout the performances on The Fruit Of Errata, Shibuya and the group play with tenderness; they also often draw on other players to flesh out the music even further, two such guests being the aforementioned Tori Kudo (on “Umbrella People”) and Olympia, Washington’s LAKE (on “The Devil Song”). Community-minded and generous in approach, the writing of Shibuya and the music of yumbo is never less than lovely, and The Fruit Of Errata is a welcome introduction to their world. Open and gentle, confident and generous, these pop songs are filled with charm and spirit.

The Fruit Of Errata

LP/CD

yumbo: A House

From the solo album "Slawek Jaskulke - Moments"


Sławek Jaskułke Piano Solo - MOMENTS

Minimal ambient psychedelic music. composed with glitched-grained electric guitar, analog synthesizer and textures.

Album "rabbit ears" on bandcamp has creative common license
"Attribution No Derivatives"
If you purchase it you can use it for any movie, performance, and installation for art.

rabbit ears

Fading Stars

My remix for the wonderful Noah, from my favourite label flau. Please check out her beautiful album Sivutie out June 22nd.

Single 'flaw' with my remix out now https://flau.bandcamp.com/album/flaw 

Album 'Sivutie' available for pre-order http://flau.jp/releases/48.html

Guardian feature http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/01/new-band-of-the-week-noah-no-52

Noah - doll (kidkanevil Remix)

ARAKI Shin: saxophone, Yukiko Hayakawa: Sho
Music for an exhibition at "10 Watts", Yokohama, Japan, 2016.

Encounter

http://flau.jp/releases/unimetsa/

this release is included by Olli Aarni + Mia Tarkela's photo zine + cassette Unimetsä

Olli Aarni – Ylitse 3

Kawanabe Kyosai is the first track from Komachi, the first full length vinyl release from the inimitable Hiroshima based artist @Meiteijapan. As with his previous work, Meitei once again explores what he calls ‘the lost Japanese mood’, an era and culture that he hopes to keep in our collective consciousness as society moves away from some of Japans more traditional aesthetics. 

The album drops on March 15th but you can pre-order the limited edition 12’’ from our Bandcamp page or via our wonderful partner and distributors Séance Centre.

metronrecords.bandcamp.com/album/komachi
www.seance-centre.com/shop/meitei-komachi-pre-order

Meitei - Kawanabe Kyosai [Pt.II]

Klavierraum, Spater

Henning Schmiedt - 3 Teelöffel Backpulver (Terekke Remix)

This is side A from Light Leaks, a long form ambient EP that I recently completed. 
Available on cassette and digital here:
https://endurance010010.bandcamp.com/album/light-leaks

About Light Leaks:
This is the first installment of Slow Change Ambient Sessions, which I hope to continue on a more or less yearly basis in the future.
My focus in composing these tracks was on creating multiple loops of varying lengths and letting them evolve generatively over time to form slowly modulating layers of sound. As such, this album leans more towards the meditative and calming side of ambient. When I'm not listening to other people's music, these are the kinds of compositions that I set in motion when I want a soundtrack to work, read, or think to at home, and I thought that some of you might enjoy them as well. I certainly hope that that is the case and that listeners will feel just a little more relaxed and happier about being in the world.

Photographs

from 'I Forsee The Dark Ahead, If I Stay' [CD|2LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den259
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/tkde

The highly praised live album of the Dutch cult ensemble from 2011 finally available on cd & vinyl.

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble’s liveshows were known for their transcendental journeys, mixing live improvisation with the structure form studio album songs. TKDE always worked with a complex live set up, linking multiple laptops, channeling, effects and looping systems to recreate the intricate sound of their music. During the period from 2007 till 2011 many live performances were recorded, and decided was to release a compilation of songs as a live album. In 2012, a year before the split of the project, the live album was released digitally to show the diversity and flexibility of the band live.

- "The album presents a series of tracks recorded from shows over the last five years, doubling as essentially a "best of" and insight into the live TKDE experience. (...) And it is exactly this weaving of disparate threads, often in an unexpected and chaotic fashion, that make TKDE so fascinating. Compositions can—and do—traverse through multiple genres, as one would expect from a pooling of such eclectic backgrounds." (4.5 / 5 Resident Advisor)

- "A consistently impressive collection that manages to vividly document TKDE’s spectacular live show" (Cyclic Defrost)

I Forsee The Dark Ahead, If I Stay

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - Adaptation Of The Koto Song (Hungary, 2011)

GRFTPS003
@konophoto - tangled piano loops

https://giraffetapes.bandcamp.com/album/tangled-piano-loops
limited edition cassette / digital - now on bandcamp

video for "tangled piano loops 001" here -- youtu.be/2Ub_OavFUQU

--
In 2018 I was recording my piano improvisation
in my friends' suburb house.
It was sunny day, birds were singing
and children were playing outside.

After 2 years
I accidentally came across those recordings
and I felt something.
I continued acting intuitively -
My hands acted independently,
creating tape loops,
which then I use to record this album.

All of the tracks were recorded
on the first take,
in one session,
without any edits.
16 july 2020.

--

tangled piano loops

B1. Oleksandr Demianenko - tangled piano loops 005 (GRFTPS003)

Morr Music merges electronic and indie musical disciplines that many consider the label to have invented its own genre. It's roster is certainly a testament to this fact - the likes of Lali Puna, Múm, Isan, Seabear, Sin Fang, Sóley, It´s A Musical, Masha Qrella, Tarwater, Fm Belfast, Pascal Pinon, Butcher The Bar, Telekinesis, Opiate, Ms. John Soda, Tied & Tickled Trio, Electric President, Radical Face, The Go Find, and B.Fleischmann making for an impeccable roster. With more than 100 Albums in its catalogue, Morr Music is a label that truly has something for everyone. 


yumbo: A House

morrmusic

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