Description
Meiteis 2020 album Kofu was the bold bookend to an expedition, where sounds were first navigated and then subverted in 2018s Kwaidan and 2019s Komachi. All three albums were Meiteis attempt at immersive storytelling, reimagining moments of Japanese history he felt were being washed away not least by the unforgiving sands of time through wistful compositions that stretched across ambient music, hauntology, and musique concrete. When it came to finalizing Kofu, Meitei found he was left with over 60 fully realized tracks, bursting with ideas that fired in divergent, curious directions. Meitei was content with the 13 tracks he had selected. But when it came time to begin his next album, he found that it had been sitting in front of him all along. He realized his work wasnt over yet.
Meitei sounds right at home celebrating the past he first reimagined in his previous work. The merriment is palpable in its first two tracks of Kofu II a loop of cheery whistling amidst the clanking of wood leads into strings, cricket sounds and flutes, all united in bustling harmony.‘Happyaku-yach’ is where it comes into focus. Pitch-shifted vocal samples roam around in the crowded sonic field. My image of this music is that it expresses the vibrant mood of Edo’s merchant culture, says Meitei, where old Japanese dwellings were densely packed together in a vast expanse of land. The affair becomes bittersweet as the track leads into the desolate ‘Kaworu’, a compositional piece lifted from his ‘Komachi’ sessions a final requiem to his late grandmother. via Label
Label: Kitchen. Label
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2022
Genre: Electronic, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Experimental
File under: Japanese Electronic
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