Sundaze 1814

Hello,

Today's artist is a Tokyo-based ambient musician and mastering engineer who creates chiming, shimmering soundscapes with acoustic instruments (including guitar, vibraphone, and piano) and laptop processing. His works often evoke scenes from nature, and appropriately include an abundant amount of field recordings and other organic sounds. Since the release of his well-received debut album, Minima Moralia, in 2006, he has been remarkably prolific as both a solo artist and collaborator, and his work has always maintained a consistently high quality..... N'joy

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Chihei Hatakeyama is a musician and an organizer who was born in 1978, and lives in the outskirts of Tokyo. He has performed for years under his given name and also as one half of the electroacoustic duo Opitope, along with Tomoyoshi Date. Hatakeyama got involved in playing music through strumming a guitar in a few rock-oriented bands in his teenage years. Subsequently a laptop computer superseded his bands as his main platform. Hatakeyama polychromes memory-evoking soundscapes with various recorded materials of acoustic instruments such as guitars, vibraphone, and piano; mostly played by hand and processed time and time again via laptop. His first album Minima Moralia was commissioned for release by the Chicago-based label kranky in early 2006.

Hatakeyama originally began making music as part of various hardcore and metal bands, and his interests gradually drifted toward experimental rock and classical music. He formed a duo called Opitope in 2002 with Tomoyoshi Date. Kranky issued Hatakeyama's solo debut in 2006, and Opitope released their first full-length, Hau, on Spekk the following year. Hatakeyama's second solo album, Dedication, appeared on Magic Book Records in 2008. From 2009 on, his release schedule was relentless, with albums on Hibernate (The River), Room40 (Saunter, Mirror), Home Normal (A Long Journey), and numerous other ambient/experimental labels.

Opitope actively organizes a continuous live performance event named Kuala Mute Geek in Tokyo (Kuala means "a crossing point of streams" in Malay). The event is powered by hand-made vacuum tube amplifiers and speakers in up to eight channel settings. Electroacoustic and improvisational artists such as Taylor Duepree, Christopher Willits, Toshimaru Nakamura, Christophe Charles, Hans Reichel, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Tamaru, Carl Stone, Keiichi Sugimoto, Tetsuro Yasunaga, Boris D Hegenbart, Yoshio Machida and many more have performed. Kuala Mute Geek creates possibilities for interaction and dialogue among the artists and listeners.

In 2010, he began releasing music digitally through his White Paddy Mountain label; gradually, the label began issuing CDs by other artists (such as Celer, Machinefabriek, and Aaron Martin), which were mixed and mastered by Hatakeyama himself. He continued to release albums on other labels, including Rural Colours, Small Fragments, and Airplane Label, in addition to collaborations with artists like Asuna, Hakobune, and Federico Durand. Hatakeyama released six albums in 2015 alone, including Frozen Silence (a collaboration with Sakana Hosomi), Mist, Five Dreams, and his third album for Lawrence English's Room40 label, Moon Light Reflecting Over Mountains. In 2017, he returned to Room40 with Mirage. Recorded over a five-year period, the album found Hatakeyama exploring the relationship between architecture and music.

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Hatakeyama's debut US album is a meditation on silence. The albums works as a series of vignettes or meditation exercises. Each track title is a specific image (Bonfire in the Field, Beside a Well, etc.), which the music apparently then seeks to replicate. Because each track has a slow tempo, little identifiably possessing a time signature, and very gradual changes to the droning chords which begin the songs, these titles can be seen as something worth contemplating while listening to the sound. Although he relies heavily on processing on the release, it's different in the work of many artists in that all the sounds were created from organic means such as electric and acoustic guitar and vibraphone. It's this small detail that gives the album a warm and soothing feel, and his evocative song titles suggest little moments in the day that he's seemingly tried to capture in sound.

"Bonfire On The Field" opens the release with hushed crystalline tones that flutter and flourish into a sustained wash while "Swaying Curtain In The Window" opens with more overlapping tones before cascading guitar notes fall over one another before dissolving into a warm haze. On "Towards A Tranquil Marsh" and "Inside Of The Pocket," warm acoustic guitar and micro electronic pulses are joined by violin from Masahiro Kobayashi and the results are even more stunning. Basically, if you're one of those people who can't seem to get enough ambient music, Minima Moralia is going to be a release that you'll want to hunt down. The title of the album refers to German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno's book Minima Moralia.

Chihei Hatakeyama - Minima Moralia (flac 285mb)

01 Bonfire on the Field 8:13
02 Swaying Curtain in the Window 8:25
03 Starlight Reflecting on the Surface of the River 7:00
04 Towards a Tranquil Marsh 4:46
05 Granular Haze 7:21
06 Inside of the Pocket 4:31
07 Beside a Well 11:30

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Hatakeyama uses the palette of the True Drone Believers but he seeds his overstretched chords with easy pleasures. It's in the way the monolithic chord with harmonics like a pipe organ fills the first two minutes only to slowly dissolve into a tinkling music box melody and, finally, clouds of acoustic guitar picking. Hatakeyama thinks of sound as vibration first, but conventional ideas about when such movement becomes music quickly come into play.

Chihei Hatakeyama - Dedication (flac 172mb)

01 White Mountain 3:36
02 Bird Above the Ocean 5:23
03 Chair and Acoustic Guitar 3:52
04 Light of the Sun 2:29
05 Illusion of Memory I 6:07
06 Illusion of Memory II 3:10
07 Illusion of Memory III 4:35
08 Quiet Morning 3:52
09 Dedication 5:45

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The basic distinction between Hatakeyama's works and others would be the guitarist’s fondness of his signature instrument in lieu of plethoric aureoles supercharged with synths. The guitar has always been there, but is as of late constantly recognizable in each and every track, serving as the solacing base frame of anagnorisis even in the most dreamlike states and paradisiac visions. Said states and visions, however, are augmented, amplified and extrapolated with the aid of filters, hues and alloying constituents which add chromodynamics to the amethystine peritoneums. Another big trademark is the amicability of the presented material: the compositions are never too warped and far out, always bound to a certain gravity even in aerial situations, making them earthbound and autochthonous at once.

Chihei Hatakeyama  - August (flac 166mb)

01 Grass Pillow 21:48
02 Swallow 5:18
03 A Tube Amp for an Electric Guitar 11:34

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The River is one of the first releases of UK ambient label hibernate. It consists of delicate guitar and computer drones plus occasional field recordings arranged to form peaceful aural landscapes that verge on new age music. The pieces are monochromatic, floating like fog instead of developing or moving, inhabiting the listening space with their shimmering tones. It could sound almost too easy if it weren't for the obvious care with which these tracks have been composed:  It's not music that will move you, but it radiates quiet (and slightly cold) beauty.

Chihei Hatakeyama - The River  (flac 201mb)

01 Jade Green River 3:34
02 Under the Sun 6:22
03 Light Drizzle 5:05
04 Mud 1:04
05 Gray Hued Sky 4:45
06 Twilight Gloom 6:09
07 A House in the Fog 2:13
08 Lance and Arrow 4:58
09 A Temple in the Past 2:59
10 Phantasm 9:46

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A Long Journey is a metaphor for life, Hatakeyama's image of the journey of birth to death, a collection of serene dreamscapes based on field recording material gathered in San Francisco during 2006, mixed with guitar-based pieces, as well as gorgeous piano elements, inspired by Shinto religion of Japan. According to Hatakeyama "Shinto teaches us that everything has a spiritual essence (a ‘Kami’). This loosely translates as a spirit, or god even. There being a myriad of these Kami, they reside in everything but some places are considered to have a more scared spirit within them. Quite often these are rocks, rivers, trees, mountains and other such calming natural places, hence why so many shrines are built in such unique areas." Ideal music for good-vibed sunny days, roaming around some nice grassy hills in the countryside. Add weed to the experience and you've got yourself a mindblowingly beautiful day.

Chihei Hatakeyama - A Long Journey    (flac 165mb)

01 Morning Arrive on the Island 2:02
02 Waves 4:06
03 Confession 7:12
04 The Moon Reflecting on the Surface of the Ocean 2:53
05 Within New Trees 5:07
06 A Quiet Pond 1:18
07 The Distant Sound of a Bustle 4:30
08 Calm 4:29
09 White Light 2:08
10 Haze From the River 4:36
11 The Dance of the Sea 2:56


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