Sundaze 1816

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

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

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 Subsequently a laptop computer superseded his bands as his main platform.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.

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Chihei Hatakeyama - Bare Strata (flac 226mb)

01 Bare Strata 30:40
02 Returning 19:59

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Chihei Hatakeyama - Alone by the Sea (flac 334mb)

01 Alone By The Sea 10:30
02 Alone By The Sea II 11:11
03 Alone By The Sea III 7:54
04 In Dreams 29:51

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

Chihei Hatakeyama was influenced by Fudaraku-tokai. It is a form of the ascetic practice of sacrifice performed in medieval Japan. A monk undertaking this practice would set out to sea in a small, single-sailed (but oar-less and rudderless) boat in the hope of arriving at the southern paradise of the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokitesvara; Guanyin; Kannon). The Fudaraku Tokai was carried out over twenty times between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries.

Mist" is inspired from such beauty of fog like phenomena which reflects the thin light to fine mist.Superimposed on the drone of layer, Hawaii Oahu bird cries, coast of sound waves of Bellingham and rain sound in Takao-san in Hachioji has been used in songs. "Nangoku"in the "Mist" has been published as installation work at Super Deluxe in December 2014 by 24chPA system.this album was produced at the request of the fashion brand "MIKU FUKAMITSU". it is making accessories by the natural materials and colors in concept.

Chihei Hatakeyama – Mist (flac 261mb)

01 Spherulite 9:59
02 Lone Wolf In A Heavy Snow 5:58
03 Glitter 5:53
04 A Silver Fence To Prevent The Entrance Of Horses 7:47
05 Here And Sapphire Day 2:51
06 Nangoku 11:59
Bonus
07 Fetfatzidis 7:35
08 Salpingidis 4:35
09 Giannakopoulos 5:33

xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx

This Japanese-Belgian coalition definitely keeps on blossoming, because January 2016 sees "The Storm Of Silence" CD on respected Italian label Glacial Movements. Dirk Serries, the giant behind unforgettable vidnaObmana, is another highly prolific artist, who constantly keeps on exploring the fascination of challenging collaborative projects. "The Storm Of Silence" CD comes in elegantly minimal 4-panel digipak, exhibiting visual mastery of Norwegian photographer Bjarne Riesto and layout skills by Dirk's kindred Dutch drone soul, Machinefabriek's Rutger Zuydervelt. Wow, what a beauty, the magic of desolate Nordic winter sceneries fully unfolds, even before hitting the play button...

"Kulde", a 7-plus minutes long track, reveals this strikingly intense journey with slowly invading cyclical drones continuously concealed by hissy curtains. Persistently pinnacling reverberating subtleties clandestinely coalesce with warmer elegiac tides of long-burried memories. The listener is enwrapped by the silent awe of the rolling untamed landscapes. Immerse yourself and feel the "Cold"!!! "Uvaer", which clocks to a 10 and a half minutes mark, delves deeply into magnificently monochromatic terrains, meticulously reinforced by euphorically meandering evocativeness. Exquisitely mindscaping sonic reflections constantly commingle with jaw-droppingly emotional sonorousness. "Uvaer" as "Storm" showcases a gloriously monumental, yet sublimely tranquilizing soundforging of both protagonists, who fully utilize and amalgamate their creative insignias into an epic soundscape unlocking the gates of the Drone Eden!!! Bravo, gentlemen!!! "Fryst", with 12:41 the longest piece on album, unfolds with peaceful nuances, which calmly evolve into more monolithic scenario highlighted by flatlined, yet utterly scenic desolate "Frozen" panoramas. Masterfully spiced by inconspicuously emerging climaxes, no matter if intriguingly ear-tickling or splendiferously mind-blowing. 11-minute "Hvit" closes this deeply profound journey with rawer, nearly transcendental helixes, which are soon imbued by eternal tides of majestically intensified magnitudes and warmly embracing cinematic vistas. "White" is a breathtakingly prodigious and consonantly resonant masterpiece, a truly rewarding epic finale!!! Kudos to you, Dirk & Chihei!!!

I could easily journey for another 20-30 minutes, however, "The Storm Of Silence" is a masterful collaborative long distance effort, displaying staggeringly ingenious drone manipulations of two sound explorers par excellence!!! Mixed by Dirk and mastered by Chihei, "The Storm Of Silence" is another deeply focused gem on Glacial Movements, a must-have for all drone connoisseurs and aficionados of the overwhelming grace of treacherous icy landscapes.

Chihei Hatakeyama / Dirk Serries - The Storm Of Silence    (flac 174mb)

01 Benetnasch 20:52
02 Rigel 0:50
03 Mizar 8:35
04 Betelgeuse 2:12
05 Merak 19:21
06 Algenib 6:37


xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx