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LP
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FIELD 033LP
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Matching expansive ambience with environmental sound, Chihei Hatakeyama's new album continues Field Records' exploration of Japan and the Netherland's shared approach to water management. As with Sugai Ken's 2020 album Tone River, a specific project becomes Hatakeyama's area of focus -- in this case the Hachirōgata Lake in Akita Prefecture. Previously the second largest body of water in Japan, the government ordered extensive drainage work of Hachirōgata Lake after the second world war with the help of Dutch engineers Pieter Jansen and Adriaan Volker. After the project was completed in 1977, reclaimed land took up eighty percent of Hachirōgata Lake's total size. As a result, a new ecosystem was established as plants spread from surrounding areas, bringing with them a wider variety of birds and other wildlife. Hatakeyama's approach to this unique subject matter took in field recordings from particular locations around the lake -- the drainage channels, the Ogata bridge, grassland conservation reserves and other key areas. The aquatic subject matter and sonic material is a natural fit for Hatakeyama's accomplished sound, which has featured on numerous solo works for labels including Kranky, Room40 and his self-run White Paddy Mountain. From the intimate intricacies of the sampled material to the glacial expanses of droning synthesis and languid guitar, Hatakeyama creates a tangible environment which at once reflects the settings around Hachirōgata Lake, while offering the listener any number of imagined scenes to observe in their mind's eye.
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LP
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RM 4111LP
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Tokyo ambient maestro Chihei Hatakeyama's Forgotten Hill is a record about the melting of time. He creates an impressionist meditation on his journey through the Asuka region of Japan; an area known for its burial mounds, epic Buddhist monuments, and quietly poetic landscapes.
From Chihei Hatakeyama: "A few years ago I went on a trip to the Asuka region. This album, Forgotten Hill, draws all of its inspiration from this trip. The experiences I had on this journey were used as compositional guides to compile the sonic impressions I experienced during this time. The Asuka region was once land that hosted the capital of Japan from the Sixth to Seventh centuries. Today, it is an unpopular rice-drenched rural area, and although there are few tourists compared to Kyoto and the northern part of Nara, the region still draws people as there it features various burial mounds, known as 'Kofun'. One of these old burial mounds is called the 'Ishibutai Kofun', which loosely translates as Stone Stage. When I was a child, I learned about the existence of this old burial mound through Tezuka Osamu's Manga and since that time, I always wanted to visit there . . . It was the spring when I visited there, and yet I was the only person in sight. I have no idea what kind of stories are trapped within this tomb, all those things seen and heard by the rock. When I stood in front of it, I was captured by the feeling that I wanted to get on the stone stage, to be consumed by the burial mound. As I went inside the stone chamber I felt a strong sense of pressure. While getting down the stairs leading to the dark stone chamber, this pressure grew stronger, it was a very particular and strange sensation . . .The interior of the stone chamber was like an alien landscape. I couldn't help but think about the Monolith from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey . . . With this record, I aimed to create music, like a labyrinth, based on these days spent in the Asuka region. This is a record about time, about losing direction in time and wondering where it is exactly the past, the present and the future might meet, and under what circumstances this might happen."
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CD
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RM 465CD
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On Moon Light Reflecting Over Mountains, Tokyo's Chihei Hatakeyama evokes an instrumental poetic grace that marks him out as one of the icons of his generation. Drawing upon a broad swath of aesthetic references, he seamlessly melts glacial ambient drifts with richly harmonic guitar strata that echo the gliding motions of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Cocteau Twins. Never resolving to clear melody, his interest in unrestrained harmonics creates a depth to his compositions and moreover a profound sense of the personal. Like Saunter (2009) and Mirror (2011), his other editions for Room40, Moon Light Reflecting Over Mountains reveals Chihei's recurrent interest in place, as in "A Bronze Pike," in which strummed acoustic guitars are cloaked in a soundscape that suggests an urban dwelling, and sirens and voices clearly emerge as the piece meanders. Moon Light Reflecting Over Mountains is perhaps Chihei's most complete work to date. It reconciles his interests in harmony, texture, and space. It etches out a map into familiar yet unexpected territories. These are very much his own lands, but they are lands in which we, as listeners, are welcome to roam. Chichei is one of Tokyo's leading figures, and his considered minimalist approach has earned him a formidable reputation as a fearless textural experimentalist. He has performed for years under his given name and also as one half of the electroacoustic duo Opitope, along with Tomoyoshi Date. Chihei's polychromic and memory-evoking soundscapes are created utilizing various recorded materials of electric and acoustic instruments such as electric guitars, vibraphone, and piano.
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CD
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KRANK 091CD
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"Chihei Hatakeyama concentrated on the textures of sound in creating Minima Moralia, consciously avoiding the use of electronic sounds; instead using sound fragments made by guitars and vibraphone he played himself. The fragments were processed and reprocessed in live performances on laptop. The contention between the analog sound sources, digital processing and the musician's choices are what give Minima Moralia its positive, warm and physical presence. Minima Moralia presents the listener with tones that are familiar and tones that are foreign. Specific points of sound appear and velvet clouds elevate and disperse over the course of the album. Jumbles of melodies reveal and then resolve themselves. At all points Hatakeyama's directing hand is at work; in the shiver of a guitar string, the bright ring of the vibraphone, and the strategic use of silence. The naturalistic song title suggest every day moments, sensations and experiences. "
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