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LP
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RMSG 007LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/15/2026
A note from Lawrence English: "Akira Kosemura's Polaroid Piano is a record that is very close to my heart. In fact, it is Akira's work that was one of the drivers for Someone Good, one of the Room40 sibling labels, to be founded. Polaroid Piano marks the beginning of what would later become known as felt piano music, an approach to the piano which was picked up by numerous artists across subsequent years. It captures an essential and intimate rendering of the piano at close proximity, but it does more than that, it allows the piano to breathe within the places around it. Structurally, the record is a collection of piano-led vignettes. Each piece is a microcosm of lived in music, which is porous, and opens themselves outward, inviting a sense of time and 'the present' to seep into the music. They feel instantly intimate and evocative, melodies imprinted with the world around them. In some of the recordings a siren calls out from beyond the immediate acoustic space of the studio, whilst in others birds seep in and the rustling of Akira's clothing folds into the music itself. When we first discussed the recording, Akira had invited me to offer some sounds that might act as a leaping off point for the compositions. I collected a series of field recordings which were offered as simple and suggestive prompts, and as a means of imagining 'other' environments which might be simultaneously in orbit of the places Akira was recording in. Some of those field recordings are captured in the record, like a memory being recounted at a distance of time. Polaroid Piano is a unique record for many reasons. One is it manages to manifest an acoustic transcription of that 'momentary' quality of its photographic namesake. The pieces are auditory snapshots and reflect a certain quality of harmonic light and timbral exposure that is unquestionably tethered to the aesthetics of the polaroid format. It is a record that celebrates the body of the instrument as a sound source and invites us to be proximate to the resonation, and the living qualities of sound, that make music so utterly profound, and gratifying."
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CD+DVD
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SCH 051CD
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Akira Kosemura's In The Dark Woods combines the electronic and acoustic sounds of piano, Wurlitzer, and synthesizer with a string quartet, similar to the music heard on his previous improvisational solo piano work One Day from 2016. As indicated in the title, the entire album is filled with an obscure darkness and a world of misty sounds ever to be feared of, like a comfortable quietness in the dark where a child in the womb is hearing a mother's heartbeat. As the music goes on, it gradually begins to widen an introspective worldview. The combined sounds of repeated phrases, as seen in minimal music, a sophisticated crossover sound between acoustics and electronics, and an improvisational solo piano present a worldview suggestive of a broader theme, such as the circulation of life or the law of nature. The highlights on the album, "In The Dark Woods" and its variations "Letter From A Distance", will leave listeners with deep emotions and afterglow. In The Dark Woods is released by 1631 Recordings and Schole Records.
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LP
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SCH 051LP
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LP version. Akira Kosemura's In The Dark Woods combines the electronic and acoustic sounds of piano, Wurlitzer, and synthesizer with a string quartet, similar to the music heard on his previous improvisational solo piano work One Day from 2016. As indicated in the title, the entire album is filled with an obscure darkness and a world of misty sounds ever to be feared of, like a comfortable quietness in the dark where a child in the womb is hearing a mother's heartbeat. As the music goes on, it gradually begins to widen an introspective worldview. The combined sounds of repeated phrases, as seen in minimal music, a sophisticated crossover sound between acoustics and electronics, and an improvisational solo piano present a worldview suggestive of a broader theme, such as the circulation of life or the law of nature. The highlights on the album, "In The Dark Woods" and its variations "Letter From A Distance", will leave listeners with deep emotions and afterglow. In The Dark Woods is released by 1631 Recordings and Schole Records.
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CD
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RMSG 002R-CD
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In late 2006, Someone Good received a package from a young Tokyo musician called Akira Kosemura. On the CD-R was the initial rendering of It's On Everything. Instantly, label-heads Lawrence and Rebecca English were struck by Kosemura's amazing sense of melody, space and compositional restraint. Working at the edge of pop structures, avant-garde influences and a gentle yet focused textural aesthetic, Kosemura typified a new vision of melodic instrumentation shrouded in rich textural electronics. Within a couple of months, Someone Good was preparing to release the album that would go on to lay the groundwork for one of the most vital and considered independent artists currently working in Japan. Someone Good couldn't be more proud to re-release this edition -- five years on, it still feels as fresh and passionate as it did the first time they heard it.
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