Overall, I feel a recharging of positive energy, higher energy levels, and a purification of negative thoughts, nice and slow with some gem false endings, when things seem to settle down to wrap up, and then starts back up again.
Changing into a mantra of possible action with fragmented endings
Eleven solo compositions of slow fantasies for keyboard followed by some awesome drifting electric guitar work. The listener is treated to an interpretation of a walk in late spring in Japan, with blue skies surrounded by rice fields, bamboo, and wildlife. I love spending time in nature, amongst the trees and grass, and mindfully engaging within a forest atmosphere or in other available natural environments. These landscape format compositions each take their own time and lots of different things happen. I feel like I am touching the ground, the flowers, the trees, and the leaves, generally observing the surroundings and scenery, almost entirely realized on the keyboard. Sometimes I hear a bass too, and some beats with no specific percussive instruments until “Rikugame,” which is where the album’s change begins to happen and the electric guitar takes over for a little while. Overall, I feel a recharging of positive energy, higher energy levels, and a purification of negative thoughts, nice and slow with some gem false endings, when things seem to settle down to wrap up, and then starts back up again.
Crows seem to like to gather in small groups and pass comments to each other. That is what I think of reading the song title, what I hear here is a picture of the sunny landscape. “Crows and decisions” (11:47) is where the music takes me along and the silent crows never seem to mind. This appears to be an easy path on a long journey with some quiet doubt, the journey continues maybe slightly slower, until midway there is a sudden change, there is no more quiet doubt. Nonetheless, soon the journey settles back into the slower dreamy paces, putting to bed my troubles.
I have heard that in Chinese culture Shiitake mushrooms are thought of as an aphrodisiac and a promoter of youthfulness and virility, but shiitake are best known as a very popular edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed around the globe. “Shiitake and frogs” (7:08) is perhaps a little more sad, and kind of funky in places. The frogs do not have the mobility of crows but they do have funky frog voices, creating an adagio nocturnal landscape, maybe there are distant metal bins crashing and strange shadows in different colors. I see the shadow shape walking behind me so my focus continues with some fancy steps. Next (after the sunrise) I would imagine that if the sky is blue the furry caterpillars will all be dancing slowly, not at all worried about the birds. “Blue skies and furry caterpillars” (5:56) is a very slow dance to a complicated beat. I can see them all lined up, carefree and positive, until a cautiously emerging tempo and melody adds new components and I am somewhere else now. The walk is increasingly easygoing with whimsical slow steps leading into a new mystery, remembering how it felt pondering in empty urban streets alone in the dark.
The feeling is solemn and restful ::
The cypress tree comes in many variations. The Greek god Apollo is said to have turned a young man into such a tree to ease the pain of his grief. The Romans observed that cypress roots grow straight down and thus do not damage burials. Now we know that some cypress trees require forest fires to germinate. “Cypress trees and gods” (7:25), is where the feeling is solemn and restful, I go from one tree to another touching the bark. Now I think that I hear some sparkling water somewhere nearby, sensing a tense bump and reverberation, sounding slow and echoey. Perhaps doubt is coming, taking its time developing into something that ultimately fades away. Cypress trees have needle shaped leaves, they are standing tall, and I have access to the base of these very old trees, mostly the bark. The tops of these trees are hard to see, because they are so very distant. Is that where the gods are?
“Forest Bathing Part 1” (1:48) is a practice of therapeutic relaxation where one spends time in a forest or other natural atmospheres, focusing one’s sensory engagement to connect with nature, and can be performed solo, guided, and/or with others. For this track I hear fragmented melodic refreshments, as things get going, bass and beats come together making a groove, somehow leaving out parts of a pattern. Now the melodic pattern is forming, but it seems to be waiting and not deciding, changing into a mantra of possible action with fragmented endings, or will it ever end? “Forest Bathing Part 2” (5:05) has a more rapid melodic keyboard joined by bass, a new groove emerges and gets funky. Shinrin-yoku is the original name for the practice of Forest Bathing, and was developed as a response to the world’s increasing urbanization and technological advancements. The music turns into a dark carnival deep within the darkest cavern, the beat takes form and merry-go-round fragments repeat. The “Rakusien Garden” (5:31) is a famous Japanese garden where visitors can experience a tea ceremony; with four tea rooms (two of which are available for use by general visitors) this garden is often used for tea ceremonies and related training. The electronic music builds into a peppy melodic funky groove, with lots of colors and flowers, a melodic percussion-oriented rhythm rises and falls, a playful bass locks in several times, now it’s got solid bones with no extras at first the play spins slowly into forms that break off and starts traveling as well.
Now imagine a “Naka river Sunset” (4:13), the Naka river flows through the prefectures of Tochigi and Ibaraki and finds the Pacific Ocean. The music winds and weaves in odd ways, calm and sometimes complex, but overall relaxing and dreamy, things are popping around in a slow boogie shuffle, complex weaving beats are flying in the night sky. The next track begins a new sound for most of the rest of the album. Using a sustained guitar with lots of reverb and a relaxed drum framework, “Rikugame” (2:54) the tortoise takes us into more atmospheric terrain, within this dingy dark and dreamy slow floating haze. The black sound “Kuro Hibiki” (7:31) continues, with the lovely big guitar slow motion reverb and a drum kit instrumental slow jam, the flow almost stops then starts up again with lumbering reverb tones, long sustained notes leading into a new false ending that fades to nothing then starts over. This is the track I listen to over and over.
The last track “Everything Ends” (4:39), jolts us into a playful melodic jolly bounce with water sounds here and there for a surprise ending at the beach where there is a carnival going on. I hear a playful carousel of light and frivolity, a carnival of shadows and timpani, very light and inviting with a continuous beat featuring changing depths of patterns, building into a playful tension, a merry-go-round engine, and on we go. This little bit of water is the only field recording heard on this study of a walk in the countryside.
A Walk in the Countryside is available on Rednetic. [Bandcamp]
