I hear a complex array of compositions that are brought closer by the worldwide common experience of those times, also just the amazing human ability to express things using sound.
Pleasantly confusing, emotional and mysterious
“An encounter with another culture is always full of surprises, misunderstandings, joys and difficulties. In China Life Japanese musician Masayoshi Miyazaki explores the highs, lows and heartaches of his five years in China. At the centre of the album is the pandemic and the profound impact of its restrictions on travel. During this period Masayoshi’s son was born in Japan, and as he waited to be able to meet him, and to be reunited with his wife, he turned to music as refuge, solace and escape.” –Flaming Pines
This collection introduces the musical perspective of composer Masayoshi Miyazaki during the difficult period we all went through recently, the uncertainty, isolation and strangeness of COVID in the early 2020s. For him the experience was even more unique, as a Japanese man alone in China, experiencing all this with no guidebooks or official concierge services. I hear a complex array of compositions that are brought closer by the worldwide common experience of those times, also just the amazing human ability to express things using sound.
Starting with a refreshing simple piano, eventually joined by increasing electronica, “Obscureness Knocks” (3:28); spanning across the moments to the “Bridge” (3:55) I hear more than a choir with some percussive clicks; “You Can Hide Your Love Forever” (3:32) brings strange orchestral maneuvers cycling repeatedly in slow motion, a traffic jam inside a cave. Track four is “Pessimistic 2” (3:44) but I think the emerging wonder stays strong; time for “Golf” (4:27), interesting backwards sounding keyboard melodics; “Bonfire” (3:47) echo delights, I hear a nice acoustic guitar being expertly fingered. “60 Lovers Lane” (3:19) says to me that romance is precious, I hear a cello bowed, and an odd choir of robot angels, adding the background noise hiss only makes more atmosphere.
“Digital Camera Loves Me” (4:04) opens a sparkling big magic landscape, dreamy and almost real; “Walk Out To Autumn” (5:04) gives me a Classic genre vibe, etude electronica with wonderful post-Baroque feeling timing which in a modern way there is a successive loss of definition as the piece proceeds into glitch territory, fabulous. What is the score? “Tokyo 0, Kamimeguro 4” (2:09) Kamimeguro is a neighborhood in the Nakameguro district of Tokyo, a residential area known for unique boutique cafes, near the Meguro River in Japan. I hear something like a taiko drum sound, big steel instruments beaten with ceremonial force; “Risk” (4:56) makes me think of an old sound and guitar with steel strings being plucked, some harmonics, the old sound might be a sound of wind at the beach.
Xylophonic tones giving a nursery atmosphere ::
Now piano with the ocean, “Eden” (3:30) is pleasant and confident, slow. This is the time for the “Last Train To Heaven” (3:52), a promise to go home at last, sad and something more in the sparkling darkness. “I Have Met My Child Only Once” (4:11) is a difficult concept to take in, the sound to me includes pleasant xylophonic tones giving a nursery atmosphere, more than once there are changes which give more poignancy.
In the “Tokyo Pavillion” (2:46) with sustained uplifting dreams; “300 Miles” (5:17) delivers a music box repeating a warm old melody, and I think there is a mandolin and a piano bravely bearing into the hopeless sadness of distance; “Cast A Long Shadow” (4:04) dreamy tension emerges from serious darkness, the feeling lengthens then somehow resolves and transitions into strings and regeneratively looping layers; “South Marine Drive” (3:24) I hear bell chimes and shimmering reverberations, flute tones echo and expand and at the end it all dissolves. “Prior To My Previous Thinking” (3:51) to me this is a piano anthem of resolution and persistent strength; “Cornelius Is Innocent” (1:06) the odd short last one that actually sums up the journey well, pleasantly confusing, emotional and mysterious.
Mastered by Simon Scott
Photography by Masayoshi Miyazake
Design by Kate Carr
China Life is available on Flaming Pines. [Bandcamp]
