Telephone Explosion / Canada / 2022
Japanese multi-instrumentalist Masahiro Takahashi's latest album is a meditation on seasons and distance, recorded in isolation at his temporary home studio in Toronto. Following “the coldest winter I have ever experienced,” he began crafting hushed, lush vignettes of color wheel electronics with an array of software synthesizers, granular samplers, plug-in FX, MIDI controllers, and a shruti box.
The songs sway, shimmer, and unspool in sparkling arcs, between reverie and lullaby, inspired variously by blooming apple trees, gagaku music, the “nostalgia of immigrants,” and longing for home. Flowering Tree, Distant Moon moves from soothing to surreal, a swirl of quiet melody and imagined landscapes, as transportive for its listeners as its maker: “I dreamt of places outside my room and traced the music from my memories.”
-Not Not Fun
Originally released in 2021 by Not Not Fun on cassette, the album was widely praised and quickly went out of print. This Telephone Explosions re-release of Flowering Tree, Distant Moon will mark Takahashi’s first official offering on LP. Vinyl mastered by Warren Defever (His Name is Alive) with artwork by Eunice Luk.
“Painting smooth sounds with a wide colour Palette. The cute Sincerity of Yoshio Ojima and Inoyama Land are easy comparisons, but this album achieves an introspective depth and emotional purity that make its predecessors look somewhat emotionally evasive” - The Wire