アダンの風

We're under a luminous surface of the deep cerulean sea, the prefecture of Okinawa, the islands of Amami which immediately comes to mind, where the ancient Japanese marine gods are enshrined, where the ocean plants slowly weaves, and the creatures circulate their own lives. You're fascinated by the supernatural beauty that only nature can create, the spectacular view of the spacious blue seafloor gives you utter comfort, and it tells you to stay. Just floating, falling asleep with the lovely scenery…

Open your eyes. The next moment you realize, a huge tree trunk entwined with ivy suddenly appears on the horizon. It's sloping silhouette is colored with light green by the morning sun pouring from the leaves above you. You're attracted to the flank of the tree lit up by the glorious sunlight, but never knowing that you're alone in an empty rainforest. AIl you hear are the birds singing & your own footsteps crumbling the dry branches as you walk, until you realize a woman in a white gown, holding a guitar is standing there. Does she know you? No, but you're somehow sure that she knows everything you've seen before. A mysterious human being, you want to walk away to find a way to escape, but you cant help staying there, because she directly speaks to you with her eyes, inviting you to experience more beauty of the nature concealed under the harsh world. Inviting you, to remain calmness, forget everything about your personal issues, and listen to what she plays...

Music without instrumentation or vocalization is both extraordinary & beautiful, especially field recordings traps you into an unknown dimension with it's horizontal soundscapes, however, I always had a problem with listening to it, because I thought the music itself was shaving off too much necessities. In my opinion, it was even hard to describe it as "music" anymore. Ichiko Aoba perfectly fixes this problem with the most glorifying, transparent voices & instrumentations mixed with sounds like the ocean waves, it's well textured than you'll ever imagine. Then what? Is she adding too much unnecessary elements on the field recordings? No she isn't. With the collaborater of "守り哥" Taro umebayashi, the vocals, pianos, everything on the album perfectly melts into the sounds of nature she recorded, it doesn't interrupt anything at all. Or rather, the inhuman instrumentals fits the atmosphere and even does more than just field recodings. This rendition was used in her masterpiece "0", but this is another significant step by her, manipulating simplicities more than just one guitar and providing the listeners raw imagination.


Fav track: Dawn in the Adan