Chihei Hatakeyama - Late Spring

Japanese musician Chihei Hatakeyama's debut on Gearbox Records, Late Spring gently unfolds as a shared journeying experience through a series of rich and outstanding encounters. From the cathedral organ-like opener "Breaking Dawn" with it's sub-aqua resonances, to the subtle drift of the closing track "Twilight Sea," this record is a masterpiece of dense and beatific melodies. Drawn from evolving synthesized sounds and shimmering slow motion guitars, it combines these with occasional sonic elements that are best described as evoking computer code running through the veins of the machines like artificial blood. Inspired by the beauty in circular motions of landscape and the changes of season lying beneath ordinary everyday life (as shown in the work of renowned Japanese film director Yasujirō Ozu with whose 1949 film the album shares a title), Late Spring is arranged to project the impression of an old film. The concept behind circular movement came to Hatakeyama as he was watching Twin Peaks - The Return, directed by David Lynch.