Chihei Hatakeyama

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Press release
Soundclips

5...according to our Phil on Thu 04 Jun, 2009.

Hello. First up is a CD by Chihei Hatakeyama on the up and coming Under the Spire label (rapidly shaping up to being one of the funnest and bestest new labels we've been stocking in ages). After a strong pedigree of releases on labels like Kranky and Room 40 here is his 4th album and it's a gorgeous beast. Packaged in a hand stamped and hand numbered arigato pak and numbered of 200 copies... well tasty. Musically it's really strong as over it's lush 40 minutes you get 3 tracks of ambient beauty which will keep you ambient drone heads sweet and happy for a wee while to come. Put simply 'August' is a bundle of deliciously warm ambient drone music which will leave you in some sort of happy blissed out trance. It's very delicate sounding, with tiny intrinsic changes keeping the music interesting and you the blissed out listener hooked from start to end. Enjoy it with headphones on and it takes you to a different place. This is some seriously good shit for anyone into ambience or drone music.

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I asked Chihei if he would like to say a few words about the making of August..

“Two of the songs in this album are based on some live performances I did in the past.
Grass Pillow is based on a performance I did at the Shibuya UPLINK FACTORY.
It was a line recording, and I added some sounds and editing to the original material.
At this performance, I used some sound files that I’ve used in the past for several times at other performances, and I chose this version because the performance at the UPLINK FACTORY sounded good.
Swallow isn’t a performance done in front of an audience, but was recorded at a studio in the style of a live performance.
A tube amp for an electric guitar is based on a live performance.
This was recorded using a microphone, and was a collaboration with a Butoh group, so the sounds of their foot steps were also recorded. However, I added some processing so that the sounds of foot steps cannot be recognized.”

The CD has sold extremely well, I am down to my last few copies. It will be available this week from the good folk of Norman Records, Smallfish & Boomkat. Many thanks to Phil, Mike & Shlom for stocking this release, and many thanks to Chihei for giving me the opportunity to release his material.

5...according to tim brice.

Chihei Hatakeyama....its hard to say if this is better than his other latest release 'Saunter' I guess the answer is that they are both utterly magnifient!!! here we have him using more softer sounds that merge with etheral meaning's.... best track is the final of the three listed as 'a tube amp for an electric guitar', strange title, but for a brilliant experience in listening. Bravo to Under The Spire for getting this out in a lovely package also. If you dont buy this, it will be a sad loss to ya....

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!