Description
#yusakuarai #vinyl #vinylrecords
Dream-weft is the latest offering from Kyoto-based musician Yusaku Arai, who takes a departure from his hip hop and R&B styles to venture into the realm of sublime instrumental reflections on nature and language. This album is a treat for fans of artists like Nozomu Matsumoto, Meitei, James Ferraro, and claire rousay.
Yusaku Arai is known for his work on the fringes of Japanese hip hop and R&B, but on Dream-weft, he follows his solo path, delving into breezy piano-led compositions infused with subtle musique concrète and computer music production methods. The album can be broadly divided into two parts. The A-side consists of utopian, vaporous vignettes, bursting with colors and offering glimpses into Arai’s musings on the relationship between the senses and the transmutation of natural and man-made elements. Tracks like “sky, sky” transform flower petals, the ocean, a plastic sheet, and a hand into subtly surreal musical perfumes. “白日” presents a collage-like diary of the psyche, while “ocean, sea, ocean” explores melodic thoughts through ethereal aeolian lines.
In contrast, the B-side of the album, titled “言の一端 / Communicating Vessels,” embraces negative space and timbral nuance. This immersive and cinematic 17-minute composition captures the “unavoidable surplus that crops up in communication, whether of gestures or of language.” It combines sparse piano keys with aleatoric rustles and quiet sci-fi concrète elements, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of Nozomu Matsumoto and James Ferraro collaborating on a soundtrack for an abandoned space station terminus.
Dream-weft showcases Yusaku Arai as a composer with a finely attuned sensitivity to sound and a synesthetic grasp of materiality. His exploration of fleeting melodies and the interplay between natural and man-made worlds creates a captivating sonic experience. Whether you are a fan of ambient music or neo-classical compositions, this album is sure to transport you to mesmerizing landscapes of sound.
