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Yas-Kaz - Jomon-sho

Glossy Mistakes

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Beautifully tranquil, peaceful new age ambient masterpiece from Yas-Kaz, originally released in the 80s, and now back in press again finally for this lush ltd edition vinyl reissue via Glossy Mistakes - 200 copies only...


Yas-Kaz seems to have stayed mostly behind the scenes, or at least didn't rise to prominence like his peers Ryuchi Sakamoto or Midori Takada, but apparently his approach to environmental music and the new age sound that was arising in Japan in the 80's, and specifically his skills and knowledge with the gamelan instrument (which he learned on travels to Bali in the 70s), was of great influence to many of the greats in Japan, such as Sakamoto, Takada, and Shoji Yamashiro (who was the leader of Geino Yamashiro-gumi who later created the soundtrack for “Akira”).

The album features a wide range of entirely acoustic instruments and field recordings and was apparently made for stage performance by Sankai Juku Butoh Group at Theatre de la Ville, Paris.
To our ears, this is truly serene, calming music - the kind of record you'd put on for some healing and clearing of your thoughts. No bad vibes.
But that said, there is enough mystery and strangeness to this record to make it engaging and thought provoking - Although it could easily play at quiet volume, as much as it could have a great impact at higher decibels, this is not just background music, that's for sure - Jomon-Sho feels like a play, or a film that plays against shut eye-lids. Properly takes you to places.
There are some real mid-air vibes on this, such as heard on the Prelude and the 10min mind re-set of 'Jungle Book'. But things do get more trippy and ominous too, such the low-hum of reverberant percussion vs gamelan melody call & response on 'Bow Shaped Moon', or the tripped past-midnight rhythms of 'Windscape', but the long mysterious shadows of certain sound elements are often fluttered, interjected or counterweighted with gentle, almost angelic excursions into airy ambience, fine tuned gamelan frequencies and fourth world type ambience - all masterfully played, and engineered to fit perfectly into the dizzying swirl of frequency, harmony and off-kilter rhythms that dance around like themes in the sonic storytelling of this album.

Seriously great stuff, very masterful compositions.
proper focused, meditative music -
you could do much worse than diving into this sound bath.

Edition of 200.
Includes an insert and obi strip, with liner notes by bass player and academic Hiroshi Koyu Suzuki.

Remastered by Frederic Stader from Music Matters Mastering.
Officially licensed from Pony Canyon Ltd.
Liner notes by Hiroshi Koyu Suzuki.
Supervision by Ken Hidaka.

TRACKLIST:

1. Prelude - The Gate of Breathing 03:01
2. Jungle Book 10:36
3. Bow Shaped Moon 04:24
4. The Magical Stones & The Double Mirrors + The Wave Of Breathing 03:56
5. Windscape 03:56
6. Bone Knife 07:47
7. Relation Between Bisons, Bananas And Rods - The Previous Night 02:07
8. Warriors 01:23
9. The Earring Of The Dancers 04:28
10. Respite Of The Bows & Arrows 02:20
11. Finale - Calendar 03:25

Jungle Book



Bow Shaped Moon



Windscape



Warriors