Wordless poems. That's the impression this collaboration between Edinburgh's Harold Nono and Japan's Hidekazu Wakabayashi leaves with you. Neither artist will be unfamiliar to fans of ambient electro, of course, and they will no doubt welcome this release.
Talking of the ambient, samples of reality getting superimposed on delicate electronic soundscapes is a feature of this album with that approach reminding me of Isa Tomita's work way back in the seventies. Of course, what was a major technological challenge then is a mere bagatelle with the wonders we have at our fingertips today.
So what we have here is less a collection of soundtrack cues - always a danger with instrumental music - and more of a freeform take on classical music. Tracks like "Let's Go Find Mushrooms" are curiously evocative and there is an elegant simplicity in other tracks especially "Teenage Desk" and the delicate "Ya Chaika". More minimalist avant-garde experimentation comes with "Akarui Akari" before the conventionality of "Wild Blue Yonder" closes the album.
I often have to dismiss music from this genre as mere background music but the evidence suggests this is not the case this time. While east might not fully mesh with west, this album is nonetheless a very convincing diversion. No words but no lack of emotion either.
Available from Bearsuit Records.