aus - Everis (Flau/Lo Recordings)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

The new LP from aus for Flau/Lo Recordings is a magical, playful, shouldn't work but somehow smashes it, fusion of  neoclassical, oddball electronics, elegant orchestration, cinematic schmaltz, fragile folk pop vocals & arrangement ambition with a steady stream of WTF moments. Say goodbye to your midweek lull with its wonder & weirdness.

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What The Release Notes Say

Tokyo-born composer and producer aus has announced the release of a brand new album via London independent label Lo Recordings x FLAU. 

Everis features 10 songs performed on piano, strings, clarinet, flute, voice and electronics that encompass ideas plucked from disparate genres such as classical, spiritual jazz, indie, avant-garde and folk. Vibrations of everyday life are intertwined in the music with intimate field recordings, filmic strings and electronica running the gamut from gentle to muscular.
The result is a cocktail of sound that illustrates lost memories, unforgotten events and footage from mental archives interpreted through audio. It's a glittering whirlwind of late-night jazz; etchings of love songs; and dedications to life, organically interlaced with the deft use of vintage equipment, slow-dripped through a filter of cosmopolitanism sensibilities.

Following a major burglary at his home/studio and label HQ, from which he lost his entire catalogue of completed and work-in-progress music, aus decided to create something away from the precarious confines of his PC and more from the inner sanctum of his mind.
Armed with only some basic stems salvaged from an audio/video installation project he had been working on with contemporary artist Karin Zwack, aus set about combining the long-existent melodies in his head with the video and remaining field recordings on his phone, in order to create musical synapses between memories which had remained unconnected.
Fukuzono states: "In doing so, I wanted to show that lost memories exist everywhere, without themselves, and are connected to the present. Like a Ekaki Uta [a Japanese drawing song] I wanted to convey the image of  a circle in which all memories overlap."

In playing with the idea of inverting minimalism and the Ekaki Uta aesthetic of layering and superimposing individual parts, a palette of samples are merged and manipulated into a state of almost nonrecognition, including train station ticket gates; computer keyboards; airport runways; a brass band practising in a schoolyard; and many other fragments of everyday life that are closely associated with his personal memories.

CREDITS
All songs written and produced by Yasuhiko Fukuzono (aus)
at IMA

with guest
Arisa Yokote: chorus (2, 6, 7, 8)
Benedicte Maurseth: hardanger fiddle (10)
Danny Norbury: cello (1)
Emma Gatrill: clarinet (8, 9)
Grand Salvo: vocal (5)
Gutevolk: vocal (4)
Henning Schmiedt: piano (6~9)
Kumi Takahara: violin, viola, cello (3, 5, 7~9)
Noah: voices (3)
Patrick Farmer: drums (1), harmonium (8)
Rachel Graves: flute (8)

except
tr.1 piano and cello recorded by Katsunori Fukuoka at Fujimigaoka Church
audio material originally from video installation “Halsar” by Karin Zwack + aus
tr.2 original melody based on 'Tebe Peem-za Ovchariya'
tr.6 co-produced by Glim

Executive Produced by Osamu Matsumoto
Mixed by Nicholas Principe at People Teeth
Mastered by Yosi Horikawa

Design by NON-FORMAT/ANTI
Original cover art by TAKCOM
CGI by Kazumasa Kimura
Artwork produced by Nada Studio

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For more microdosed musical magic take a trip through the Slow Psyche Playlist