Tatsuro Murakami - in/naka (Lontano Series) [Ambient]
The ambient community got off to an unusually slow start in 2023, but are certainly making up for it at year end. The new guitar led LP from Tatsuro Murakami for Lontano Series, was inspired by his time learning about organic rice production & forest restoration. Unsurprisingly it has a particularly bucolic vibe but the escape from modern living's absurdities also allowed him to meditate on the simplicity & journey within to consider his mental ecosystem. It sounds like he came out a better person.
If you're looking for some more great music at the intersection for new age and ambient music then you could do a lot worse that check out Alex Marsh's Trellis album
What The Release Notes Say
The album expresses the cross-relationship between the idea of inner work and farm work, which was inspired by Murakami's experience in the Japanese countryside, where he stayed for several months in 2022, learning from organic rice cultivation and forest restoration.
Each song is based on stories and teachings he learnt from the farmers, as well as the existence of the living creatures and plants he observed. Daily activities in the field are full of repetition and unpredictability, which inspired him to think of the countryside ("inaka”, in Japanese) as a place of internality, or inner place.
The sounds are composed of a combination of acoustic instruments with an experimental texture process generated by some guitar pedals and a tape loop process. The music constructions are a mixture of some drone/ambient texture and the influence of jazz/ Brazilian choro chord progressions, using Brazilian classical/steel 7 string guitar, electric guitar, bass, analog/digital synth and voice.
