music for mimosa pudica & codariocalyx

david edren ~ music for mimosa pudica & codariocalyx
(kankyo records, 2023 reissue)

"in the making of this album, david erden was influenced by mort garson, known for his plant music, and the film "the secret life of plants" and jack mitsch's documentary "mind of plants," among others, and he sprouted kodalyocalyx and mimosa pudica (tussock) seeds and documented their growth. this work, based on these observations and experiences, is a fresh ambient that gives a bird's-eye view of a small, lovely, boxy world and the activities of these plants with their mysterious moving properties" ~ kankyo records

ana has already posted this album when it originally came out on CD (8 years ago!) accompanying a book and now it sees a reissue on cassette with a beautiful booklet at this great japanese label/store run by h. takahashi.

music for plants seems to establish itself as a standalone genre already, with its roots being as deep as Mort Garson's famous Plantasia. this genre assumes that plants enjoy simplistic/minimalist and playful analog synth sounds and it's hard to tell if there's hard evidence to that or it's because Plantasia sounded that way ~ probably a mixture of both. plants do seem to react better to the pure tones rather than complex polyphony but there's clearly not enough studies on that. though, in case of this cassette it's more closer to the reality, as David Edren actually played his music sketches to two plants known for their sensitivity to movement and touch, including the movement of air. once again it's up to human's interpretation whether plants liked those sounds or not, but going by intuition it is possible (i believe) to draw an outline. in the end, David tells in the interview that with such music what's more important is to positively affect not the plants themselves but our relationship with them. ~ piedpaper (tape_stuff)

enjoy ~ support

 

atoris

atoris ~ sea & forest (moon glyph, 2022)

“kankyō ongaku” means “environmental music” in japanese, and this is, essentially, ambient music ~ but still with an emphasis on the natural environment (not urban), so in this genre of electronic music very often the music is supplemented with the sounds of nature and is, as a kind of continuation of them. classics of the genre came in the 80s and early 90s (Hiroshi Yoshimura, Takashi Kokubo, Fumio, Inoyama Land...) but it continues to exist now, having opened a second breath with the advent of a new interest in everything japanese, the popularity of “music for plants”, and of course, environmental problems which are more tangible now than ever ~ so the search for some balance with nature manifests itself in the form of interest in such music. 

the Atoris trio consists of already quite famous artists, one of whom, H. Takahashi, is probably familiar to those who have been following the cassette music of our time for a long time. Kohei Oyamada and Yudai Osawa have some really good cassettes as well, so i'm looking to add them to my collection for sure. i'd say that this album even has the element of german kosmische music, side A gets real groovy in the middle but with the start of side B we plunge into new age-y vibes again and it doesn't get any worse because of that ~ only better! it's a fresh touch on how adventurous new age & ambient music can be if it doesn't serve "spa & massage" product category, and returns to it's origins, the exploratory feeling of creating new timbres Mother Nature never heard before, thus enriching the air and the biosphere with something new, harmonious, evolving along other forms of life.

listen ~ support