{"product_id":"kenichiro-isoda-epilogue","title":"Kenichiro Isoda - EPILOGUE","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEPILOGUE\u003c\/em\u003e is the culmination of more than four decades of music-making by Japanese composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist \u003cstrong\u003eKen-ichiro Isoda\u003c\/strong\u003e, an album in which environmental sound, electronics, contemporary classical composition and memory converge into a deeply personal late-career statement. Isoda moved through video-game music, film composition, classical production, Okinawan music, television and collaborative projects, continually developing an approach in which acoustic instrumentation, field recordings and electronics could coexist naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis collaborative album \u003cem\u003eInterwoven\u003c\/em\u003e with \u003cstrong\u003eaus\u003c\/strong\u003e, released through WRWTFWW, further demonstrated the openness of a musical philosophy Isoda describes as being rooted in fluctuation, imperfection and organic movement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEPILOGUE\u003c\/em\u003e brings those threads together while refusing to function simply as a retrospective. The album consists largely of older compositions that Isoda has returned to, reconstructed and reinterpreted from the perspective of the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOpening track “\u003cem\u003eTANEKOMA\u003c\/em\u003e” refers to the Izu Robin, a rare bird native to Hachijō-jima, the volcanic island where Isoda lives.Its song, recorded by Isoda in the mountains, becomes part of the composition itself. Placed at the beginning of the album, “\u003cem\u003eTANEKOMA\u003c\/em\u003e” becomes both document and prayer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElsewhere, “\u003cem\u003eCirculation 2\u003c\/em\u003e” develops from a work created around the relationship between forest, sea and the movement of water. Flutist \u003cstrong\u003eDogen Kinowaki\u003c\/strong\u003e replaces Isoda’s original piano melody with a performance that gives the piece a distinctly Japanese sense of place. Kinowaki also appears on a newly reimagined version of “\u003cem\u003eBeach of the Pliocene\u003c\/em\u003e”, one of Isoda’s most recognised compositions.“\u003cem\u003eSTEPS\u003c\/em\u003e”, first composed for film in 2008, looks back toward the electronica of that period. For this definitive version, \u003cstrong\u003eTsutomu Sonoda\u003c\/strong\u003e of \u003cstrong\u003emaya ongaku\u003c\/strong\u003e provides vocals, bringing new emotional and lyrical depth to a piece Isoda had wanted to properly complete for more than a decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title track from Isoda’s 1991 New Age album “\u003cem\u003eYume no Sazanami\u003c\/em\u003e” is similarly reconsidered. Originally recorded with a small chamber orchestra, the new arrangement replaces elements of the harp and cello with layers of nylon-string guitar performed by \u003cstrong\u003eTatsuro Murakami\u003c\/strong\u003e. Perhaps the album’s clearest meeting point between past and present is “\u003cem\u003eWATERWAYS.\u003c\/em\u003e”The mysterious European ambient artist \u003cstrong\u003eAiko Takahashi\u003c\/strong\u003e, transforming an abandoned demo into what is simultaneously the oldest and newest work on the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eA Flowering Tree,\u003c\/em\u003e” written for film in 2013, is reconstructed around multi-tracked flute performances by Dogen Kinowaki. Isoda carries that association into his own arrangement, allowing the piece to function as another quiet meditation on memory, loss and hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album closes with “\u003cem\u003eEPILOGUE\u003c\/em\u003e” —less a grand conclusion than a moment of acceptance. Isoda chose it as the album’s title piece to hold what he describes as the complex emotions that accompany the twilight of a life spent making music. \u003cem\u003eEPILOGUE\u003c\/em\u003e is not simply a look back. It is the sound of older music continuing to move, change and breathe in the present: a lifetime of ideas distilled into Isoda’s own form of pure music, shaped by memory, collaboration, nature and the world immediately outside his home on Hachijō-jima.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oath","offers":[{"title":"Black Vinyl LP","offer_id":59464941076825,"sku":"SDZ-52651","price":27.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/0046783170_10.jpg?v=1789653335","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/kenichiro-isoda-epilogue","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}