Kumio Kurachi // Open Today LP

福岡のマルチ奏者／シンガーソングライターKumio Kurachiが、2024年12月にイギリスの実験レーベルbisonからリリースしたレコードです。

全ての楽器を一人で演奏・録音したフォーク〜ポストニューエイジ・アンビエント10曲を収録。

※デジタル音源を無料でお送りいたしますのでお気軽にご連絡くださいませ

レーベルその他作品はこちら /// Click here to see more bison releases available at Tobira.

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12" black vinyl with OBI. Edition of 150.  Ask us for digital files.

Tracklist:

1. Kitaro Rides a Boat
2. Daily Hotel
3. Slowly Walking
4. Piggyback 03:35
5. Castle Ruins 04:33
6. In the Can
7. Came to Sell Water Meter by Measure
8. Eiji Mitooka's Arrangements
9. Cheap Flat
10. Year One and Public

bison:

"Kumio Kurachi is a Japanese singer-songwriter who has been active since the 1980's. This is his 11th solo album and only the second to be released outside of Japan following ‘Sound of Turning Earth’ (2018) on bison.

Though his songs are written and performed primarily on guitar, “Open Today” is a return to Kurachi’s full, multi-instrumental recording style - featuring drums, bass, strings, keys and Kurachi’s rich, distinctive vocals in multiple voicings. Incredibly, all instrumental performances and arrangements were performed and recorded by Kurachi himself - marking a brilliant return to the fully fleshed out visionary world we fell in love with on Supermarket Chitose (Enban, 2006).

The super fine detail and dense landscapes of ‘Open Today’ should come as no surprise really - Kurachi is an illustrator by trade and it bleeds right through to his music. Even to the non-native speaker Kurachi’s vocals hold centre stage - at times enormous and thundering over urgent guitar and toms, then switching to softly spoken words amongst keys. Frequently Kurachi multiplies, whether multitracking himself or summoning voices for the characters he writes from sightings on train platforms or supermarkets. His lyrics - translated to English for both formats - are more like poetry, and though written about the mundane they quickly become surreal, bringing the quality of dreams into the everyday. The hours spent on buses, trains or walking home towards a cheap flat - familiar to us all - are catalysts for microcosms of detail. Again, we shouldn’t be surprised - Kurachi is well known in Japan for winning the national championship of NHK's "Poetry Boxing" in 2002, which also might explain his amazing Discogs photo.

Poet, illustrator, multi-instrumentalist - Kurachi is thought of by many as a genius. He’s worked with Jim O’Rourke, Tori Kudo, Eiko Ishibashi and Taku Unami (who did the mastering on this LP). There are lines to be drawn between Kurachi and Kazuki Tomokawa or Kan Mikami, but also Francis Plagne and Fairport Convention. Ultimately though there is nothing else like it - it’s a brand of strange songcraft that’s totally captivating. "

Artist : Kumio Kurachi

Label : bison x enban