Tomoyoshi Date - otoha (2011, Own Records)

Second solo album for Tomoyoshi Date, after "Human Being" on Flyrec, without forgetting two albums with the project Opitope he shares with Chihei Hatakeyama and one with Corey Fuller under the Illuha name.

Born in San Paulo, Brazil, having lived in the USA and now residing in Tokyo, Tomoyoshi Date writes soft and delicate instrumental music documenting peacefulness, quietness, deep emotions and introspective states of mind. 


I doubt he could go deeper into this direction of self wellbeing as "Otoha" was composed on piano, played at night between the period when Date was informed his daughter was expected and the day before her birth. Processed on a laptop and completed with cello and field recordings recorded in Greece, "Otoha" has got a symbiotic quality as a kindly and benevolent communication towards his expected daughter.

"A street corner of Oia" features field recording from the Greek island, with just piano notes floating around in a state of weightlessness, and vaporous digital sounds, nine minutes of reverie, flooded with sun and marine breeze.

With sounds of bells and light wind drones, "A spring on the hill", is just about green slopes, streaming water, irrigated life, the emergence of sensitive and poetic inspired instants like ephemeral sunny spells. The shorter "Unfurling of young leaves" is also the most intimate track of "Otoha", delicate, surprisingly fragile and disarming.

With "Emergence of the forest" the mood becomes more melancholic and pensive, and the atmosphere more vast and almost blurry with mist, invinting for a walk.

The predominance of a lamenting cello over piano during the second part of "Floating light on the waves" gives a surprising autumnal vibe, so I'm much more fond of the oversensitive first part with its wonderful reverberated piano.

The closing track, "The sound of the moon", is also my favorite one, as the dimension of the world if finally included, with the feeling of just being tiny and temporary, in front of the infinite. An impression of shared loneliness fills the room through the speakers.


http://ownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/otoha