Kishi Bashi - Sonderlust - VINYL LP

The latest full-length from Kishi Bashi, Kantos is a work of exquisite duality a party album about the possible end of humanity as we know it, at turns deeply unsettling and sublimely joyful. In a sonic departure from the symphonic folk of his critically lauded 2019 LP Omoiyari-a career-defining body of work born from his intensive meditation on the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II-the Seattle-born singer/songwriter/producer's fifth studio album encompasses everything from Brazilian jazz and '70s funk to orchestral rock and city pop (a Japanese genre that peaked in the mid-'80s). Informed by an equally kaleidoscopic mix of inspirations-the cult-classic sci-fi novel series Hyperion Cantos, the writings of 18th century enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant, a revelatory trip to ancient ruins on the island of Crete-Kantos ultimately serves as an unbridled exaltation of the human spirit and all it's wild complexities. During the earliest stages of creating songs for the album, Ishibashi's main intent was to return to his highly eclectic musical roots, in part by tapping into his jazz background and by delving into the dance-rock-leaning sensibilities he previously embraced as co-founder of Brooklyn-bred indie band Jupiter One. But not too long into the songwriting process, he stumbled upon an AI-equipped website capable of composing catchy song hooks based on a prompt-a turn of events that quickly catalyzed the existential inquiry at the heart of Kantos.Although his ruminations on AI, transhumanism, and humanity's troubled fate indelibly guided the making of Kantos, Ishibashi nonetheless views the album as Inchless of a warning about this kind of hubris but more a celebration of the very characteristics that make us human desire, passion, empathy, and love.Inch InchIf there's anything I want people to come away with when they hear this reco

On Mountain Spring Clear color vinyl. Over the last several years, the critically acclaimed composer and adventurous multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi has travelled frequently to Montana and Wyoming to work on Omoiyari, a Inchsong filmInch about Japanese internment during WWII. The experience was potent for Kishi Bashi, who conducted research for the film (and 2019 album of the same name) by speaking to internment camp incarcerees and descendents. These conversations led to him reflecting on his own identity as a Japanese-American while laying the foundation of his forthcoming 'Emigrant EP'.Along with the brutal history and harsh climate of the American West, Kishi Bashi also sensed a hope and potential, compassion, and resilience. In Emigrant EP, he celebrates these qualities. Arranged and recorded over the last year, the six tracks serve as a time capsule of the 2020 condition and a continuation of the concepts explored in Omoiyari. What's more, they find Kishi Bashi rewriting musical tradition in the image of his own experience, further embracing his love for roots music and violin fiddling.Meditating on the anxieties of the COVID-19 pandemic, the comforts of nature, the pains of resource-fueled conflicts, and the resiliency that emerges from struggle, Emigrant EP is steeped in the past while it looks to the future. InchI want to understand the history, but also dive in and really try to humanize it,Inch he says. InchI'm trying to show how we're all the same type of human being. We have the same desires and needs, to protect our loved ones and also to celebrate the everyday.Inch Album Tracks 1. Cascades 2. Wait for Springtime 3. Laughing with 4. Early Morning Breeze 5. Those Days Are Gone 6. Town of Pray

Omoiyari means to have empathy and consideration for others, and act on it. This fall, the American indie-folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi is set to the companion album to his forthcoming documentary song film, titled Music from the Song Film Omoiyari. Consisting of two LPs-InchThe SongsInch and InchThe ScoreInch-the showcases what is essentially the soundtrack to Omoiyari, the feature-length motion picture co-directed by Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi or InchK,Inch which is being released via MTV Documentary Films in November. Focusing on K's own six-year journey of discovery surrounding his research of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film is part social justice documentary and part song-film experiment. The album includes K's live improvisations, which are featured in the documentary, many recorded on the sites where the concentration camps stood. Written during and about the artist's transformational dive into his personal identity and serving as a broad survey of the Japanese American experience as well as the incarceration-Music from the Song Film Omoiyari serves as an evocative musical accompaniment to the lessons of empathy and compassion portrayed in the film and highlights the process and power of one of modern indie's most talented musicians. Album Tracks 1. Intro at the Piano 2. Red, White, and Blue 3. Improvisation at Heart Mountain 4. Summer of '42 (Orchestral Edition) 5. Improvisation in the Root Cellar 6. ? (Iga Ueno Castle) 7. Improvisation at Jerome, Ar 8. Theme for Jerome (Orchestral Edition) 9. ? (Nada Sou Sou) 10. ? (Ue O Muite Arukou) 11. A Safe Place for Animals 12. Manchester (Acoustic Edition) 13. Removal (With Kara Kondo) 14. Violin Tsunami for the Victims of Tacoma Detention 15. Epilogue from Improvisatio