Sapporo-based Ryo Nakata uses guitar, laptop and field recordings to produce sinuous drones which twist and fold like streams of brightly coloured tinsel. He’s previously recorded for Smallfish and Experimedia and his nimble productions sit comfortably alongside the work of labelmates Celer and Billy Gomberg, inheritors of the lowcase electronica developed by the likes of Taylor Deupree and Bernhard Gunther.
The four pieces of ‘Sunlight and Water’ explore aspects of both those elements, literally in the recorded stream that trickles all over parts 1 and 4, metaphorically via the shimmering sine tones in all pieces that seem to glisten under the sun’s rays. Part 2 involves a more strident whine, resembling a mechanised hurdy gurdy, and a cushioned metallic clanging, and part 3 throbs with a vague industrial groan, but all give off a feeling of basking outdoors, cool liquid close at hand.
Joshua Meggitt
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