This is Brazilian-born Tokyo resident Tomoyoshi Date’s second solo album after the well received debut Human Being on Flyrec. He also is in the group Opitope with Chihei Hatakeyama, releasing Hau (2007), and in the group Illuha with Corey Fuller. Otoha is an integrated approach between minimal piano pieces with subtle electronics and field recordings. The album, named after his daughter, was produced before her birth. Otoha, meaning ‘the sound of leaves’, gives an indication of the delicacy conveyed on the album. That the naming occurred as a happenstance misreading of the place Otowa, ‘the sound of wings,’ gives it a random charm.
Otoha is a six track album that starts directly with ‘A street Corner of Oia’, conveying all the ambient residue of the place mixed with minimal piano sketches, before the electronic colours enter and take over the space molding a bright terracotta wind-chime laden breeze. ‘A spring on the hill’ contains melancholy piano with long resonances, with metallic wind chimes widening the soundscape. ‘Unfurling of young leaves’ is a sparser ,which concentrates on the unfolding of the notes, keeping the background predominately field-recorded streetscapes. ‘Emergence of the forest’s delves more into the sound art/immersive effects. ‘Floating Light on the waves includes cello played by John Friesen and recorded by Corey Fuller in a Birmingham Church. ‘The sound of the moon’ finishes the album, full of delicate resonant piano sounds with tonal electronic backgrounds, incorporating field recordings at a quiet distance.
The album is a quiet joy, a pleasure for its subtle sound crafting and organic minimal piano. It incorporates the concerns of contemporary sound art; close-miking, field recording, electronic sharp colourings, tones and drones. However it is the delicate lack of insisting these sounds to the foreground that makes it all the more effective.
Innerversitysound
