Kita Kouhei – Endless Cycle of Rebirth (Lantern)

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Kita Kouhei´s Endless Cycle of Rebirth elbows its way onto the Lantern label´s roster, one that generally lights the way for the “restrained passionate sounds” of a smooth, dubbier techno. Kouhei on the other hand is all nervy glitch, acute angles, and stop-start rhythm through which piano (or digitally-generated piano sound) jazz dances its way. It is also big-hearted and big-brained, out in the world and furiously scribbling notes about it. Despite its sunshine popiness and the reincarnative promise of its title, individual track titles are either quite neutral or rather sobering: ´Lunar Ruins´, ´Road to the End´, ´Chain of Zero´.

Yet Kouhei has crafted something very deep, personal and interesting that upon repeat begins to manifest itself, opening cracks in a tricky façade. Gazing into those cracks reveals the roiling of molten emotion. Abstract, but in a user friendly, accessible way, like the cover art he made for the album. A nifty debut, with a pleasant and innovative take on the torch song, ´Someone is Calling Me´ with vocalist Naoko Takayama, snuck in just before the unabashedly optimistic (and dazzlingly kaleidoscopic) curtain call of ´To the Future´.

https://naturebliss.bandcamp.com/album/endless-cycle-of-rebirth

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About Author

Born and raised in Toronto, Stephen Fruitman has been living in northern Sweden lo these past thirty years. Writing and lecturing about art and culture as an historian of ideas since the early nineties, his articles have appeared in an number of international publications. He is also a contributing editor at Igloo Magazine.

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