This year in Melbourne we endured two long lockdowns. Melbourne based Japanese artist ambient electronic artist Ai Yamamoto did too, though she was much more productive than most of us. We’ve been big fans of her work for a number of years. You can read her Cyclic Selects here.
Her new album, Pan De Sonic – Iso is based around the everyday sounds she found around her, turning the mundane into a thing of beauty, where the minute becomes meaningful. Though to be fair it’s probably best if we let her describe it:
“During these long winter months, I recorded a lot of samples of my iso life from morning to night. As the process wore on I became quite fascinated with these sounds, some of them so familiar and domestic that I decided to turn them into music.
All the sounds of this album are made strictly from materials coming from these domestic field recordings. Even though parts are quite melodic and tonal, no instruments were used at all. It is a sound diary and one whose sounds would be familiar for many people living in Melbourne. The sounds of morning, the chatter of remote learning, the ceaseless flow of house chores, physical activity in our brief moments outside and evenings where we all just try to wind down.
Those days were all about routine, and the mundane qualities of life became a kind of daily ritual that was full of repetition and loops. These are the spark for this album and it becomes a document of this curious moment in time that will linger with us all going forward.”
Pan De Sonic – Iso is released on Room40 on January 29, 2021. You can find it here.
