Play 90 second soundbite of 'We Become The Cloud And...' @ 'CD quality'
'Japanese Folk' is how Aritomo reluctantly describes his music. Certainly, there's a lot of Japan floating around in there and the overall feel is suitably calming and reflective. Aritomo believes that most people don't really listen to music anymore, not like they used to. But, I have to disagree there and hope that he's wrong because Aritomo's music HAS to be heard and re-heard to get the true benefit from his unusual but absorbing take on 'folk'.
Aritomo won't win many prizes for his vocal work but I really don't think that's what this is all about - Aritomo makes music for the senses - he creates tapestries of sound, full of texture and aural colour. Ok, his work does tend be a little removed from the 'norm' and it's definitely not commercial in the true sense of the word. What his music does do is it creates visions, generates feelings, conjures up worlds outside our own. It's mind music - it's instrumentally poetic and I see Aritomo's voice as just another instrument to add an extra dynamic to the soundscape. It matters not what Aritomo sounds like and it probably matters even less what his words are saying - it's all just another brick in the wall and that wall is a modern day Bayeux tapestry that doesn't so much hang in your vision as sit somewhere inside your own mind and allows itself to be shaped and moulded by incoming 'sound'. Aritomo provides the stitches for the tapestry and then allows the listener to create his/her own Bayeux. I think the clue is in the title, 'We Become The Cloud And...'!!
'We Become The Cloud And...' and it's 'brother in arms', 'The Circular Flower', by Aritomo is music-art, a step removed from what you'll come across routinely. Aritomo is giving something to you, should you chose to take it, that you can 'run' with, make your own, add meaning and/or detail, take it to wherever you want. Aritomo gives you the fuel and leaves you to provide the wheels to get to wherever you want to go. Different - but that's the point!!!
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