h.takahashi, tokyo based architect and sound designer follows up his revered collection where to be? on where to now? records with raum, a full length lp suite of meditative pulse minimalism. raum draws its cues from a melting pot of closely connected yet wholly individual strands of minimalism - from the japanese minimalist works from the likes of hiroshi yoshimura and satoshi ashikawa, to masters such as erik satie and john cage, and ambient leaders brian eno and roedelius, takahashi soaks this historical influence and rings it out it through a modern filter to create a record of stillness, ethereal beauty, and transcendent energy. takahashi composes all of his music on his iphone, and this is no gimmick, rather a conscious decision which allows takahashi to constantly create on the go without the constraints of space, and for takahashi raum serves as a mediation on the relationship between sound and its environment. for takahashi this creative process feels something like an invisible phenomenon taking over & mutating these constantly changing spaces into abstract sound, creating a brief pseudo space which expresses and highlights the features of the environment for a moment in time.” although perhaps quite an abstract statement of intent, when deeply immersed into takahashi’s pieces this idea of slowly gliding through different architectural spaces is naturally conjured through the gentle repetitive pulse which runs through his work and the playful unstructured tonality of objects which weave around this forward (or upward) motion. raum was created across the city of tokyo, be it a café / park / office / road / platform / subway these pieces explore the power sound holds to emotionally enhance and mutate the listeners environment. the power of the music presented is in that which is barely there, embracing space, silence, and cyclical repetition. the music is to help us function - it s music to work to, to sleep to, to help us find a sense of space and oneness within a world that is increasingly wild and untameable.
