Shinnosuke Sugata’s new album could be your best friend this year
The best new album to come out so far in 2020 is Shinnosuke Sugata’s Hikari me maimasezu tomo, are (Let There Be Light, Even If It Doesn’t Dazzle The Eyes). Downloadable for free at the good folks of Tanukineiri records, a side project of Tanukineiri the pottery exports company. These people have been bringing out amazing innovative pop music for a long time.
Shinnosuke Sugata released his first album, Two Eyes of Ghosts, four years ago, in 2016. It was one of my favorite albums of that year. I described his music as ‘melancholic, sad, but also soothing and relaxing’.
Children playing
I guess the same goes for his new album. It’s an eclectic mix of folk, ambient and electronic music. Sometimes it reminds me of Americana, but Shinnosuke seems to be inspired by Portuguese fado and theater music too. He uses sound effects like the voices of children playing at a playground, which has a calming, soothing effect, but also makes you pine for things lost, or about to be lost.
Sometimes his music is a little alienating. ‘Let There Be Light…’ starts with a beautiful but pretty conventional song with Shinnosuke singing softly and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, almost absent-mindedly strumming the strings. Then Daizyoobu begins, ‘It’s All Right‘, the instrumental track featured in the stop motion video above. It starts contemplatively, then culminates into an eruption of sound, with frenzied strings and guitar, with an overtone of chanting voices, after which peace returns.
These outbursts of sonic anarchy, sometimes Captain Beefheart-like, are a constant on Shinnosuke’s album, as to remind us that life can’t always be sweet and easy, or that it’s capricious and unpredictable.
Almost psychotherapy
One of the most beautiful tracks is Golden Silence, on which Shinnosuke is just talking while softly strumming his guitar. It’s hypnotising and pulls you into another world, a place where you felt comfortable once but forgot.
It doesn’t matter what Shinnosuke sings or says. In fact, it’s preferable you don’t understand the meaning of the lyrics, so you can fill in for yourself whatever pleases you. It’s the sound of his voice that unleashes a plethora of emotions. It’s almost psychotherapy.
A beautiful, wonderful piece of music. Medicine in these troubled times. Helps against loneliness, desperation, anger, frustration, you name it. This album could be your best friend this year. (PB)
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